The Citizen, 2001-07-25, Page 9Touring
Chris and Gabrielle Boettcher hosted a tour at their Grey Twp. farm on Saturday as part of the
Ecological Farmers Association.
New brochures hot off the press
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THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2001. PAGE 9.
Organic farm links
crops anti 600 sheep
Each year, participants from across
Canada gather at the prestigious
Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in
Toronto to compete in various
competitions. One of the many
exciting opportunities for young men
or women at the Royal is the Young
Speakers for Agriculture (YSA), a
national public speaking
competition.
Last year, the competition
attracted participants from Alberta,
Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova
Scotia and Ontario. The calibre of
speakers was impressive, with Brian
Innes, Embro, emerging victorious.
As the winner of the competition,
he received a cash award of $1000
from Farm Credit Corporation and
encourages other young people to
consider participating in the
programme. "YSA provided me with
the opportunity to speak and be
heard by people with the same
passion for our industry as myself,"
Innes explains.
Sponsors of the programme are
Farm Credit Corporation;
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada;
the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture,
Food and Rural Affairs; the Eastern
Canada Farm Writers' Association;
and the Royal Agricultural Winter
Fair.
If you are between the ages of 16
and 24, don't miss this exciting
opportunity. Mark Nov. 3, the date
for this year's competition, on your
calendar and plan to participate. ,
This year's topics are: Celebrating
"International Year of the
Volunteer", Farming —A Way of Life
or a Business?, Where does our food
come from? Should we care?,
Environmental Stewardship —
Sharing the Responsibility and The
Royal Agricultural Winter Fair—
Sustaining Canada's Agricultural
Showcase.
To request a copy of the brochure,
call or write today. Inquiries should
be directed to Ted Young, chairman,
at 519-824-9253 or written requests
and/or applications should be
forwarded to: Young Speakers for
Agriculture, P.O. Box 25015, Stone
Road Mall Postal Outlet, 370 Stone
Road W., Guelph, ON NIG 2X0.
Deadline for applications is Sept.
14, 2001. Applications will also be
accepted by FAX at 519-824-4477.
You can't separate the livestock
and cropping operations on Chris
and Gabriele Boettcher's Brussels-
area farm.
"Sheep help our crops. The crops
help our sheep," Chris explained to
about 40 people from as far away as
Haliburton taking part in an
Ecological Farms Association tour
his farm Saturday.
"The whole farm works as one
entity," he says. "I don't have to
allocate as much forage and grain
specifically for sheep."
Grazing is a big part of the
Boettcher operation. Currently there
are 200 ewes with their 400 lambs on
pasture. Pasture is allocated so the
flock can eat is in four days and
move on to the next pasture.
The sheep will graze some second-
cut hayfields, then move into wheat
and spelt fields that have been
underseeded with red clover. He
also likes to make use of fall cover
crops to make sure soil is covered as
much as possible, and crops like
buckwheat and rye can provide
forage. The sheep can also graze the
stubble of the pea field he grows for
dry peas, picking up the leftovers.
As well as efficiently using crop
remnants, the sheep also fertilize the
ground for the next year, and since
sheep manure in in small pebbles, it
is easily broken down by the soil's
natural bacteria.
The basis of the Boettcher's
operation is to try to be as self-
sufficient as possible, importing
little onto the farm. Chris keeps his
own seed, feeds his own crops.
That's part of the biodynamic system
of farming which also makes use of
a system of advantageous planting
dates and other strategic dates,
geared to the phase of the moon and
other extraterrestrial forces, the
belief being that there can be an
effect similar to the effect on tides.
Manure from the livestock, when
they're in the barns for the winter, is
composted. Boettcher uses a
biodynamic preparation made from
fermented herbs like yarrow,
camomile and stinging nettle to
inoculate the compost pile. "There's
no doubt it's a quicker, more
complete composting," he says.
Once the compostipg process is
finished, Boettcher tries to spread as
thin a coating as possible over his
fields. Using compost is more than
just fertilizing a field, he maintains,
but is inoculating the soil with
beneficial organisms that will
promote breakdown of roots and
crop residues.
He uses a six-year crop rotation
with two years of livestock forage,
either hay or pasture or both, and
four years of row crops. The rotation
is based on the succession of heavy,
medium and light feeders among
crops. He doesn't grow soybeans
more than once every six years. He
makes use of spelt, winter wheat and
spring wheat. Since he switched to
organic production, oats have been
returned to his rotation, the crop
being targeted for human
consumption.
As much as possible he likes to
keep the ground covered with some
sort of plant as much as possible,
using buckwheat and rye both as
green manures and as ground covers
to keep the humus in the soil which
can be lost when soil is exposed to
air.
They're happy with their decision.
"Since I switched to organic, things
are looking not to bad," Chris
says.
BERT JOHNSON & HELEN JOHNS
MPP, PERTH-MIDDLESEX MPP, HURON-BRUCE
Invite you to attend an
informal session
on the
Proposed Nutrient
Management Act
Thursday, July
from 1:30 p.m.
at
26, 2001
- 3:30 p.m.
the
Kirkton-Woodham Community Centre
For further information please contact Bert
Johnson's office at (519) 272-0660
or Helen Johns office at (519) 524-2979