Opinion
OPINION: When milk board was created, farmers protested
I remember when the Ontario Milk Marketing Board (OMMB) was created in August of 1965. It wasn’t a happy occasion for most milk shippers in Ontario. The OMMB encountered resistance among dairy producers who had strong relationships with local dairies or who were part of successful dairy co-operative... Read more
OPINION: Got Canada Revenue Agency issues? Arm yourself with patience
Got Canada Revenue Agency issues? Arm yourself with patience Back in 2020, the Canadian Revenue Agency admitted that its security system had been breached mid-August by hackers. They said that about 5,600 accounts were affected, although it was likely a lot more. This admission came be... Read more
OPINION: Sometimes all you need is a few good men
If there is a lesson to be drawn from the farmers’ protests in the Netherlands, it’s that a small segment of a population, if desperate and angry enough at the unjust and intentional destruction of their livelihood, can win public sympathy and shake an overreaching government to its core. By no mean... Read more
OPINION: Artificial intelligence is taking over – perhaps, too quickly
Artificial intelligence will majorly disrupt the entire economy in as little as three years’ time, if some of the experts are to be believed. The amazing but somewhat scary technology, we are told, will change society as we know it. Civil unrest is not beyond the realm of possibility as jobs are rap... Read more
OPINION: Sure, farmers are tough and hard-working, but they’ve got sentimental hearts, too
When anyone thinks of farmers, words such as tough, capable, hard working, inventive, independent, disciplined, efficient, come to mind. Read more
OPINION: My hot sun protection makes much more sense than government advice
There is something I don’t understand about people and it really perplexes me. Read more
STEVE KELL: What was the price bandit that stole our crop rally? The Canadian dollar
Steve Kell’s Market Minute Agricultural commodities markets tend to have a reliable seasonal cycle to them, and that “seasonality” in prices is almost entirely the result of weather during the growing season for the major crops in the significant production regions around the world. For North... Read more
OPINION: Food Day best celebrated without those in charge
The first Food Day Canada will be celebrated on August 5. But is it a day of celebration? Some nationally recognized days are for celebrating. Others are for honouring or mourning. Christmas is celebrated. Easter is first mourned (the brutal execution of Christ) on Good Friday, then celebrated (His... Read more
OPINION: Allowing more rural housing on farmland makes no sense
As good arable land becomes harder to find, the less likely farmers will be to sever any lots, especially at the larger sizes that by-laws now require. Read more
OPINION: In almost 60 years, the courses I have taken can be counted on one hand
I’m not one to take courses. The number of courses I’ve taken in the last 57 years since I left school in 1965 can be counted on one hand. Read more
OPINION: Get off my land, says farmer who wants stricter trespassing laws
Angela Dorie Farmers Forum CORNWALL — Our phone rang for the fourth time that Sunday afternoon, the same unknown number. Husband working the land, I answered, knowing it would be the same as the other three. “Your cows on the 4th have no water!” a voice bellowed. “I’ve checked, the tank is full and... Read more
OPINION: Is Food Day a time for celebration?
The first Food Day Canada will be celebrated on August 5. But is it a day of celebration? Some nationally recognized days are for celebrating. Others are for honouring or mourning. Christmas is celebrated. Easter is first mourned (the brutal execution of Christ) on Good Friday, then celebrated (His... Read more
OPINION: Making firewood, a productive winter workout
After retiring from keeping livestock five years ago, I needed something to do that would make the long winters go by quicker ... Read more
OPINION: All dairy farmers dump milk but rarely do they dump saleable milk
If you are of a certain age or had parents who were diehard fans of “Dragnet,” the popular 1950s police crime drama, you will remember Sergeant Joe Friday and the phase ... Read more
OPINION: Cancel free trade
Make what we need at home, reduce pollution, create well-paying jobs Read more
OPINION: Cover your head and ditch those big cheap red balloon-like junky Christmas things in the front yard
I got some groceries on the first snowy day in November and was rather amused to see a few shoppers come out of the store with a long handle ice scraper among their groceries ... Read more
OPINION: World population growth is a marketing opportunity
On November 15, the world’s population reached eight billion people ... Read more
OPINION: The rich world’s climate hypocrisy
They beg for more oil and coal for themselves while telling developing lands to rely on solar and wind ... Read more
STEVE KELL: Don’t confuse harvest speed with crop size
One of the things which Ontario grain farmers are going to remember about the 2022 harvest for many years is just how fast this year’s harvest went ... Read more
MAYNARD’S FARM HISTORY QUIZ: Question 1 is a stumper
Maynard van der Galien Renfrew County I’m a history buff and was reading through the Renfrew County Federation of Agriculture’s first minute book that begins in 1941 and goes to 1960. There are over 300 large pages filled with handwritten minutes. It’s slow reading and much of the handwriting is har... Read more
COMMENTARY: Nothing like waiting until the last minute
Angela Dorie Backroads Nothing like waiting until the last minute DFO demands for more milk with little warning leave farmers scrambling The morning of October 1, 2022, the men here got up early and hurried to the barn, just as they had a month earlier on September 1, 2022 and on numer... Read more
OPINION: Crisis of encouragement
Troubled American actor Shia LaBeouf found God while living in his truck in California. He had come to the end of himself, presumably finding nothing much left that he liked and even had a gun on a table ... Read more
OPINION: How do we adjust our marketing strategy for winter wheat?
One of the really interesting things about the fall of 2022 has been how good the weather was for harvesting beans, (both edibles, and soys), and replanting those fields into winter wheat. Read more
OPINION: Memories of summer threshing
1958 Canadian documentary captures harvest time Read more
OPINION: Sometimes a dog can be a bird’s best friend
Angela Dorie Backroads Our day-old turkey poults arrived in the middle of June, another step to self sufficiency (aka spending as little at the grocery store as possible). We haven’t raised any chicks or poults for many years and the 10 foot by 10 foot log building we had built for them was... Read more
OPINION: My advice to the plowing match:
Ensure grounds are smooth for walking and don’t turn it into a flea market Read more
OPINION: Politicians made horrific mistake
Matthew Lau Fraser Institute Another school year has come to an end. Eventually, there must be a full accounting of the extraordinary restrictions of economic and civil liberties that governments imposed in the past two-plus years to mitigate the pandemic. The evidence—what was justifiable, what was... Read more
OPINION: Net-zero on the road to ugly
Patrick Meagher Editor The Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) has embraced net-zero by 2050 and have persuaded hard-working dairy farmers to embrace the same goal. And who wouldn’t? Tell me you have a plan to save the planet and “I’m in.” I’m “all in” if the alternative is global warming to such a degree... Read more
OPINION: When some old barns collapse we should be glad they did
Maynard van der Galien Renfrew County Whenever high winds or fire topples or destroys old barns that were a relic of the horse and buggy days, reporters often trot out to the farm and do a story of the loss. It certainly is tragic if animals are lost in the fire. But why the fuss […] Read more
OPINION: The government plan to censor freedom of speech on the Internet
Jay Goldberg Canadian Taxpayers Federation Sign first, then we’ll discuss the details. Nobody would trust a real estate agent or used car dealership with that approach, but that’s how the Trudeau government is trying to sell its plan to regulate the internet. The government is currently trying to ru... Read more
OPINION: Shifting our way to ruin
Patrick Meagher Editor Why didn’t Prime Minister Trudeau come out of hiding back in February, throw a bbq bash on Parliament Hill, and announce an end – even in the near future — to the vaccine mandates? He could have held up his Louisiana-sauce-dripped racked rib and posed for selfies and won the h... Read more
OPINION: Milk price increase that dairy farmers didn’t want makes them look bad
On Wednesday, June 22, 2022, the Canadian Dairy Commission announced they were increasing the price paid to dairy farmers for their milk by 2.5%, which works out to $1.92 per hectolitre or just under two cents per litre effective September 1. Read more
OPINION: Farmers keep driving, buying expensive diesel but change field plans due to sky-high inputs
The one thing that really impressed me when spending a weekend in the Russian city of St. Petersburg a few years ago was that there were almost no cars on the streets on Sunday. Read more
OPINION: We can’t cut costs anymore
Our farm is fairly self-sufficient, but diesel and gasoline are breaking the budget Angela Dorie Backroads Open any paper, turn on any radio or TV and stories of rising prices are always forefront… and not just food, but everything. Even the increase paid to dairy farmers earlier this year has... Read more
OPINION: Commodity prices adjusted to satisfy demand
The purpose of price is to ration demand. It’s a simple concept, but when we allow ourselves to star-gaze at these record high prices, we forget this simple truth. Read more
OPINION: On dumb tariffs, onerous taxes and government interference
Six months before Russia invaded Ukraine, many Canadian farmers booked their Russian fertilizer and for their good planning, they are now paying a 35 % tariff penalty to the Canadian government. How dare they not see clearly into the future and know that Russia would start a war. Read more
OPINION: The power of the townhall meeting has been lost
Nelson Zandbergen Assistant Editor ROEBUCK — There’s a famous Norman Rockwell painting — Free Speech — in which the artist depicts a man standing at his chair and earnestly voicing his opinion at a public meeting, Fellow citizens listen in interest from their surrounding seats. These were the golden... Read more
OPINION: Good fences make good neighbours but are useless if there’s no livestock
Maynard van der Galien Renfrew County American poet Robert Frost penned the popular expression “Good fences make good neighbours” in his poem The Mending Wall back in 1914. In the poem he questions this suggesting that we often separate ourselves from each other unnecessarily. The poem is about a ru... Read more
OPINION: World is on brink of a food shortage
Food supply chain hangovers due the pandemic and the global impact of the invasion of Ukraine have enticed many to question the global nature of our food systems. Some are suggesting we need to deglobalize and refocus our energy into making most economies around the world food sovereign, including C... Read more
OPINION: Climate change obsession makes everything worse
Over the past decade, the global elite’s obsession with climate change has taken away from the many other major problems facing the planet — shown most dramatically by the invasion of Ukraine. Western European leaders should have spent the past decade diversifying energy sources and expanding shale... Read more
OPINION: What do Ontario businesses want? Predictability
It’s an election — there will be mudslinging, gimmicky promises, and sometimes lofty or untested policy concepts without a price tag. So, what do businesses want? Read more
OPINON: The crazy hasn’t even started yet
I’m going to start off with a confession. While contemplating potential column topics for both the January and February issues of Farmers Forum, I wrestled with the idea of a “what if” essay on how the grain markets might react if Russia made an incursion into some portion of Ukraine. Read more
OPINION: Election invites us to pick our poison
To quote a book by Pope John Paul ll, We are crossing the threshold of hope. But we are not going in the direction he intended. Read more
OPINION: What’s the point of ear tags to trace cattle if they don’t trace cattle?
