Fine tuning your feed
By DON STONEMAN
Last winter's ice storm in eastern Ontario taught farmers and animal nutritionists some lessons about beef and dairy animals, says Markdale-based beef adviser Doug Dickie.In the storm's wake, some animals went without feed for more than seven days because tower silos couldn't be turned on without power.
"We expected horrendous problems" when the power came back on and the cattle started eating again. "It didn't happen," Dickie says. The animals' rumens contained the same bacteria they had before the storm shut down their feed supply.
Cattle that went without feed had fewer problems gaining weight and giving milk after the lights came back on than cattle switched to a dry hay diet from silage.
The effects of the storm point out the importance of consistency in cattle diets, says Dickie. It takes between three and four weeks for cattle to properly digest feed after a major change in their rations. If farmers are going to take advantage of relatively inexpensive feedstuffs such as human food processing waste, they must be certain that there is a consistent supply of a product available for feeding, or it really isn't worthwhile making the switch.
Dickie points to grain screening pellets shipped into western Ontario lake elevators from Thunder Bay as an example. The company sells these pellets at an excellent price, Dickie says, but every boatload is different.
The identity of the product, the moisture content, the nutrient content and availability, deterioration rate and the pH are all important factors to take into consideration, Dickie says.
Usually on the beef side it's energy that is lacking, and that's where these feeds can cut costs. On the dairy side, there is usually a benefit to adding fats to the diet with byproducts.
Consistency is important. Brewers' grains can vary in moisture content. Soybean hulls vary in protein content. The pH of products such as potato peeling waste, which has been treated with a caustic soda to remove it from the potato, is often as high as 11. It must be reduced to a pH of eight to be fed efficiently.
Moulds can't be fed without dilution. Dickie says he gets calls from farmers who want to know if they can make mouldy feed more palatable with molasses. Cattle don't want to eat mouldy feed for a reason, Dickie says.
Byproducts should be fed in a total mixed ration, Dickie says. This will reduce particle size and thoroughly mix parts of the ration that might otherwise cause acidosis.
The best way to use these products is often to take delivery of them and ensile them with a forage as it is harvested, Dickie says.
Feeding wastes can be a godsend especially in years when feed is tough to grow. But know exactly what you're feeding, warns Dickie.
He recommends Peterson's Equations, which can be found in OMAFRA's protein supplements factsheet No. 410/64. These equations compare the value of a supplement to a standard source of corn and soybean meal.
© copyright 1998 Agriculture Publishing Company Limited.
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Producer wins the battle but loses the war
By ROBERT IRWIN
Paul Garvey and his family decided to take a stand when neighbours opposed their proposed pork production expansion. Garvey has finally won the acrimonious battle but says his victory was hollow. The system, he contends, is stacked against conscientious farmers.The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) recently dismissed an appeal by neighbours opposing Garvey's plan to construct a 240-sow farrowing barn near St. Marys. But the decision came a week too late for Garvey, a former Middlesex County Pork Producer Association director. He's opted for an off-farm job and he's selling his operation.
Putting the construction project on hold for 16 months and covering a $12,000 lawyer's bill was financially devastating, he says: "I decided I'm getting on with my life."
Garvey's parents have decided to leave their nearby century farm as a result of the bitterness with neighbours over the incident. His grandmother, who lives on an adjacent farm, will also be leaving.
"My grandmother who is 88 lived on that farm 56 years, and she is happy to be moving out of the neighbourhood," Garvey says.
In his written decision, OMB member N.M. Katary found "the principal issue is whether or not the proposed swine operation is compatible with existing development." Garvey says he was initially denied a building permit despite having a certificate of compliance and verbal approval from the building inspector.
West Nissouri township council granted him a variance of 18 metres for the distance between his building and the lot line. Council also approved a reduction from 300 metres to 262 metres for the distance between his new building and an existing dwelling on a separate lot.
Since Garvey's building site contained less than 40.5 hectares, the council would normally limit production to 35 animal units but agreed to boost this to a total of 60 for Garvey.
Scott Graham, who has a 25,000-hen operation across the road, testified that Garvey's building would have an adverse impact on property belonging to Erin and Ted Lawson.
Another farming neighbour, Jamie Payton, who had been unsuccessful in purchasing Garvey's property in the past year, told the hearing that pathogens from Garvey's new building would pollute his land. The commission found no evidence to support this.
Ted and Erin Lawson, whose three-acre property is surrounded by Garvey's on the west, south, and east, said Garvey's sow barn was not compatible with existing development. Erin Lawson admitted during cross examination that at one point she'd housed 20 emus and a horse on their property.
At the rate of five emus per animal unit and allowing one animal unit for the horse, her total of five animal units per acre would have brought her in violation of township requirements.
Garvey contends his neighbours only had to pay an OMB filing fee to ruin his business. Even when their appeal was tossed out, they didn't have to pay his costs because the board found that the appeal was "not frivolous, vexatious and does not represent an abuse of process."
For now, the closest Garvey will get to a new building is in his new role as salesman for Landmark Buildings, Hanover. However, he says others can learn from his situation.
"Get it in writing," he says of assurances from building inspectors. He also warns "new bylaws can sneak up on you; it's important to be involved in the process."
