He spoke low enough that he figures none of the other 100 people in the field heard the name he repeatedly called Peters, who dropped his cue cards from the back of a pick-up.

Orr is one of many farmers who upgraded his farm to comply with the Nutrient Management Act and won’t see a penny in compensation. In Orr’s case, he shelled out $190,000 for a manure tank and yard for his 85 herefords because he lives on a hillside and a brown stream trickled into the Raison River. Downstream is the fresh water intake for the village of Lancaster, east of Cornwall.

"This could have been another Walkerton," he said, explaining why he upgraded before he secured funding. He did get $10,000 from a local conservation authority but that didn’t cover the taxes paid on materials.

Orr is livid.

He plans to keep "bugging the system" and fight back in the only way he can, by withholding information. Under the new act, farmers are required to collect a plethora of data for the province, including soil samples and animal feed intake.

"They’ll say, ‘you’re in noncompliance.’ I’ll say, ‘Here’s the information. If you want it, you’ll have to buy it."

He added: "If you go to the bank for a credit check, you pay for it. If (the province) wants information, they’ll have to write a cheque."

He advises farmers not to spend any money to comply with the nutrient management act unless they get funding first or someone hands them a court order.