JUNE 2006

Leo Baumann's Secrets

Why do this man's cows produce more milk than anyone else's herd in Ontario? Find out. Go to story

(Sheena Bolton photo)

 LEAD STORY 

• Who's quitting? Some dairy farmers are cashing in on $29,000-plus quota
  Few people want to talk about quitting the farm but just about every farmer knows of someone who could be packing it in this year.
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• Farmers plan Canada Day rally
  "June is going to be a very, very hot month, my friend," says Prescott County dairy and crop farmer Jean-Marie Menard. He and other grassroot farmers are planning more demonstrations across the province, including blockading 400 highway truck weigh stations. 
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EDITORIALS 

• Leadership now                                   Grassrots have admirably led protests and rallies in Ottawa. Now is the time that the "unified voice" leaders carried the ball.     
   Go to story

OPINION 

• Thank pick-up truck for your fuel costs  In the days when fuel prices were cheap, farmers often worked up their soil as if they were planting a flowerbed.                                                               Go to story

 ARTICLES 

• Alberta Bound
  Jeff Duncan wants a future for his kids so he's looking west. 
  Go to story

• Corn countervail loses out in a numbers game                                              Last December, it looked like the U.S. was guilty of dumping corn into Canada. Countervail against American corn was a done deal. 
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• Tractor roll-over kills machinist
  ARNPRIOR - A farm equipment machinist with a passion for fixing things was killed Sunday, May 28, when the modified tractor he was driving onto a flatbed truck flipped over and landed on top of him.  
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• Landowners Association president Hillier faces backlash - farmers question their support of OLA
  The Ontario Landowners' Association president Randy Hillier has gone too far in criticizing farmers, a move that will only alienate him from the mainstream, argues outspoken Moose Creek crop farmer and president of the Seaway Grain Processors Alain Leduc.   
  Go to story

• 6 amazing features of Jeff Pietersma's rotary parlour                                                  BROCKVILLE - Jeff Pietersma's decision to build a rotary parlour was not taken lightly. In his search for a new milking facility he visited many new facilities in the neighbourhood, as well as larger farms in British Columbia and Ireland. He compared the relative advantages of different systems and concluded that a Westfalia-Surge 36-cow rotary parlour would suit him and his herd best. 
  Go to story

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• Hillier speaks at water conference hours after his trespassing arrest
  CORNWALL - Randy Hillier spent four hours in jail for trespassing and, upon his release, returned to the scene of the crime to immediately "trespass" again and broker a speaking engagement. 
  Go to story

Stories for our subscribers:

• Economist Doidge quits corn producers- TORONTO - Economist Brian Doidge announced he will retire as general manager of the Ontario Corn Producers Association as of June 30. 

• Warmer, drier summer predicted -                 TORONTO - If you're a gambler, you'll want to bet your money on having warmer and drier than normal weather conditions in eastern and east central Ontario this summer.  

• Flying the flag -                                                   Bruce Pearse calls it the Rural Ontario Solidarity flag. His "Farmers Feed Cities" shirt is flying at half-mast in front of his farm on Highway 12, north of Sunderland. "Hummm, if every rural property flew a flag like this," he wonders. Pearse is a crop farmer. He sold his cows and quote back in 1996

• Agricorp gets dinged again -                              INVERARY - Another farmer has won his case for hay insurance.   

• Tough laws on farmers' markets dropped -  CARLETON PLACE - Farmers markets' across Ontario will be free from government regulations at least until the fall. After rural Ontario complained that regulations didn't make sense for farmers markets', the Health Minister George Smitherman announced the proposed rules would be put on hold.   

• Kemptville College graduates 143 students -  "We got'r done," said dairy farmer and valedictorian Anthony Vanmunsteren in an address to classmates at the Kemptville College graduation ceremonies May 26. Agriculture graduates Vanessa McDougall and Anthony Vanmunsteren excelled about the rest.  

• Ontario's top producing cow -                                Top cow - Four-year-old Gillette-1 Durham Jericho, owned by Louis Patenaude of Embrun. She produced 22,887 kilograms of milk, 931 kg of far and 644 kg of protein. Her breed class average was 467.6. 

• Ontario's best bull is also Canada's best -         Fortale Lomax owned by Semex Alliance and housed at Eastern Breeders in Kemptville has been named the number one cow in Canada on the Lifetime Profit Index. His 93 daughters have averaged 11,118 kilograms of milk, 417 kg of fat and 315 kg of protein per lactation. Lomax is descended from the 2004 Canadian Cow of the Year, Fortale Stella Lindy.  

• Farmer moves home to Austria - then back to eastern Ontario -                                                      BROCKVILLE - Frans Steinlechner is back. He and his wife and three young children arrived from Austria last year to buy an eastern Ontario farm. But they've been here before. They ran a dairy operation with about 140 cows, near Casselman, east of Ottawa for 14 years.  

• Canada's best sires at Kemptville's Eastern Breeders -                                                              Eastern Breeders Inc. currently houses Canada's No.1, No.2, No.3 and No.6 Holstein sires and No. 2 and No. 3 Jersey sires. 

• New price for Cornwall ethanol plant by July -  A new contractor for the proposed corn-fed Cornwall ethanol plant is re-pricing the job of construction the more than $40-million plant should reach a deal with local farmers in July.

• Sell some corn now -                                        Depleting inventories of U.S. corn are creating better pricing opportunities, said Leduc, who farms more than 1,000 acres and has forward contracted some corn to sell next March at $14/tonne.  

• Gearing up for Strawfest-                                CARP - Lawn tractor pulls, cattle shows and prize money are a few of the features at this year's Stawfest, June 24 at the Carp Fairgrounds. Last years 160 competitors, aged 10 to 21, turned out to show their beef cattle in this small town, west of urban Ottawa.  

• Farmer threatens to destroy his "state-of-the-art" manure pit -                        MARTINTOWN - Beef farmer Bobby Orr believes both levels of government own him a cool $210,000. The Martintown man with 85 animals and 330 acres north of Cornwall says he built a state-of-the-art manure storage pit and the federal and provincial governments should kick in money to defer costs. If they don't, he's threatening to destroy the manure pit and allow the liquid manure to run down the hill towards the Raisin River about 70 metres away.  

• The laments of the lame cow -  Research trials that observe cow behaviour and illness give clues to how the environment in dairy barns contribute to lameness.  

  THEY SAID IT:       

"Run your farm to suit yourself, not your children. They might not want to farm."

-- Jeff Duncan Pakenham dairy farmer 

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  FARM FACTS:

Date of next grassroots rally on Parliament Hill .....July 1

Number of "Farmers Feed Cities" t-shirts flying at half-mast on Ontario farms.....1

Owner of top-producing Ontario cow ..... Gillette Farms (Embrun)

Owner of Canada's top bull ..... Semex Alliance (Kemptville)

Number of agriculture graduates at Kemptville College .....35