Angela Dorie Backroads Dairy Trace (DT), operated by Lactanet Canada that is also doing the proAction and cattle inspections as well as herd management for the Canadian dairy industry, was developed to provide a means of tracing Canadian dairy animals in case of an emergency such as when Mad Cow dis... Read more
OPINION: What farmers didn’t invest in when interest rates were high in the 1980s
Maynard van der Galien Renfrew County In the spring of 1981, when I was paying off an FCC farm mortgage for the on-going dairy operation we’d bought in 1970, I bought something extraordinary that had most of our friends and acquaintances shaking their heads and frowning. I bought a cottage at a near... Read more
OPINON: Ukraine’s corn decline offers Ontario selling opportunities
I’m going to start off with a confession. While contemplating potential column topics for both the January and February issues of Farmers Forum, I wrestled with the idea of a “what if” essay on how the grain markets might react if Russia made an incursion into some portion of Ukraine. Read more
OPINION: A unifying climate action plan — we can loathe it together
Nelson Zandbergen Assistant Editor It’s a top-down, command-economy, central planner’s fantasy come true. But Justin Trudeau’s recently released “Climate Action Plan” is truly disturbing for the reckless ruination of the Canadian economy it represents. Damn the torpedoes, in just over 7-and-a-half y... Read more
OPINION: 50 years of climate predictions and they were all wrong
The recent UN climate summit in Glasgow was predictably branded our “last chance” to tackle the “climate catastrophe” and “save humanity.” Like many others, US climate envoy John Kerry warned us that we have only nine years left to avert most of “catastrophic” global warming. But almost every climat... Read more
OPINION: No disease detection system exists for dairy calves
Dr. Robert Tremblay Veterinarian There is always more than enough work to do on any farm but especially on dairy farms. The uptake of automatic milking systems on so many farms is strong evidence of that. Researchers are now exploring to see if there are other management tools that might assist dair... Read more
OPINION: In praise of the farm dog
Dan Needles Farmer Thinking My vet doesn’t do dogs. He knows all about dogs after seven years at the vet college and a brief stint interning in an urban clinic, but when he opened a large animal practice up here in farm country he made it known he was leaving the dog and cat business […] Read more
OPINION: Loving foods from countries visited
One of the good things about winter and cold days and nights, is enjoying some of the favourite traditional foods we grew up with and trying new ones. Many of the popular foods we eat on occasions began as peasant food — food our ancestors lived on. Read more
OPINION: North America could plant record-high soybean acres
Steve Kell’s Market Minute The key variable which drives our grain prices each winter is South American weather. However, now that it’s March and we’re deep into harvest in the southern hemisphere the power of Brazilian weather to impact world prices has diminished. The question now is how did the S... Read more
LETTER: Blinded by Science
I recently wrote a letter to our local MPP of Stormont, Dundas and South Glengarry, Conservative member Jim McDonell, expressing my concerns over the continued restrictions, vaccine passports and mandates put in place. Something that their federal brethren seem to be adamantly against. The reply I r... Read more
OPINION: Canada the cruel
Patrick Meagher Editor The three-week Freedom Convoy and protest could have been avoided if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had agreed to meet with the truckers and simply acknowledge the science he says he follows. They are not bad people. Before we had a COVID vaccine, Trudeau thanked trucker... Read more
OPINION: What’s the emergency?
After the short-lived Emergencies Act came to the rescue police used force – sometimes tear gas, sticks to the face, the end of a rifle and horses – to move the truckers out of Ottawa and set up ongoing police checkpoints on the downtown sidewalks and streets. Read more
OPINION: How animal welfare can ruin a farm business
Dan Needles Farmer Thinking Everywhere a person turns these days someone has pointed advice for him about how to behave: his driving, his shopping habits, his telephone manner, his respect for all living things and quite a few dead ones. Rules have been written for every conceivable human action, to... Read more
OPINION: Canada to get new code of practice for dairy cows
Dr. Robert Tremblay Veterinarian As another step in the long path of creating a new version of the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Dairy Cattle, the draft Code was released for public comment late last year. Comment period ended in late January. The next step towards finalizing the Cod... Read more
OPINION: Keep life simple
Disconnect, learn to say no. Don’t buy on credit. Ask yourself: “Do I really need it?” Maynard van der Galien Renfrew County I try to live a simple life and I don’t sway easily. I never fall for switching a service that I’m satisfied with because someone offers a cheaper rate. The same insurance com... Read more
OPINION: Corn, soybean contract opportunities around the corner
Steve Kell’s Market Minute One of the major forces that drives the grain markets through the late winter and early spring is speculation over how many acres of each crop are expected to be planted in the spring, and this year is no different. Planting intentions are the first critical step in... Read more
OPINION: Why the battle for truth is one to show up for
To quote a book by Pope John Paul ll, We are crossing the threshold of hope. But we are not going in the direction he intended. Read more
OPINION: The Great Canadian truck convoy
The great Canadian truck convoy flooded Ottawa with several thousand trucks and tens of thousands of supporters on its first day in the city. It had raised more than $10 million on a Gofundme page in one week. Read more
OPINION: Farmer math has ability to transform bummer yield into banner year
Dan Needles Farmer Thinking The guys in our driveshed coffee club have announced that we are now in the ‘storm before the calm’ and have decided they will talk about almost anything rather than the latest virus variant. So the subject moved this week to the calls they have been getting... Read more
LETTER: Nation Rise wind project costing millions
Postmedia correspondent Jim Algie is misleading when he refers to the Ford government’s 2019 cancellation of green energy contracts, which he terms an “obsessive anti-climate” position. In fact, the government cancelled contracts for intermittent and unreliable solar and wind power that was surplus... Read more
LETTER: Vaccinated? Not vaccinated? No difference
The new round of restaurant and school closures in Ontario suggests to me that Covid injections and boosters have missed the mark and have proven to be ineffective in stamping out the pandemic. Moreover, this also confirms for me that all the hype about vaccine passports has been essentially meaning... Read more
OPINION: Paul Bunyan Theme Park is a money-maker in Northern California — so why can’t we do that in the Ottawa Valley?
I enjoy walking through old-growth forest and seeing towering trees. A friend and I walked through the 1.6-kilometre trail of protected old-growth forest at Shaw Woods near Eganville one morning last fall ... Read more
LETTER: Stop proposed prison on Kemptville College farmland
It has come to our attention that the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario (ARIO) is considering the transfer of the former Kemptville College farm property from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to the Ministry of the Solicitor General (SolGen) ... Read more
OPINION: How many of your cows have broken tails?
