However, in an ironic move the university has shut down all crop research at its college campus at Kemptville and fired one of its only publishing researchers with a Ph.d.

Garry Hoekstra, who holds a Ph.D in agronomy, completed his last day on the job Oct. 31.

Among his latest research in peer reviewed journals, one article he wrote, on oats that don’t "shatter" or lose seed in the field, appeared in The Canadian Journal of Botany in 2001. An article on developing thin and hull-less oats will appear in Crop Science next year.

He plans to embark on a consultant career and continue freelance research. On his second day without a job he sat down with a cup of coffee at Farmers Forum Kemptville office and pondered the future of Kemptville College.

"As a competent research establishment I don’t see it," he opined, explaining that the college has been reduced to a training school. "The college is already bare bones. The (instructors) left are swamped. Research requires time. Those left don’t have it."

The only approved crop researcher left at Kemptville College is John Madill, who is also a Farmers Forum columnist, but he hasn’t time research because he teaches full time.

Hoekstra said that most of his own research required working nights and weekends. "Who wants to do that?"

Hoekstra had high hopes for the college. "The place has a lot of potential. That’s why I stayed for 20 years. I had other opportunities."

Ontario deputy minister of agriculture Frank Ingratta told Farmers Forum there is not enough of a difference in climate and soil in eastern Ontario to merit keeping research at Kemptville College. "Was there enough of a difference? Obviously not," Ingratta said.

However, a University of Guelph scientist disagrees. "No question about it," the scientist riposted. "Corn is one crop affected by heats units in the area. Soybeans is another. They have to be tested in the area they are being grown in."