EDITORIAL

Bubble, bubble toil and trouble

When William Shakespeare coined the phrase "now is the winter of our discontent" (Richard III) no one had invented slurry manure.

Discontent now arrives shortly after spring runoff subsides and livestock farmers hit the fields to spread the collected winter's effluent. The complaints that follow are as inevitable as birds flying northward. The first whiff of pig or cow sends citizens' groups, and often farmers, running to municipal council chambers. The seething in rural Ontario that ebbed in the fall rises again.

The issue is liquid manure and tile drains polluting both ground and surface water and the pressure is coming to bear on pig farms. The dairy industry is also shifting to larger operations with labour-efficient slurry systems and some farms are caught in the crossfire.

Farmers in Ontario only have to look west to Alberta to see what happens if concerns are ignored. Alberta's agriculture industry has bitten off more than it can chew in the last decade. Its zeal to get a stranglehold on Canada's livestock industry turned into an environmental and public relations disaster. Livestock operations grew like topsy. North of Lethbridge, the town of Picture Butte is now the centre of Canada's largest concentration of livestock. Beef feedlots with thousands of head of cattle sit chock-a-block with 500-head dairy operations on five acres of land; and there are chickens and hogs too.

So finally Alberta, home of Ralph Klein's "small government," is contemplating provincial permits for siting large livestock operations. Will our Mike Harris, proud to be mentored by Klein, follow with yet bigger rules on sizes and types of livestock operations?

It's time to end the finger pointing and to start looking at solutions. Whether pollution comes from municipal treatment plants that bypass the treatment lagoons during heavy water flows, inadequate rural septic systems or from manure leaching into tile drains and watercourses, we have to be more aware of our impact on the environment and we can't rule out any solution.

Ontario Pork has taken the right step in creating an environmental data base, and in encouraging nutrient management plans. Most farmers work with a nutrient management plan anyway. This is a way to formalize it and make it transparent to critics.

Large-scale producers such as Joe and Miriam Terpstra were on the right track last year when they opened the doors of their controversial new Ashfield township feeder barn to the public so that neighbours could see it.

Agriculture has a lot of credibility going for it that the opposition doesn't have. Let's not lose it.

To quote the Bard: "If it were done...then 'twere well it were done quickly."

© copyright 1998 Agriculture Publishing Company Limited.


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OPINION

MAGGIE'S FARM By Maggie Melenhorst

Springing to different conclusions

Springing to different conclusions

Farming and women are not a good mix at springtime. Or should I say, farm husbands and farm wives aren't a good mix at springtime? You'd have a better chance getting corn to sprout in April around here than getting husband and wife to agree on job priorities.

For those of us who commandeer the lion's share of domestic duties, spring means cleaning and refurbishing buildings and yards. Husbands think only about getting the crops in sooner than anyone else on the concession. Who the heck can think about paint and flower beds when there's grass seed to spread and soybeans to drill?

Every year I watch as farmers in the neighbourhood watch each other to see who'll be first on the tractor. Forget about the first robin, farmers believe spring is getting on the land and solemnly proclaiming to one and all, "Yep, we're on the land."

Nothing else matters, and pray you don't get between the men and their crops. Even something as minor as asking your partner to help fix a tap is a sacrilege. "Don't you know I'm on the land?" he replies in astonishment.

And then there's the race to see who's first to finish putting in the new crops. To me, finishing this much work demands at least a small reprieve in a lawn chair with a beer, gloating at the guys still slugging it out. But there's no time to gloat: You have to get in the pickup to see what everyone else is planting and start second-guessing what you've one.

Next comes the race to see who's first at the hay. Who enjoys being first at that job, anyway? Thank goodness for bale throwers. Better yet, thank goodness for round bales and haylage.

Getting back to the difference between farm wives and farm husbands, I've come to the conclusion that men simply hear things differently than women. When a woman says, "I think it's time we clean the office," he thinks she's said, "I think it's time I cleaned the office." The same goes for the yard and lawns.

His hearing seems ever more slight at the mention of such tasks as remodeling or repairing. "What?" he yells, "What did you say? I can't hear you over the tractor. Sorry, gotta go. We're on the land."

Funny: The tractor wasn't running until you opened your mouth. The other conclusion I've reached is that guys hate change, especially in the house. The other day I mentioned that I'd like to paint the living room a different colour. "Will it match the wallpaper?" he asked.

I looked at him in surprise. "Well, the paper's coming down. I want to redo the room."

"What do you mean? You just did it," he stated.

The last time the room was touched was eight years ago. I guess if you count that as dog years in reverse, it was just over a year ago.
Maggie Melenhorst runs a dairy farm near Kenmore with husband John and their three children.

© copyright 1998 Agriculture Publishing Company Limited.


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