Dr. Robert Tremblay Veterinarian In 2005, a researcher at Guelph investigated injuries to cows in over 300 tie-stall barns in Ontario. She looked at barn-related injuries that most people recognize like neck abrasions and hair loss and open wounds on hocks. She recorded information on docked tails,... Read more
OPINION: Expect a wild ride as wheat market volatility is certain
2022 promises to be another really interesting year in the grain markets. In particular, Ontario’s winter wheat crop has all of the makings for a turbulent price cycle in the months ahead. Read more
OPINION: Too many voices, far too much fear
The week before Christmas there were people terrified of the Omicron coronavirus based on a worldwide death count of 10. There were also people who wanted to contract this weaker virus to obtain natural immunity. Read more
OPINION: War on happiness; divided in so many ways
Look at the economy if you want to measure the freedom and happiness of a people. Countries that allow the most freedoms, also have the most innovation, motivation and are happiest. Read more
OPINION: Prices just keep going up and attracting urbanites to the country is no solution
Prices on everything are rising ... when you can find what you need to buy that is. House prices rise, food, energy, fuel, vehicles, clothes, entertainment, travel. Nothing is unaffected … except maybe farmgate prices paid to farmers. Read more
OPINION: Dog owners are the new smokers — inconsiderate of others
I have a bone to pick with dog owners. Why am I seeing drivers with a dog on their lap as they’re driving? Read more
OPINION: Got the supply chain blues that only a guy from Georgia with a garbage can bacon smoker can cure
This whole past year has given us a steady diet of bad news about supply chain issues, with hungry factories, tight inventories, shipping bottlenecks, resource shortages and thousands of people who don’t seem to care if they go back to work again anytime soon. Read more
Is this the Great Reset? Limit freedom and prosperity
Patrick Meagher Farmers Forum analysis The Liberal government has set a new goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 40 per cent below 2005 levels and wants to do that by 2030. That’s a great strategy for countries who want to be uncompetitive and disadvantaged. Not to be outdone in self-inflict... Read more
Is divide and conquer government policy?
There was little to cheer about after the federal election. It was the lowest percentage voter turn out in the country’s history and all we did was return the Liberals to power with 860,000 fewer votes than the last time. Read more
OPINION: What is it about rural living? Moments of clarity for the exhausted
I have a friend who moved out of the city with his wife 30 years ago to pursue a career as an editor and a shepherd on a small farm near Peterborough. Read more
OPINION: What is it about rural living? Moments of clarity for the exhausted
I have a friend who moved out of the city with his wife 30 years ago to pursue a career as an editor and a shepherd on a small farm near Peterborough. Read more
Trudeau climate plan ignores climate science
Robert Murphy, Fraser Institute — During the election, Prime Minister Trudeau ran as a bold leader in the fight against climate change. Yet even if we agree that the voters have given Trudeau’s Liberals a mandate to enact policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions Read more
OPINION: Paperwork is the monster that crushed me
Despite the warnings about mental health in agricultural publications, I thought we were unaffected. Read more
OPINION: Observations on the COVID pandemic and ivermectin
Although my focus has been on the infectious diseases of cattle, it is difficult for me not to pay attention to what is happening with infectious diseases in other species, too ... Read more
OPINION: Don’t get stuck with crop in the bin as we could see record-breaking yields
Steve Kell’s Market Minute One of the most encouraging things to develop out of the summer of 2021 is our potentially record-breaking crop size. Ontario has already harvested its biggest wheat crop ever, and this fall’s soybean and corn yields might also be record breaking. Despite a significa... Read more
OPINION: Barn cats are the latest pandemic trend fetching $500 each and I missed it
Angela Dorie Backroads For the past 21 months, since COVID-19 was first recognized, it seems the world has not only become more fearful, and more threatening but also far, far crazier. Probably, out here in farming territory, the wackiest yet are the stories circulating about barn kittens. Now barn... Read more
OPINION: The best drive test ever
Just reading in this newspaper about teenage drivers heading out on the road without licenses because the province can’t deal with the enormous backlog in testing created by the pandemic. Read more
OPINION: Sometimes a sale price is not as firm as you think
Steve Kell Market Minute The Ontario wheat harvest of 2021 has turned out to be a frustrating and perplexing experience for a great number of wheat producers as they have been forced to learn a lot about falling numbers, load rejections, and evolving discount tables. One of producers’ biggest issues... Read more
OPINION: Keep burglars away — make it look like you’re not worth it
Dan Needles Farmer Thinking Just reading the reports in the last issue of a tractor theft nearby where thieves made off with a $100,000 John Deere loader tractor. In some ways it seemed that disaster had struck very close to us, but in other ways it was a long way off. I have been burgled […] Read more
GUEST COLUMN: Ottawa leaves farmers to cover part of worker quarantines
As they navigate a second growing season in the midst of a global pandemic, farmers will soon be left on their own by the Canadian government to shoulder escalating production costs stemming from federal COVID-19 quarantine rules for seasonal workers from overseas. Read more
GUEST COLUMN: Ottawa leaves farmers to cover part of worker quarantines
As they navigate a second growing season in the midst of a global pandemic, farmers will soon be left on their own by the Canadian government to shoulder escalating production costs stemming from federal COVID-19 quarantine rules for seasonal workers from overseas. Read more
OPINION: Spot the farmer; he’s the one with the tan, big, tough hands and seed cap
For many years I helped man our county federation of agriculture display booth at our county plowing match events. I always enjoyed meeting and chatting with people of all ages. It’s been two years since our last event but some conversations are still fresh in my mind. Read more
OPINION: Dry cow therapies can prevent mastitis
This could be running the risk of having too much on selective dry cow therapy (SDCT) but there seems to be lots of new information. The latest is also from the Netherlands. It has some findings that would be useful for Canadian dairies too. Read more
OPINION: I will remember COVID by the ridiculous rules and the keystone cops in charge of getting us out of this mess
Did you ever think you’d witness something as bumbling and inept as what we’ve been put through by our federal and provincial government leaders during this pandemic? Read more
OPINION: Dry cow therapies can prevent mastitis
Dr. Robert Tremblay Veterinarian This could be running the risk of having too much on selective dry cow therapy (SDCT) but there seems to be lots of new information. The latest is also from the Netherlands. It has some findings that would be useful for Canadian dairies too. All the dry cow therapy t... Read more
OPINION: I will remember COVID by the ridiculous rules and the keystone cops in charge of getting us out of this mess
Did you ever think you’d witness something as bumbling and inept as what we’ve been put through by our federal and provincial government leaders during this pandemic? Read more
OPINION: Why did my premiums go up this time?
