EDITORIAL
Farming in the grey area
Two big agricultural events taking place over the next fortnight provide Ontario farmers a curious window on the state of their industry.The Outdoor Farm Show in Woodstock (Sept. 8-10) - with its biotech test plots, rows of high-tech machinery and robotic milking display - serves up a fast-forward view of agriculture.
The International Plowing Match in Sunbury (Sept. 15-19), in spite of accommodating plenty of the state-of-the-art stuff of the Outdoor Show, harkens back to a time when agriculture seemed less frenetic, in spite of its undeniable reliance on intensive manual labour.
There's a grey area smack in the middle of those black-and-white characterizations, naturally (Just what's cut and dried these days, anyway?). Nonetheless, visitors to the shows seeking direction for their own farming efforts could do worse than to look back before moving forward. What's old, you see, is often what's new.
Take the McDonalds profiled in this issue. The eastern Ontario father-and-son team have turned back the clock to a crop, flax, that's been a mere blip in the province's commodity stats since between the wars. Taking advantage of market opportunity created by clothing trends - and European farmers' dissatisfaction with their returns on the crop - they're farming a moneymaker, helping the tilth in their corn, soy, small grain rotation, and reducing fertilizer costs.
Meanwhile, in the southwest, the tobacco crop - which bottomed out at 110 million pounds a decade ago - has levelled up to the 150-million-pound plus range for the last five years.
While leaf for lighting up makes up the lion's share of the crop, this old commodity appears to have a bright new future. As a nutraceutical, stripped of its nicotine, the plant is a focal point of research into the delivery of edible vaccines, and tobacco-derived compounds are touted as replacements for petrochemical ingredients in products as diverse as rust inhibitors, anti-freezes and paints.
Hemp, too - with this year's first commercial-sized crop since its cultivation ban in 1938 - is finding its way back.
George Santaya wrote that "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." In some strange twist, perhaps there's opportunity for farmers who remember the past and repeat it.
Maybe the future isn't necessarily completely tied to new
science. A blend
of old and new - that grey area - is worth shining a light on.
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Exhibitors flock to farm show
Canada's Outdoor Farm Show roars into its fifth year with record
exhibitor
numbers at new Woodstock site Sept. 8-10
Roundup Ready corn, automatic milkers, and a dash of hemp: It must be Outdoor Show time again.
The country's largest outdoor farm show roars into its fifth year of operation, and second year at new digs in Woodstock on the University of Guelph research farm.
The show, which runs Sept. 8-10, made the move from Burford last year, and management has no regrets. Located on the University of Guelph's 336-acre research farm on Woodstock's northwest fringe, the show is accessible from major highways and has good soil type for hands-on seed, herbicide and equipment demonstrations.
This year, the numbers speak for themselves. Show president Ginty Jocius expects more than 29,000 visitors this year, with a quarter of a billion dollars' worth of farm goods, and 400 exhibitors, up 25 per cent over last year.
"Looking at what's lined up right now, I would says that 1998 is going to be our best year ever," says Jocius.
Many farmers will be curious about Dekalb Canada's Roundup Ready corn, which made its debut this year in Ontario farm fields. Working with the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association and the federal government, Dekalb ran test plantings of 20 to 40 acres each on 100 farms from 11 counties across the province, as well as the Outdoor Show site. Roundup was applied at two and four weeks after planting, and the crop was monitored throughout the season.
Andy Graham, project co-ordinator for OSCIA, says preliminary results are "very promising....Our test plot here at the show will give visitors a quick look at a stand of Roundup Ready corn.
"This is the first time in Ontario that a large company has worked with a farm organization to introduce technology on this scale," says Graham, adding that members of the team that's been monitoring the southwestern Ontario plots will be available to answer questions at the show.
Roundup Ready corn isn't the only genetically-modified crop on display at the show. Organizers say most of the 19 companies with test plots will promote new seed and chemical products made possible through biotechnology research: Bt corn, Roundup Ready soybeans, and Colorado Potato Beetle-resistant potatoes to name three.
