September 2009 Blog Posts (7)

Funding initiatives

This past summer has been an interesting one along the lakeshore. Living and farming in the Ashfield Twp area is particularly interesting each summer due to the influx of tourists that bring their stress and frustrations to the lakeshore for some quality recharge time. Smooth washing waves, romantic sunsets, green fields of crops, quiet countryside and tourist events.

In order to keep them coming some people suggest we need to improve our environmental standards when it comes to water… Continue

Added by Wayne Black on September 26, 2009 at 9:00am — 1 Comment

People Watching

Over the last several years I've been fortunate to be part of the Western Fair - the big fall fair in London. Each year I'm in the barns doing some livestock show announcing and new this year kids pedal tractor pulls. In between events barn staff tend to find each other for a visit and some people watching. You really do get people from all walks of life coming to the fair in the city and the one thing I've learned from all of them, is that people really don't know anything about agriculture.… Continue

Added by Andrew Campbell on September 14, 2009 at 8:30am — 1 Comment

REACH Grand Opening Gala and Open House

This past week I was fortunate enough to participate in two events at the new Regional Equine & Agricultural Centre of Huron. The first was the "black tie" Gala for invited guests in the new Riding Arena on Thursday night. A great list of sponsors made it a fabulous entertaining night that people will be talking about for quite a while. Not very often something like this happens in Huron County. The REACH staff made sure everything was as close to perfect as possible. It was also quite… Continue

Added by Wayne Black on September 12, 2009 at 9:04pm — 2 Comments

Pass the Mayonaise originally written for the September issue of the Rural Voice Magazine

Don't read this article on local food; go to http://www.eatrealeatlocal.ca/ and watch a short video. Seriously, watch the video, download it, send the link to all your friends and contact lists. It should be required reading for every politician and bureaucrat.

Pig farmers will have to examine these latest government handouts and determine if the glass is half empty or half full. I would like to thumb my nose at all government programs. They are all made up of half measures and ad hoc vote… Continue

Added by John Beardsley on September 10, 2009 at 11:20pm — 2 Comments

It Isn't Always Our Fault

Covering agriculture has meant I've been to a pile of meetings. Meetings on getting more profit on your farm, meetings on government regulations, meetings on just about anything you can think of in order to help you be a better farmer. One of the topics that comes up a lot for livestock producers is developing a consistent product. While this usually is directed towards beef producers today, at one time it applied to everyone. Processors and retailers say if you want a better price - they need… Continue

Added by Andrew Campbell on September 7, 2009 at 7:44am — 1 Comment

Our agriculture industry is at a crisis point

Here's an editorial I wrote that was printed in the Guelph Mercury last week:

The word crisis is heard often at the moment. Unfortunately, it seems to be heard most often in conjunction with two other words: agriculture and farmers. In a country as wealthy and as entrenched in farming as ours, to me, there’s something fundamentally wrong with this picture.

There’s the dire situation of Canada’s hog farmers. They’ve been hit with a series of problems – a growing focus on… Continue

Added by Lilian Schaer on September 2, 2009 at 10:22pm — 1 Comment

Unseen Losses By Stewart Skinner

Too often we get caught up in the economic impacts that the loss of an industry can have. We never talk about the social costs of the disappearing jobs. In my own community I have witnessed the devastation to the rural social fabric that follows a major loss of jobs. Children have left rural schools as their families search for better opportunities elsewhere; heck, we haven’t had a full slate of hockey teams in Wallace Township since I was playing peewee. I look at what my own family does in… Continue

Added by OntAG Admin on September 1, 2009 at 9:30pm — 1 Comment