The Rural Voice, 1987-09, Page 36FEED TANKS
• 1 tonne to 20 tonne
(larger sizes built to order )
• 14 gauge metal
strong reinforcing tri & legs
• non- leak auger boot ring
• separate ladder and blow pipe
Also
• teed lactones
•4•x6 augers
• livestock trailers
Sagas Steel a
4 5tc.
Atwood Hyw 23 N.
356-2802 356-2824
TRANSFER
PUMPS
Quality
• Galvanized, formed for
greater efficiency
• Rubber sealed agitation
door
Durability
• Grease lines and
grease gun installed
Performance
•Pumps liquid manure fast
& efficiently,with greater
agitation
3 1/2 • x60" pump f s
Contact: ?.3ir--
J. Spanjer
Liquid Manure
Equipment
Tavistock
519-655-2678
after 4 p.m.
34 THE RURAL VOICE
NEWS
STEWARDSHIP PROGRAM IS SET UP
A $40 -million program announced
last month will provide money to farm-
ers who adopt management practices to
improve soil health.
"The Land Stewardship Program
will pay farmers to include forage crops
in their rotation to provide organic mat-
ter and improve soil structure," says
Ontario Minister of Agriculture Jack
Riddell. "It will also pay farmers to use
the type of tillage treatment that leaves
crop residue on the surface to control
erosion and reduce tillage."
"It is sometimes said that farmers
cannot afford to be good stewards," he
notes. "We are saying that, in the long
term, they can't afford to be otherwise."
The program, which begins Septem-
ber 1, 1987, includes:
• incentives for diversifying row -crop
production with longer-term rotations
or sizeable reforestation,
• grants to farmers retiring fragile lands,
establishing buffer strips, and planting
windbreaks,
assistance for farmers maintaining
good crop cover or residues,
• funds for renting, modifying, or pur-
chasing equipment; and for training
personnel for crop residue management.
Grants are also available to encour-
age better maintenance of open munici-
pal outlet drains and to offset tile drain-
age costs. Assistance for soil conserva-
tion structures has been increased.
A farmer eligible for the program
will be a resident of Ontario with a gross
farm income of at least $12,000 (or less,
providing on-farm income exceeds off -
farm income or because of exceptional
circumstances). Grants will be paid to
the landowner or the tenant, but not to
both. Applicants must complete a land
stewardship inventory and action plan.
"Besides financial incentives," Rid-
dell says, "my ministry is adding 12 staff
to work with our 14 soil conservation
advisors ... They will assist in program
delivery and service through county
committees to be established in associa-
tion with the Ontario Soil and Crop
Improvement Association."
It is expected that the program will
assist as many as 5,000 farmers.
More than $3 million will go to re-
search on stewardship practices and to
establish a chair at the University of
Guelph to promote stewardship.0
FARM -START ASSISTS NEW FARMERS
Ontario Farm -Start, a new $97.5 ment from the ministry. Grants will
million program set up by the province, begin after the preparatory period.
offers financial help to new farmers. An eligible beginning farmer must:
Under the program, new farmers • be a Canadian citizen or permanent
will receive $38,000 in grants over resident and have lived in Ontario for at
seven years, with an initial grant of least five years,
$11,000. The amount will be reduced • never have owned a viable farm or
each year by $2,000 until years six and spent the majority of time or earned the
seven, when it will taper off by $1,000. majority of income farming assets over
The program will be effective Janu- which he/she has had control,
ary 1, 1988, and will replace the Begin- • have equity in farm assets between 10
ping Farmer Assistance Program, which and 75 per cent,
provides rebates on farm loans. • have agricultural education, experi-
BFAP participants will remain in ence, or a combination sufficient to
their program until the end of the five- operate a successful farm business,
year term and will then receive two • become a bona fide farmer (i.e., on an
annual flat -rate grants equivalent to the accrual basis, generate a significant
Farm -Start grants in years six and seven. contribution to family living, excluding
These payments will be $2,000 and Farm -Start or other temporary grants).
$1,000. BFAP will accept new appli- All people sharing a principal residence
cants until December 31, 1987. are one entity under the program.
Farm -Start applicants, after regis- Farm -Start applicants will also be
tering with the program, can spend up to able to participate in the OFFIRR (On -
three years preparing for full-time farm- tario Family Farm Interest Rate Reduc-
ing. During that period, they will re- tion) program, which reduces the inter-
ceive assistance in financial manage- est rate on debt to eight per cent.0