Angela Dorie Backroads Insurance has long been one of those “hate it but need it” necessities of life. Those who sell it are often questioned for their sales tactics and use of the fear and guilt trips. We have been with our life and farm/vehicle companies for over 30 years and felt lucky to have [... Read more
OPINION: The secret to a long life is surviving childhood. Avoiding raw milk helps
There are no arguments, scientific or otherwise, that will ever convince a raw milk enthusiast that the practice is dangerous. My own mother-in-law scoffed at the notion her milk cow posed any risk to her grandchildren and she dismissed any talk of pasteurization. Read more
Ottawa leaving farmers to cover full cost of worker quarantines
As they navigate a second growing season in the midst of a global pandemic, farmers will soon be left on their own by the Canadian government to shoulder escalating production costs stemming from federal COVID-19 quarantine rules for seasonal workers from overseas. Read more
STEVE KELL: Sell on rumour in a weather market
One of the things that we can have great confidence in as we watch the grain markets unfold each year is that somebody is having a weather problem some place in North America, and the markets are taking notice. How do we know when the weather rally is peaking? Read more
OPINION: Climate change is real but exaggerated and the only real solution is innovation
Across the world, politicians are now promising climate policies costing tens of trillions of dollars — money we don’t have and resources that are desperately needed elsewhere. Yet, climate campaigners tell us, if we don’t spend everything on climate now, nothing else matters, because climate chang... Read more
OPINION: Climate change is real but exaggerated and the only real solution is innovation
Across the world, politicians are now promising climate policies costing tens of trillions of dollars — money we don’t have and resources that are desperately needed elsewhere. Yet, climate campaigners tell us, if we don’t spend everything on climate now, nothing else matters, because climate chang... Read more
LETTER: Activist acquitted of breaking and entering proves new trespass law was necessary
Imagine a quiet street lined with houses. Let’s call it Ontario Street. Now let’s imagine that one man decides that he is going to drive several hundred kilometres from his home to Ontario Street. Every 3 weeks he makes the trip at night. Every 3 weeks he picks one house and finds a way to […... Read more
OPINION: Time to open up
Who said this? Travelling between provinces nowadays in a pandemic is “selfish, it’s responsible, it’s dangerous and it poses horrible harm to others.” If you said that guy isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, I would be inclined to agree. Read more
OPINION: Time to open up
Who said this? Travelling between provinces nowadays in a pandemic is “selfish, it’s responsible, it’s dangerous and it poses horrible harm to others.” Read more
OPINION: No matter how busy we were, lunch was always at 12-noon sharp
Renfrew County Maynard van der Galien Food was always important in our family when I was growing up. We ate a hearty breakfast in the morning, a big dinner at noon hour and supper was eaten before or after the evening milking. Meals were eaten at regular times and food was never wasted. Food was [... Read more
OPINION: My solution to cussing at downed internet service
The Road Less Gravelled Denis Grignon Shhh. Listen, closely. OK, you may have to open a window to hear it. (Don’t worry. Flies and mosquitoes won’t start rushing in for at least another few weeks; it’s a union thing, I believe). Somewhere, not too far away from your rural home, is another rural home... Read more
OPINION: We need a national farm dog day
Backroads Angela Dorle Talking to an egg customer about our respective farm dogs, I realized that I had never heard of a National Farm Dog Day here. In the USA they have August 25 but in Canada we have nothing. Why not? One of the unsung heroes in this pandemic is the faithful dog, inspiring [... Read more
OPINION: From pandemic to brave new world
Patrick Meagher Editor There is a never-ending chorus of contradictions about the pandemic and the mess that we’ve been in for one year. Look at how people are living. Some are so terrified they rarely leave their homes. Others are so annoyed by the restrictions on their freedoms that they won’t wea... Read more
OPINION: If it can’t be fixed, you have the right to hack it
Farmer Thinking Dan Needles At a family dinner several years ago, the men at the table were droning on about corn and soybean yields when my sister-in-law banged a casserole dish on the table and shouted, “Why do you guys always have to take some ordinary thing, ramp it up and take over the world?”... Read more
OPINION: Selective dry cow treatment in dairy cows works, world’s largest study says
Selective dry cow treatment (SDCT) is very topical right now. SDCT has become the normal situation in some other countries. The alternative, blanket dry cow therapy – treating every quarter of every cow with intramammary antibiotics – has been recommended by the National Mastitis Council for... Read more
OPINION: Premier Ford’s ‘open for business’ Ontario hasn’t happened. He did not cut taxes, spending or corporate welfare
Premier Doug Ford’s constant refrain, especially during the election campaign three years ago, was that after 15 years of dismal economic growth under his Liberal predecessors, he would make Ontario “open for business.” But in many respects, his government has failed to deliver. To be fair, in its e... Read more
OPINION: World’s biggest grain buyer buys even more. What’s China Up To?
The one constant in the world wide grain markets over the past year has been strong Chinese import demand for both grains and oilseeds. We’ve seen weather markets like La Nina drought in South America come and go. We’ve seen a global pandemic rattle the world’s supply chains but never really impact... Read more
OPINION: The electric tractor is coming. Are we ready?
This coming season, the Monarch Tractor company out of California will deliver a hundred new 40 hp electric tractors into the vineyards and orchards of that state. The batteries run for 10 hours, re-charge in four and have a guaranteed life of ten years. The Monarchs are driverless and can run a spr... Read more
OPINION: Research helps determine which cows to treat for mastitis
Our knowledge base on how to implement selective treatment of cows at drying off (SDCT) and on what impact SDCT has on long-term udder health continues to grow. At the recent scientific conference of the National Mastitis Council, Dr. Sam Rowe discussed how well the tools that have been proposed to... Read more
OPINION: New columnist comes clean on what he is – and isn’t
I am not a farmer – per se. Before I elaborate, I should point out that I do recognize “per se” is often a euphemism for: “What I just said isn’t reallllyyy all that true, but I’m hoping this fancy term will deflect from that.” Such as: “My including Doritos as a major food group […] Read more
OPINION: To cure firewood properly, use the same technique as drying hay — sun and wind
When I was a boy of nine or 10 in the mid-1950s, my father bought a heavy wooden manure spreader from a farmer who had it for sale. My father never got to use it much as it broke down right away and it was too obsolete to fix. My parents often spoke negatively about […] Read more
OPINION: Knock, knock. Who’s there? A buyer for your house even though it’s not for sale
A neighbour drove in a couple of weeks ago to get eggs and was immediately greeted by our four-legged door-bell, Mike. Mike is an over-large Australian Shepherd we took in a few years ago. Mainly grey in colour and with every other colour thrown in, he has one blue eye and one brown. With his [... Read more
OPINION: Forget Brazil: It’s all about our growing season now
Although we’ve spent the past four months monitoring growing season weather in the corn and soybean producing regions of Argentina and Brazil, the yield potential for their 2021 crop is already accounted for in the prices. The big news that is going to drive our grain prices through the remainder of... Read more
OPINION: How wind turbines scarred a landscape and a community
A small Eastern Ontario community is going through what Western Ontario communities have already had to endure: the unpleasant fallout of a wind turbine project. In this case, they are being erected on farmers’ fields from Crysler to Finch southeast of Ottawa. There are 29 of them and they will be o... Read more
OPINION: Colostrum management is essential
It must seem as if every time veterinarians talk about the health of new-born calves, they end up talking about how important colostrum is. That is likely true because they do believe that good colostrum management is essential. There aren’t too many other things you can do for a calf that is more b... Read more
OPINION: Stress is pressing issue in rural Ontario
As we persevere through yet another lockdown, the public health crisis of COVID-19 has turned into a marathon with an invisible finish line that continues to test our strength, patience and resilience. In the early days of the pandemic, many of us viewed the challenges as a short-term sprint. Adrena... Read more
OPINION: Blame nudists, Free Thinkers and planet worries for the rise of Beyond Meat
My mother’s family were food faddists, a long line of Free Thinkers, nudists and spiritualists who changed diets like socks. They had already tired of vegetarianism in the 1920s and moved on to water diets, caveman diets, lemonade and cabbage soup cleanses and even a cigarette diet. “Reach for a Luc... Read more
OPINION: Keep an eye on the U.S. dollar as well as Chinese demand and South American weather
Since June, the value of the U.S. greenback has dropped 10 % relative to other major world currencies and nearly half of that decline has occurred over the past three months. Why that matters to Ontario grain growers is twofold: first, the commodity futures markets which establish values for corn, s... Read more
OPINION: A romantic comedy for Valentine’s Day
When I started writing weekly newspaper columns, Ronald Reagan was the U.S. president, Mikhail Gorbachev was the Soviet Premier, Margaret Thatcher was the Iron Lady in the U.K and Brian Mulroney was Canada’s Prime Minister. The year was 1987. I typed on an electric typewriter and columns were sent b... Read more
OPINION: Special glasses cure insomnia when you spend long hours looking at screens
It is about 3 a.m., the time that the shadowy other residents come out if they are so inclined. I’m awake. Not just an ‘awake,’ that is easily solved by a sigh and a shuffle down the hall to the bathroom then back to bed and sleep. Oh no, this is ‘AWAKE’! Eyes wide open, […] Read more
OPINION: Foot problems most common reason for lameness — but not easy to cure
Lameness is a very common problem in dairy cows. There are numerous causes for the lameness but foot problems are most common. Sole ulcers, sole hemorrhages and white line disease (WLD) are three foot conditions that are often grouped because they are commonly seen during foot trimming and there is... Read more
OPINION: Pain is a great teacher
