Daily news concludes
Ontario's last major farm TV broadcaster is moving on to greener pastures, but that doesn't mean farm coverage will be put out to pasture, says his producer.Don Mumford, programming and promotions manager for the New PL in London, the New WI in Chatham-Kent and the New NX in western Ontario, says he will spend the summer deciding how to continue the stations' agricultural coverage now that veteran farm broadcaster Ross Daily has decided on a career change.
Mumford says his stations are "the last holdout" in dedicated agricultural coverage in the province. Both Kevin Stewart in Wingham and David Imrie in Kitchener lost their farm shows. OMAFRA's Town and Country Ontario and CBC's Country Canada continue with weekly programming.
Daily, who handled the farm beat at CFPL, now the New PL under CHUM ownership, since 1976, has changed gears and will set up shop as a ScotiaMcLeod financial planner with his wife Eve. With his predecessor Roy Jewell, it was 46 years of continuous half-hour weekly farm programs, says Daily, who hosted "This Business of Farming" every Sunday, as well as doing daily farm news and markets reports at noon.
Mumford says the stations are committed to reflecting local regions, and will continue "to recognize the whole agricultural community in a significant way." He says the daily farm markets report "won't skip a beat," and will be handled by other anchors through the summer. As for ag coverage overall, Mumford says he will meet with farm groups and "anyone who will listen" to determine the best way to cover agriculture.
While Daily addressed the farm community directly, Mumford says another possibility is programming that "assists the agricultural community in getting their message to the mainstream population," thereby attracting a wider audience. Daily's ratings were a respectable 10,800 viewers for the half-hour show, which aired twice every Sunday.
Getting advertising from broader-based advertisers is a
"difficult sell"
for a program targeted at a "niche audience," says Mumford.
A familiar face on screen and at farm meetings, Daily, 53, says
he has some
regrets about leaving, but is excitedabout his new career. - John
Muggeridge
back
Land value growth slows down
Rock-bottom commodity prices and lower farm income have combined
to take
some of the lustre off the farmland market.
In its semi-annual farmland value price trend report, the Farm Credit Corporation estimates that Ontario land prices increased 1.9 per cent between July 1998 and January 1999 (see Land Values).
Increases in land values have been trending downward since early 1996 when sale prices increased by 8.2 per cent.
"The market seems stable - a balance between buyers and sellers," says Tom Nolan, FCC's Agri-Land eastern appraisals manager. "I don't see anything on the horizon that will change that."
Nolan notes that land values appear to be softening in the West; British Columbia showed a decrease in value while the three Prairie provinces averaged an increase of less than 0.5 per cent.
"Is that going to happen here? I don't think so because our agriculture is more diversified," says Nolan, who predicts the market in the short term will move "sideways."
Overall, Canadian farmland values increased by 0.5 per cent during the period. Quebec land prices showed the biggest increase in value, rising four per cent.
With drought in some areas and farm income down, Nolan says farmers are reluctant to spend big money on land. "Machinery sales are down, which says that farmers are reacting to lesser money on the bottom line. "I don't see any reason to drive values up," he says. "On the other hand...there aren't a lot of listings out there" so sellers won't likely be dropping their price.
The FCC report does note price increases in northern and northeastern Ontario and in west-central locations. Nolan says it has taken some time for the price explosion of the last three years to reach the northern areas. "We're seeing a little bit of catch-up up there. It's a ripple affect, no doubt about it."
Increases in areas northwest of Toronto are being driven by the proliferation of lifestyle and hobby farmers, says Nolan. These people don't bid on good clay loam, but they bid aggressively for lighter land and areas that could be "a bit more stony.
"We feel it's being driven by a relatively strong economy. These people are back in the market looking for their weekend spots or that type of thing. They may live on them, but they have some off-farm income." Grape land on the Beamsville bench is likely the most expensive farmland in Ontario, he says: "The winery industry is doing very well. There's stuff down there that's going for $15,000 an acre."
The top price for cash crop land still sits around $4,000, says Nolan. "There's the odd sale that goes a little higher, but quite often it's the guy next door who will pay a few more bucks for it." These farmers may have been eyeing the property for half a lifetime and this may be their only "crack at it," says Nolan. "It's worth more to them." They don't have to go far to work it and it's convenient for manure disposal.
Nolan notes that he is seeing some offshore buyers, but buying
patterns are
sporadic. "They're coming in with a lot of coin in their jeans,"
but they
don't fit a pricing pattern.
- Bernard Tobin
back
SEEDBED
By Keith Reid
Foliar sprays assist droughty crop
We often worry that dry weather is hurting our crops. There's more to worry about, however, than simply whether the plants have enough to drink.Drought also hurts the millions and billions of bacteria and fungi that live in each handful of soil, along with larger organisms up to and including earthworms. By doing so, drought also hurts the way that these critters help crops.
The net result is that drought-year crops can suffer from deficiencies of nutrients that depend on release from organic sources. You should be aware of how drought can impact nitrogen, manganese and boron, and be ready to prevent drought-induced deficiencies from hurting yields.
Nitrogen deficiencies have shown up already in winter wheat where manure was top-dressed this spring. Normally, rainfall would provide enough moisture to allow the bacteria to break down the organic compounds in the manure and make the nitrogen available to the crop. This year, the lack of rain has made these bacteria relatively inactive, so the manure has simply dried out on the soil surface.
Temporary nitrogen deficiencies are common in corn or cereals in cold springs where manure or legumes are the main N source. The cold temperatures slow down both the activity of the microbes and the pace of the nitrogen mineralization. This year, the same thing may happen, but moisture, rather than temperature, will be the limiting factor.
Manganese also depends on mineralization to provide an adequate supply to crops. When the bacteria that provide this mineralization are slowed down by drought, manganese deficiency symptoms appear. Fields that suffer these symptoms will need a foliar manganese treatment. Manganese is the one nutrient best applied as a foliar; soil applications make very little available to the crop.
Sprayers have been more active than normal applying foliar manganese to cereals; this could extend into soybeans as well. Deficiencies have not been showing up everywhere - only in borderline deficient areas. A rain would be as good as a foliar spray in these areas, kick-starting the mineralization process.
Boron deficiency in alfalfa is worst in dry weather and in
droughty soils.
It is likely that this deficiency stems from the slowness of the
release of
the organic form.
Boron deficiencies could show up earlier in the season than
normal this
year, but I wouldn't expect to see widespread areas of deficiency
on soils
that normally have adequate supplies.
Keith Reid is an OMAFRA soil fertility specialist at Walkerton
kreid@omafra.gov.on.ca
back to June 7, 1999 Issue