Tying it all together will be a "Transgenics at Work" display sponsored by the Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, OMAFRA and the University of Guelph. Designed to de-mystify biotechnology, the display will give visitors the chance to compare GMO and non-GMO crops. OAFT president Murray McLaughlin adds that the display aims to show farmers that what is happening in the test tube is simply a faster form of traditional breeding. Researchers can produce results in 10 years that would have taken generations using conventional methods, he says. Food vaccines, pollution-reducing plants and other biotech marvels will be discussed.
At the other end of the crop spectrum will be the hemp plots at the show. The industrial crop, used as a source of fibre in manufacturing as well as in detergents, cosmetics and paint, is in its first year of legal harvest after the federal government began issuing commercial permits last spring. "We've seen the potential of industrial hemp. It's going to be an important part of Canadian agricultural production in the new millennium," says show co-ordinator Doug Wagner. The Outdoor Show's industrial hemp plot and information tent is being sponsored by the Bank of Montreal, Fraser and Hollingsworth Hemp Merchants, and the Commercial Hemp journal.
For livestock enthusiasts, there will be a robotic milking exhibit from Lely Astronaut and Proline; and Mirage, Gencor's prize bull.
For farm sawyers and green thumbs, there's the Ontario Farm
Woodlot Expo
Conference, Mark Cullen's gardening seminar, and the Sally's
Creek
restoration project.
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AGRI-BUSINESS
Nuts & bolts
4-H ink
Calling all 4-H newshounds: Entries are being sought for the 1998 Amber Underwood Memorial 4-H News Report Competition. In memory of the former editor of the Rural Voice and Enthusiast Magazine who died in a traffic accident eight years ago, the $100 award aimed at sharpening writing skills is open to all Ontario 4-Hers. Juniors (10-14) and seniors (15-21) may submit 500-word articles on a 4-H program, a topical agricultural story, or an interview with a community leader. Entries must be typed, double-spaced, with member's name, address, telephone and date of birth on the back. Entries are judged on content (50 points), writing (45 points) and presentation (five points). Winners in each category receive $100. Send entries by Nov. 15, 1998 to: Ontario 4-H Council, c/o Evelyn Chambers, RR1 Oakwood, ON. K0M 2M0. (705) 357-3051.
Meet the mascot
Earlier this year, 4-H put out the call for a new mascot, and received 110 entries. The winner, pictured here, is a combination of joint winners Elizabeth Francis of Coboconk, Ont., and Sara Jean Lees of Pictou, N.S. Three other Ontario 4-Hers made the final cut: Tracy McKillop of Hawkestone, Kelly Smith of Hanover and Andrea Wirag of Essex. Among the better slogans were "4-H - Any Age, Anytime, Anywhere," and 4-H - Distinct, not extinct." Winners received 4-H merchandise.
Maple Leaf lags
Closed killing lines killed Maple Leaf Foods Inc. year-over-year second quarter profits. The Toronto-based food conglomerate reported profits of $4.3 million in the three months ending June 30 compared with $13.9 million a year earlier. Sales of $821.5 million represented an 11.3 per cent decline. Permanently closing an Edmonton plant and suspending operations at two other hog facilities during a long labour dispute were major contributors to the drop in earnings, the company said. Maple Leaf is currently attempting to spin off its franchise operations - Country Style donut shops and Buns Master bakeries - through an initial public offering.
Food fight
The Asian scapegoat was cited once again as Omaha, Nebraska-based food conglomerate ConAgra reported fourth-quarter net earnings down by almost US$20 million. Quoted in Feedstuffs, CEO Bruce Rohde blamed huge supplies and lower Asian demand for poorer performance in his meat and poultry divisions, whose net sales dropped by US$150 million for the fiscal year. ConAgra reported year-end net earnings of US$613 million on sales of US$24 billion.
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