My neighbour, Willy Little, gave us a three-furrow Massey trip plow as a wedding gift in 1987. I remember the day he trailered the plow over to our place and dropped it off in the laneway. “Don’t thank me,” said Willy. “Once you’ve ploughed a stony field and hopped on and off the tractor 20 [... Read more
OPINION: Maynard has travelled by hovercraft, rickshaw and camel but the train is his favourite way to go
I’m not one for spending a winter vacation in a Caribbean resort, or sitting around in any of the popular southern sunny havens for snowbirds. I’d be bored. I have to be on the move and see things. Now that travel is out of the question, I look back fondly at all the places in […] Read more
OPINION: After almost 60 years, columnist Angela Dorie finally found her childhood best friend
Back in April when the weather was lousy and the COVID-19 lockdown and news reports even worse, a routine online check of our bank resulted in a security question, “What was the name of your childhood best friend?” I entered, as usual, “Sharon.” Sharon became my best friend shortly after arriving fr... Read more
OPINION: Watch export sales to know which way the price will go
Although the grain industry has spent a lot of time over the final months of 2020 discussing export demand for soybeans as a result of weather issues in South America and strong Asian demand, those same market forces are also driving corn values. While it’s great to watch the run in oilseeds, corn i... Read more
OPINION: Elephants in the room
2020 ended with more than one elephant in the room. It was difficult to count the elephants, however, which seems odd since they’re elephants. One gargantuan white heap became the dominant elephant because all it did all year was obscure our view of all the other elephants. And it was good at it.... Read more
OPINION: Cows prefer open space to specific bedding when they want to lie down, study says
We want cows to lie down as much as they want. We want housing that cows will like and we want housing that is easy for cows to use. This whole topic has been a subject of much research into cow behaviour (can barns be designed and built that are easier for cows to use) […] Read more
OPINION: Pandemic bonus: Online auctions and meetings without having to dress up or leave the house
Thinking back to Christmas 2019, it is hard not to feel at least a little down at the drastic change in the 2020 Holiday. No parties of any kind, no traveling for any reason, no visiting family and friends, no huge family dinners, no kisses and hugs, no watching children open their gifts. Don’t hang... Read more
OPINION: Lunch club talks politics, so we’ll need a winter apart to avoid a fight to the death
My lunch club has been operating for nearly 20 years now. My wife calls it the ‘Old Guys’ but its formal name is the Monday Lunch Club that Meets on Wednesdays. We like to talk politics because it keeps us off duller subjects like our operations. After the virus struck, we tried a few Zoom […... Read more
OPINION: Marie-Claude Bibeau makes me grin and growl
Business risk management programs have been news items again in the farm press, and with farm organizations and commodity groups. That’s no surprise in such an unpredictable year. Things need to improve for grain and oilseed farmers, and governments are dragging their feet. I used to smile and beam... Read more
OPINION: If corn price stays strong, so will wheat. If not, sell both
In the fall of 2019, Ontario farmers planted one of the biggest winter wheat crops in our history. With unseeded acres resulting from the wet spring, and new crop wheat bids more attractive than the returns shown by other crops, Ontario farmers planted 1.003 million acres of winter wheat to be harve... Read more
OPINION: Another regulation that you don’t want
Clean is good. We all love clean. A clean shirt, a clean house, a clean and clear conscience. So, what’s not to love about a Clean Fuel Standard? A lot.The Clean Fuel Standard is not so much about a clean anything as it is about punishing users of fossil fuels by creating a new tax […] Read more
OPINION: Individually-housed calves are not always healthier than group-housed calves
Recently, I mentioned a public opinion survey where people were asked their opinion of individual, paired or group housing of pre-weaned dairy calves. In the survey, the majority of people who expressed their opinion at a state fair in the U.S. felt that individual housing was the least acceptable h... Read more
OPINION: Our house is haunted and the ghost seems to like us
I live in a haunted house. It’s been haunted for at least a century now by all accounts . . . I mean by all the neighbours’ accounts. As a writer I rely heavily on the neighbours for inspiration and they have always been a reliable source of suspect information. There was a woman who […] Read more
OPINION: As a grocery cart watcher I see people buy too much processed foods
What does a Food Basics kind of guy do when standing in line at a grocery store checkout counter and the shopper in front has an unbelievable amount of packaged food to be scanned? Many people check their smart phones or send texts messages, but I do neither as I don’t have a cell phone […] Read more
OPINION: My love for bats (but not up close)
Like most rural families, we dislike mosquitoes and black flies. They make summer work miserable. Therefore, we have always appreciated having bats on the farm and try not to disturb them. They do a beneficial job for us and our livestock by reducing the number of biting insects and we appreciate it... Read more
OPINION: Watch weather and Brazil, the world’s largest producer
In 2018, Brazil passed the United States and became the world’s largest producer of soybeans. That makes it extremely important for Ontario soybean growers to pay attention to crop progress in Brazil since their crop’s outcome has an enormous impact on the prices we can expect. At first glance, the... Read more
OPINION: Please remain calm
Note 1: This is not about the U.S. election. Note 2: For every 100 scary headlines about positive COVID tests there should be at least one appeal for calm. Recent computer models predicted thousands of new COVID cases each day and even though that didn’t happen Premier Ford shut down restaurants and... Read more
OPINION: 60 per cent of Canadian restaurants will permanently close by November
So far, up to 25 % of restaurants in the country have now closed for the season and perhaps for good. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce expects 60 % of restaurants to close permanently by November. Even if such a forecast may be a little excessive, fear of failure for many establishments is surging.... Read more
OPINION: Dr. Rob in a pandemic lockdown — first time in years there was no plane ticket on his desk
On March 11, when the WHO proclaimed that COVID-19 was a pandemic, I was working in Nova Scotia. We had planned to work with veterinary clinics to run seminars for dairy farmers all week. We still had two days left. We wondered if we should go ahead with the last two seminars. We were advised [... Read more
OPINION: Sweden was right not to lock down
Since it’s more dangerous for a healthy child to ride a bicycle to school than it is to be in school in this pandemic, healthy children can go to school.But you might think the fires of hell had been unleashed if you got your cues from teachers’ unions. In mid-August they told us that the […] Read more
OPINION: Suck it up Buttercup and get on the bus
Many people tell me that we really shouldn’t be sending our kids back to school. I have a lot of educators and health care types in my family and they warn darkly that the virus is bound to come roaring back this fall and force a second lockdown. I suppose this could very well happen. […] Read more
OPINION: Time for pickles, relishes, jams and jellies
Vegetable gardens are now as richly productive as they are going to get and the urge to preserve the bounty is in full swing. We’ve had some let downs this year, largely, we believe to the scorching heat and desert-like dryness of summer’s start. Our zucchinis, despite making never-ending flowers, p... Read more
OPINION: How many tractors do you have, and how many do you need?
I love my tractors and the front-end loaders. Like most farmers, I have a “few” tractors around. Five to be exact and one backhoe. They range from 40 hp up to 160 hp. The higher horsepower tractors do fieldwork; the smaller ones do yard work, such as running an auger or processing firewood. Some fol... Read more
OPINION: Temporary foreign workers have same protections we do
“Temporary foreign workers are entitled to the same benefits and protections as any other worker in Ontario.” Those aren’t my words, although they are 100 per cent true. They were pulled from a Government of Ontario media release dated June 24, 2020. To be clear, these benefits include health care,... Read more
OPINION: Avoid selling crops around the U.S. election
One of the core principles of a marketing plan is to put grain growers in a position where they can make a sale in order to take advantage of rallies as they occur and, even more importantly, to eliminate the need to make a sale at times when circumstances are not desirable. There are a […] Read more
OPINION: From the feds without love
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture asked the federal government for $2.6 billion to get through an economic lockdown created not by a pandemic, but by government response to a pandemic. We know that the federal government came back with $252 million but only $100 million for core agriculture. He... Read more
OPINION: Farmers unfairly blamed for COVID-19 spread
This summer has been the first time in my life that I’ve been reluctant to tell people what I do for a living. If it comes up in conversation, I try to find a way to change the subject. I’m a farmer. I grow broccoli with my son in Lynden, Ont., outside of Hamilton, just […] Read more
OPINION: When and how to dry off a milking cow
Dry cow management is a big topic right now. Part of the reason is because there is so much discussion about whether treating every quarter of every cow with an antibiotic dry cow treatment is a good idea. Another reason is that drying off is more complicated because average production has so steadi... Read more
OPINION: Life’s mysteries are not always solved
As farmers, we are trained from birth to solve mysteries. Most of them present to us as puzzles, as in, why do I never have a half-inch wrench in this toolbox when there are at least a dozen of them somewhere around the place? But then there are the deeper mysteries, some of which never […] Read more
OPINION: Our biggest beefs about dairy farming: inspectors, surveys, trespassers and TTRs
At this time of writing, we have another Grade A/proAction inspection pending. The inspector arrives at 1 p.m. Everyone keep away!! This was originally scheduled for April 28 but it was postponed due to the pandemic. From our perspective, it could have just as easily been done then as now . . . and... Read more
OPINION: Doing battle with potato beetles
By Maynard van der Galien I have a heavy duty shop vac in my garage/workshop that is primarily used to clean out the seed drill after planting. The two-inch hose sucks up the seeds in no time. This summer, the shop vac served another purpose: Sucking up Colorado potato beetles. I had a huge infestat... Read more
OPINION: Biggest corn, soybean harvest in history?