© copyright 1998 Agriculture Publishing Company Limited.
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More weaners heading south
Weaner pig exports from Ontario to the U.S. rose again in January while declining in the rest of Canada, according to the latest figures released by Statistics Canada.Ontario exported 44,529 weaners in January, up from 35,755 the previous month and more the double the amount exported in January, 1997.
During the same time, Manitoba exports to the U.S. have been declining. They reached a high of 56,044 last July but fell in January to 41,583.
"Nobody really knows how many hogs are going over," says Doug Maus, M & F Livestock, whose company exports the majority of early weaners and feeder pigs.
Daryl Kraft, a University of Manitoba agricultural economist, says construction of new feeder barn capacity in his province has kept some pigs at home. But he says producers are getting $4 to $6 premiums in the U.S.
Kraft is looking at how American finishers can afford to pay more for pigs. He says cheap barley makes Manitoba feed costs comparable to those in the U.S. but calculates the additional $8 American packers are paying for Manitoba pigs is not reaching the pockets of producers.
He also speculates that a proposed Maple Leaf killing plant at Brandon will have to offer producers more to get their pigs. "Schneiders is even talking about expanding their facility now. Clearly we don't have the hogs to support the kill floor capacity that is planned in this province." -Robert Irwin
© copyright 1998 Agriculture Publishing Company Limited.
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There's a steady stream of visitors flowing through Bob Reid's dairy. While farmers ask how much it costs to set up the operation, consumers ask whether he uses Bovine Somatotropin (BST), the milk production enhancer.But there will be no BST for Reid's goats. He's happy with their production, which can reach up to four litres a day.
Bob, a former freelance reporter for the Stratford Beacon Herald, and his wife Linda milk 75 goats at Punkeydoodle's Corner Farm, east of Shakespeare. The couple bought their first goats three years ago and last winter installed a new milking parlour. Linda expects to increase the milking string to 125 goats next year.
As the Reid dairy continues to expand, Ontario's goat milk industry is also growing, but by how much is anyone's guess. The largely unregulated industry still does much of its business in private.
Ontario's goat population grew from 32,000 in the 1991 census to 45,000 in 1996, says George Mournacher, Grand Valley, president of the Ontario Goat Breeders Association. The census doesn't differentiate between goats kept for meat, milk or as pets.
Rena Hubers, resources and planning, Ontario agriculture ministry, says less than three million litres of goat's milk were produced on Ontario farms in 1994 before the province privatized dairy plant audits. Hubers says the licenced processors keep production figures under wraps to protect competitiveness.
Carol Thomas, Orton, president of the Ontario Goat Milk Producers Association, says there are 94 active, licenced goat milk shippers, with the centre of the industry being in Wellington and Elgin counties. Farmers don't have to belong to an organization to ship milk, but they must be licenced and inspected by the province.
There's no question that goat's milk is winning fans among consumers, both as a fluid and a processed product. The milk averages about 3.2 per cent fat, compared to 3.9 per cent from cow's milk. The cheese is 18 per cent fat, about 10 percentage points less than cow's cheese.
Woolwich Dairy in Orangeville boasts it is the largest goat cheese maker in Canada with plans to buy four million litres of goat milk this year and make more than one million kg of cheese.
New owners have moved Woolwich's goat milk cheese from its niche in ethnic markets and upscale health food stores into chain supermarkets.
Mournacher says the presence of Woolwich has made the industry more viable. Farms milking 200 does are common, and there are 400-doe operations as well. He credits the marketing skills of Tony Dutra at Woolwich for increasing the demand for goat milk.
"Canada needs a goat product available everywhere," says Olga Dutra, who co-owns Woolwich with husband Tony. The Dutras want to change the way that goat farmers operate. Because goats are seasonal breeders, many farmers go with the flow and dry them off in the winter, resuming milking when the grass is growing and the goats want to kid.
"We tell everybody you have to ship milk all the time," says Olga Dutra. They pay the same amount for milk all year round and aim to put some stability into the market.
Woolwich buys most of its milk from Hewitt's Dairy, Hagersville, which picks up milk from 70 farms in western Ontario and as far east as Lindsay.
"We are sort of the goat milk marketing board. I say that facetiously," says Hewitt's owner Marie Hewitt.
Hewitt doesn't like talking about the price of milk. "I think that is between the producers and the processor," she says. "We are a private company." But she acknowledges there is a difference in price between milk used for fluid and cheese-making purposes.
Carol Thomas says producers generally receive a blended price for their milk, set by Hewitt's Dairy and based on their lowest production during one of the months between November and February.
The milk that is shipped during that month, usually February because it is the shortest month, becomes "quota milk."
During the other months of the year, farmers get a bonus for a percentage of their quota milk. That bonus varies from 64.5 to 90 cents per litre. The bonus system encourages good management to keep the milk flowing during the winter, Thomas says.
Even for larger producers, trucking costs six cents per litre, "which is very high," Thomas says. By comparison, DFO charges 2.15 cents per litre for trucking all of the cow's milk produced in the province.
© copyright 1998 Agriculture Publishing Company Limited.
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