Forecasting the markets is a bit like forecasting the weather. Meteorologists know from historical experience the combination of air temperature changes and barometric pressures that it takes to create a severe storm. So when they see those conditions forming they issue the appropriate forecast. The... Read more
OPINION: Under age 45? You’re more likely to be murdered than to die from COVID-19
The National Post ran a story in late June about a COVID-19 outbreak at a Kingston, Ontario, nail salon, after six employees and 12 patrons tested positive. The headline read: “COVID-19 outbreak: 18 new cases linked to nail salon in Kingston. Scary headline for a national newspaper but how many of t... Read more
OPINION: New guidelines improve colostrum management
Veterinary experts pretty much agree that getting enough colostrum soon after birth goes a long way to keeping calves healthy and giving them a good start. There are recommendations on ways to measure whether calves have enough colostrum. A few methods are easy enough that they can be used routinely... Read more
OPINION: Our family history of writers, including a sports writer and poet
It is June 21 and baking hot with no rain! It has been like this for awhile. No matter how many times we check, the weatherman still dangles the possibility of a little rain, enticingly a few days away. We give thanks for having had the foresight to install casement windows in this old house [... Read more
OPINION: We need Paula’s Pantry and the driveshed diner more than ever
About 10 years ago, Rhonda’s diner in the village closed its doors and left a bunch of us orphaned. We could not for the life of us understand why a person would not want to rise at five in the morning to serve a five dollar plate of bacon and eggs to the last eight […] Read more
OPINION: No pandemic prison life for me
Ever wonder why you see so many large houses that were built more than a century ago, when money was scarce and times were tough? You see large homes throughout the countryside. And in areas where the land was prosperous for farming, an enormous house went up along with a stately bank barn. Families... Read more
OPINION: Wheat producers forward contract, avoid price slump
The winter wheat crop is certainly one of the good news stories for Ontario agriculture in 2020. Great seeding conditions last fall enabled a large acreage to be planted, and excellent spring and summer weather have created enormous yield potential for this year’s crop. Ontario’s domestic flour mill... Read more
OPINION: RURAL CANADA: Our COVID-free zones
Rural people have been unfairly burdened by lockdown measures in this pandemic. They are also unfairly burdened by media hysteria. Whether it’s from nightly newscasts that whip up fear or the endless fixation on the number of COVID-19 cases, even healthy country dwellers can get the impression that... Read more
OPINION: Seed shortages and an abundance of myths — but a pig is still $40
I was chatting on the phone with my friend in the city this week, comparing notes about life in the lockdown. “There is a shortage of red wine vinegar,” he reported. He lives in an apartment building downtown with a high-end supermarket steps away. The empty vinegar shelf surprised him but, of cours... Read more
OPINION: 11 % of mastitis cases caused because first case not cured: Study
When a dairy cow gets clinical mastitis again in the same quarter, it is easy to think that the first treatment didn’t work. When this happens, it is possible that the first treatment failed but it is also possible that there is something about this cow or that particular quarter that makes it more... Read more
OPINION: Surviving a pandemic: Grow a garden, raise rabbits, pigs and chickens
It would appear that the ongoing COVID-19 issue is changing how many people look at providing for themselves and it is probably for the better. We already know of at least seven friends and family who have decided to keep not just some laying hens but broilers too. Hen numbers are ranging from three... Read more
OPINION: How to stay positive: Try online polka
Right from the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) crisis here in mid-March when schools and churches were shut down, I set some strict rules for myself on how to deal with it. Did I want to be living on a daily diet of gloomy news, current global death tolls, the impact of the virus [... Read more
OPINION: No short supply of corn, no big rallies, no taking chances
One of the most frustrating things for farmers who monitor grain prices through the spring of 2020 has been the apparent reluctance of values to move meaningfully. For an eight-week period through April and May, cash bids for both old crop and new crop corn in Ontario struggled to move even a dime p... Read more
OPINION: What say these infectious disease experts: End the lockdown
By now Canadians should know that the infection rate of COVID-19 is not a bad thing. In fact, the rise in the infection rate is good. It’s the death rate we have to watch and we are watching it. The infection rate needs to increase in order to achieve immunity. We have to stop thinking […] Read more
OPINION: Answer the question
Conservative MP Michael Barrett (Leeds-Grenville –Thousand Islands) was red-in-the-face incensed when he demanded an answer during the once-a-week social-distancing question period in the House of Commons on May 20. Said Barrett: “The prime minister is having a waterfront mansion built at Harrington... Read more
OPINION: Recent research says coronavirus can spread to cows’ lungs
Everyone is talking about COVID-19 right now — and I hope that everyone is safe. Other coronaviruses are relatively common as causes of diseases in livestock including cattle. We have known about some of them for a long time but we’ve learned more lately too. In calves, bovine coronavirus is part of... Read more
OPINION: Why abattoirs died and how your dog can help in a pandemic
My big livestock protection dog was sitting beside the dinner table listening to a family discussion about how we would all have to look after each other through the pandemic. The very next day, he went out on his morning patrol and brought back a turkey — a shrink-wrapped, 10-pound bird from Walmar... Read more
OPINION: On the father of chemical warfare and nitrogen fertilizers
The other day I watched and admired how fertilizer was applied to a fall wheat field with a truck on wide tires. The job didn’t take long. The method of spreading fertilizer has changed beyond recognition in the last 112 years. It used to be a time-consuming job that required hard work. One of my [... Read more
OPINION: The COVID-19 pandemic is tragic but unemployment is tragic too
In March, people were told to stay home and stay put to avoid the coronavirus. We thought everyone was vulnerable and just about anyone could die. Then last month we began to learn that as many as half the population might get infected by COVID-19 and not have symptoms. People also learned that the... Read more
OPINION: South American soybean production down, China’s soybean demand up; both good news for Ontario
Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems as though the markets have been awash in bad news regarding either waning demand, confounded supply chains, or both. However, since we all have a requirement to run agri-businesses in Ontario in 2020, the most constructive thing for us to do is to c... Read more
OPINION: Despite delays, life in the country goes on
Country people don’t call it Coronavirus or COVID-19. They refer to it as: ‘That s—t thing that is going around.’ I replied to the friend who sent this by asking if she had been at our kitchen table the evening before. She replied no, but had found herself and her husband calling it what we [... Read more
OPINION: Parliament: Not essential like bike repairs and Dollarama
The best course of government action in a healthy economy is, most often, to do nothing. Things are fine. Let the people be. But now in the midst of a pandemic, the biggest crisis of our lifetime, we actually want our federal politicians to meet in Parliament and air out the issues. But the minority... Read more
OPINION: Since you can’t go to church, I’ll tell you about the most beautiful ones
Who would have thought that governments across the globe would order churches, synagogues and mosques to be closed to the public for worship and prayers? And did you ever think you’d see the day when cities were like ghost towns with barely any vehicles on the roads? It’s almost certain that places... Read more
OPINION: The sideroads come to life: I’ve been talking to more people than I have all winter
What a difference a month makes. In the space of a few days, after all of my events for the next two months were abruptly cancelled and it became clear we were moving into a state of social distancing, the first thing I did was call the elderly people on my sideroad to see if […] Read more
OPINION: Grocery shopping is a challenge but ag suppliers are awesome
With the world in the grips of COVID-19, it seems that life on the farm carries on as normal. We talk to suppliers and delivery people but from a distance, wipe thing down . . . and give a wide berth to the milk truck and driver, per DFO directives. Heaven forbid that we lose […] Read more
OPINION: Heroes and villains
Adversity builds character. It also tests it. In this historic moment that is changing how we live our daily lives, we have seen how some people rise to the occasion. Gray Ridge Egg Farms donated 108,000 eggs (600 cartons), distributed by 12 egg farmers, to communities from St. Marys to Niagara Fall... Read more
OPINION: Can livestock spread virus to people?
Is there any evidence that a coronavirus can jump from animals to people and vice-versa? Proving that something does not happen is always a bigger challenge than proving that it does. I think that it is well accepted that the coronaviruses that caused MERS and SARS jumped from animals to people. The... Read more
OPINION: What it means when corn prices follow oil in an uncertain market
My opinion on the coronavirus’s capacity to impact agricultural markets has not changed since the pandemic started to develop. People will continue to eat, and even the practice of social distancing or self-isolation will not substantially impact the amount of food which society will consume. There’... Read more
OPINION: When kids were tough and there were no snow days
I read four very interesting books this winter. Run of the Town tells of a young man’s life experiences growing up in the northern Ontario town of Hearst. The collection of short stories takes place between 1940 and 1960. Author Terrence West taught me in Grade 10 in 1964 at the Eganville and Distri... Read more
OPINION: Research shows disinfectants can kill bacteria on hoof knives
Lameness is one of the most common conditions in adult dairy cows. Many types of lameness are not contagious but digital dermatitis is caused by bacteria and is contagious. Because lame cows are also more likely to have their feet trimmed, there has been concern that foot trimming might inadvertentl... Read more
OPINION: Watch the basis price to sell old crop corn
Cash prices for grains and oilseeds are typically expressed as the sum of two contributing factors: “Futures” and “basis.” What’s really interesting about corn prices through the winter of 2020 is that those price components are doing entirely different things. “Futures” are the cash price of corn d... Read more
OPINION: When the stars align, for Pete’s sake, sell!
Every issue of every farm paper these days offers advice about how and when to sell a crop. A generation of ag economists have scolded us with the dark fact that two-thirds of farmers sell into the bottom third of the market. How do we keep ourselves from falling into that awful trap? Eight years [... Read more
OPINION: Grass-fed milk program means more paperwork including daily record of hours cows are in pasture
In December 2019, the Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) released the Canadian Grass-Fed Milk (GFM) Protocols. These regulations have been compiled by the Dairy Farmers of Ontario over the past year or more with input from Ontario producers currently shipping grass-fed milk. DFC has made some changes. On... Read more
OPINION: Damage we do by encouraging illegal blockades
The infamous British Columbia natural gas pipeline that provoked so many protests hasn’t provoked many B.C. natives around the pipeline project. That’s because the vast majority of natives in the areas of the pipeline want the project to go ahead. All 20 First Nations communities voted for it. The p... Read more
OPINION: Mastitis in older cows more likely to cause pregnancy loss
Getting and keeping cows pregnant is a big part of dairy farming. A lot of research has looked at the most efficient ways to get a cow successfully bred back. Increasingly, it has become important to look at how cows lose those pregnancies too. Numerous studies have shown, for example, that cows whi... Read more
OPINION: What are the consequences of a U.S.-China trade deal?
One of the most compelling stories in the agricultural marketplace over the past two years has been the trade dispute between China and the United States, and how much the skirmish between the world’s largest producer of soybeans and the world’s largest consumer of soybeans has had on oilseed prices... Read more
OPINION: The garbage police are lifers that won’t go away
In the days of first settlement, towns like mine tried to deal with household waste by passing an ordinance requiring people to remove garbage from their properties at least twice a year. The law was impossible to enforce and a flat failure. The authorities gave up and nothing more was done about ga... Read more
OPINION: Federal gov’t to open wide the doors to death
I met Mark Pickup in Edmonton about 25 years ago after he began suffering from the onset of multiple sclerosis. He walked with a cane. He was cheerful, energetic and driven. He told me that when he was first diagnosed, he was shattered, fell into deep depression and contemplated suicide. If physicia... Read more
OPINION: January is a great time to watch soybeans grow
As farmers, we are essentially all wired to watch crops grow and have an intuitive sense of how conditions in the field are going to impact the marketplace. Although that’s a great skill to develop, the challenge of operating our businesses in a global marketplace is that some of the fields are just... Read more
Health advice for 2020: Take cod liver oil, be active, put on a hat, drink water and take a nap
I saw an elderly acquaintance in the grocery store the other day. I hadn’t seen him in a few years so I went over and asked, “How are you? Good to see you!” He had nothing good to say about himself. “I’m old, grumpy as hell most of the time and this cold I’ve had […] Read more
OPINION: Canadian farmers under more stress than farmers elsewhere, and female farmers suffer most
In 2019, two published scientific papers looked at the mental health of Canadian farmers. The studies reported the results of surveys that had been done in 2015-2016. Farmers were invited to fill in survey forms online to help determine if they felt stress, anxiety or depression, and if they were li... Read more
OPINION: Farmers-turned-hedgehogs transform back to foxes
An ancient Greek poet left a scrap of paper on his desk that somehow survived, got copied and passed down all the way to the modern era. The fragment said: “The fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” The message may be fuzzy for that half of the world which has […] Read more
OPINION: On hope that comes with the best job in the world
Actor Alec Baldwin’s wife Hilaria recently posted an Instagram message of her sorrows after her baby died. “We are very sad to share today that our baby passed away at four months,” she wrote. It was the shattering of hopes and dreams. She received an outpouring of sympathy from fans. It was touchin... Read more
OPINION: There’s no “harvest low” in prices when there’s no harvest
2019 is going to go down in the collective memory of Ontario farmers as one of the most challenging years that we’ve seen. An unusually wet spring delayed seeding, and completely prevented planting anything on several million acres in the Great Lakes basin. Cooler than normal summer temperatures com... Read more
OPINION: The great adaptors: Dutch immigrants to Canada
Our family was one of the almost 185,000 Dutch immigrants who entered Canada between 1947 and 1970. Most of the immigrants only knew a few English words and they had little or no idea what they would find when they got here. In 1952, almost 21,000 Netherlanders, or Hollanders as some Canadians refer... Read more
OPINION: CMT better at finding infected quarters, studies say
The California Mastitis Test (CMT) has been around for a long time — so long that many people don’t think that it is very useful anymore. The basis of the test is quite straightforward. The CMT liquid breaks up any somatic cells in a milk sample and then turns the genetic material from inside those... Read more
OPINION: In these parts, we eyeball it
“Use your eyeballs!” If I heard that command once, I heard it a thousand times from any number of old farmers who helped to raise me. It could apply to any number of tasks that needed my attention or to some very obvious risk to life and limb that was staring me in the face. […] Read more
OPINION: Scams and scammers can be among us
Scams and scammers are now part of our lives. Daily they appear on our phones and computers or through the mail. We learn to recognize and ignore them for the sake of personal financial safety. But what happens when the scam comes in the form of a friend or family member? Are we as leery? […] Read more
OPINION: Mastitis, lameness can impact cow fertility
Successfully getting heifers bred and getting cows bred back is an ongoing challenge on dairy farms no matter where you are nor what season it is. Reproductive success requires so many things to go right — you need to breed cows to conceive and when they conceive, they need to stay pregnant. The ans... Read more
OPINION: How can we bring our politicians back to the real world?
I’m glad the election campaign is over. It was frustrating listening to all the campaign rhetoric. Agriculture was neglected and not discussed. Justin Trudeau claims one of his most important responsibilities as leader of our great country is to protect Canadian jobs. Based on his leader debate perf... Read more
OPINION: What’s time to a pig?
Several years ago my neighbour Hughie turned up on the veranda with a basket of sour cherries. My wife thanked him and told him she would turn them into jam. “Don’t bother with jam,” he said. “Unless you can make the glass jars yourself, you’re better off to buy jam at the store.” I had […] Read more
OPINION: Make money on wheat before supplies increase sharply
One of the most interesting things about the eastern Canadian wheat market is that we are consistently a high-priced island in a sea of soft wheat markets around the world. 2019’s relatively small Ontario wheat crop is certain to entrench this position for the balance of the old crop marketing year.... Read more
OPINION: Stop scaring the kids
Canadians aged 35 and younger made up the largest voting bloc in the federal election. That’s alarming for someone like me who has been convinced for some time that the voting age should be raised to at least 25. (There are a lot of people who shouldn’t be allowed to vote, but that’s for another [... Read more
OPINION: The great Canadian cringe-worthy election
Note: This editorial was written prior to the Oct. 7 leaders debate. The Oct. 21 federal election is around the corner and we’re looking at a nail-biter. What is most surprising is that, right out of the starting gate and despite all of the baggage, the Liberals were tied with the Conservatives in t... Read more
OPINION: New rules limit young calf travel to 12 hours
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) oversees transportation of livestock in Canada. It also works with many stakeholders to revise transport regulations. The most recent revision was just completed and the revised regulations are planned to come into effect in February, 2020. The changes will... Read more
OPINION: Bureaucracy turns me into an anarchist, so here’s how I’m voting
For some reason, the local Conservatives invited me to host a meeting during the federal campaign to introduce their new candidate. I guess they assumed that because I worked as a speech writer for the provincial Conservatives 40 years ago, I must still be voting that way. I told them the Royal York... Read more
OPINION: With no corn surplus, Ontario might need to import
For people who have been watching the corn market closely, these past few months have taught us some interesting things about the size and distribution of the 2018 crop supply, and also how growers should position themselves as we move closer to the 2019 harvest. One of the features which makes the... Read more
OPINION: Resolve trade war and we’ll still need two years for soybeans to return to 2016-2017 price levels
In the search for a good news story which might lead to a strengthening in soybean prices, a large number of Canadian farmers are following the ongoing trade negotiations between the United States and China in the hope that a deal will end the sanctions on American soybeans entering the Chinese mark... Read more
OPINION: Cows produce better colostrum when calf born at night and on Sunday
Good colostrum management is key to the health of newborn calves. Good management includes harvesting and feeding enough good-quality colostrum in a timely manner so that the antibody level in the calf will provide protection against the range of disease-causing microbes that the calf will encounter... Read more
OPINION: Read the label before you buy hot dogs and other baloney
Bologna was a processed food my mother outlawed and we never had it in the house. School kids I grew up with had thick bologna slices slapped on margarine laced store-bought white bread for their lunch. I had strawberry jam, cheese, peanut butter, and sometimes a fried egg on home-made buttered brea... Read more
OPINION: Free money, the news media and the upcoming election
Before Hitler’s tanks rolled across Europe, many people weren’t so sure he was the bad guy. But the news media should have known from Hitler’s own words in his ridiculous 700-page manifesto that proclaimed that the Aryans were the superior race and Jews should be sent packing. Until it was too late,... Read more
OPINION: Way forward for the farm is work of the imagination
One of my recent plays opened at the Blyth Festival in southwestern Ontario in July and I went down to sit in the crowd several times during the run. The Team on the Hill is a play about a family battling over the future of the farm on a spring weekend in 1978. The son […] Read more
OPINION: 48 dairy farms closed doors this year as they face an uncertain future
It is getting to the point where I dread the last couple of weeks of each month. Several notices of cattle sales appear with our mail for farms closing both in Ontario and Quebec, some as far as three hours away and all hoping the cows will go to new homes and not the stockyards. […] Read more
OPINION: What? A 50-ft. tall Scotsman is coming to Lancaster?
As business owners, farmers must routinely consider value for money if they wish to remain in business. Will a specific cost produce increased efficiencies, increased production or a savings? The income generated on a farm must pay the expenditures so all expenses have to be cost-effective. Nothing... Read more
OPINION: How farmers failed to get behind a one-voice general farm organization 50 years ago
It was 50 years ago this past June that Ontario farmers got to vote on whether or not they wanted a general farm organization (GFO). The referendum required a 60 per cent “yes” vote to have one organization be the official representative of all farmers in Ontario. Only 43 per cent of the farmers who... Read more
OPINION: Who needs gov’t planting data when there are more accurate numbers?
One of the most interesting dynamics of the 2019 crop year has been the unusual spring weather conditions which limited planting both in terms of timing and the number of acres actually sown. There’s also been widespread speculation over both crop acreage and yield potential for both corn and soybea... Read more
OPINION: The kids can leave the farm but the farm doesn’t leave the kids
The farm I live on stands within eyeshot of two ski hills which have long been the main source of economic activity for this community. I was never a skier myself but I grew up with skiers and I came to associate that crowd with a lot of poor life choices. Sliding down hills too […] Read more
OPINION: How to deal with parasites in sheep and goats
In June, the University of Guelph hosted an international veterinary conference on small ruminant health and productivity. One of the major topics was how to manage internal parasites in sheep and goats. Internal parasitism is believed to have one of the biggest impacts on animal health and producti... Read more
OPINION: Be happy you’re not growing cannabis
Two years ago, Joseph Hudek boarded a plane in Seattle destined for Bejing. Like so many, he thought marijuana, or cannabis, just made you happy, sleepy and hungry. So he bought several 10-milligram THC (cannabis’s active mind-altering ingredient) edibles. He figured that if he gobbled them down, he... Read more
OPINION: Why dairy farmers quit: Fed up and falling apart
As of now, there are only 3,445 dairy farmers left in Ontario. We all know farmers who have quit, the reasons varying from farm to farm. Usually it’s a combination of things but in the end there is always just one word for it: Stress. Computer illiteracy is often a challenge. Sometimes, the quitting... Read more
OPINION: How fishing and farming fulfil the meaning of life: Something to love and a job that matters
Getting skunked is part of the rich pageantry of life. Last month I joined a couple of farmers on a remote lake in Algoma to search for speckled trout. We were banished to the place by our wives who were not willing to listen to us moan a minute longer about the cold, wet spring. […] Read more
OPINION: How Ireland attacked BVD virus sheds light on how to handle it
Infectious diseases are not at the top of the list of dairy and beef farmers’ concerns. That is especially true with the weather/climate and trade issues that seem unrelenting. Almost 30 years ago, the Production Limiting Disease Committee managed to work with university researchers to estimate the... Read more
OPINION: When farmers were poets and weather forecasters
I thought only farmers and outdoorsy people listen to weather forecasts. Not so. I read somewhere that 83 per cent of Canadians start their day checking the weather on television, the radio or the Internet. Farmers have a vested interest in knowing what the weather will be in the days ahead. Older f... Read more
OPINION: Controlling Johne’s disease in cattle is a challenge for vets too
Controlling Johne’s disease is a challenge for farmers and veterinarians. It is also a challenge for researchers. There are a few reasons for that. A big one is that the disease is chronic. It can take years between the time an animal is infected and the time it shows evidence of infection. Only a f... Read more
OPINION: Sell soybeans if you see a storm coming
Earlier this month, Statistics Canada released their estimates of grain stocks stored on Canadian farms as of March 31. What’s of particular interest to us in this province is that their analysis placed the volume of soybeans stored on Ontario farms at 8750,000 metric tonnes. That’s up 34 % from the... Read more
Opining on pipe-smoking
When I was a kid, I thought only farmers and ship captains smoked a pipe. I was so surprised when my dentist walked into his clinic with a pipe in his mouth. That was in the late 1950s when most men smoked. An elderly woman at church told me that when she was growing up, […] Read more
OPINION: Everyone’s a writer now but true writers have hope and a paycheque
My two cash cropper brothers-in-law recently brought out their iPads to show me the work of a number of farmer-poets, farmer-comics, and farmer storytellers who are broadcasting to the nation from the comfort of their tractor cabs. I knew about the TV series Letterkenny and the work of a couple of n... Read more
OPINION: Why my household is boycotting Tim Hortons
Tim Hortons restaurants were once an iconic Canadian business. Founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario by pro hockey player Tim Horton (1930-1974) and Jim Charade (1934-2009), it was part of Canadian culture to grab a delicious coffee and a muffin with friends. It was a Canadian meeting place. In 1967,... Read more
OPINION: Zero tolerance is for wimps; I’ve got the cattle farmer to prove it
My neighbour Orval got a surprise call from the high school last month. Seems his grandson Nathan got into a brawl in the hallway and they needed his guardian to get down there right away. Orval had been left in charge of the lad while his parents were enjoying a much-needed week in the sun [... Read more
OPINION: The biosecurity hiccup: Everywhere a sign and nobody cares
The next phase of proAction, “Biosecurity,” is to start this September. So our son attended the mandatory course with our local vet. To our son’s surprise, we were the only proAction certified farm at the table and one of only 1,300 in the province. This April we “self declared” and our second inspe... Read more
OPINION: Don’t expect Ontario’s wheat field problems to affect price in a world market
As one travels around Ontario, it’s apparent that soggy fields and the fatal combination of flooding and ice have had a detrimental impact on a significant portion of the winter wheat crop. Much of it was sown into tough field conditions during last fall’s wet weather, and the sub-ideal spring has d... Read more
OPINION: How to save a calf and reduce stillborns
Calves are the future of the dairy herd and the future and the profit of the beef cow-calf. Dr. John Mee from Ireland is a specialist in calf care and recently reviewed important aspects of new-born calf care. One topic he addressed was how to get calves going shortly after they’re born. Surveys sho... Read more
OPINION: Invasion of the plant-based burger
It was just a matter of time before we saw Beyond Meat, the California-based company partially owned by Bill Gates and meat-giant Tyson Foods, make a jump from drive-throughs to grocery store shelves. Beyond Meat recently announced that its vegan burger will be available at several large Canadian gr... Read more
OPINION: Soybean marketing amidst fluctuating prices requires discipline
In a global commodity marketplace where grains and oilseeds are sold around the world, an interruption in trading patterns has significant consequences for everyone involved. This is certainly the case for Canadian soybean producers who have inadvertently faced the negative impact of the U.S. trade... Read more
Pneumonia is a common calf illness and we’re not sure why
Respiratory disease, pneumonia, is still one of the most common reasons why dairy calves, veal calves and beef calves end up getting sick. Because most of these calves are treated with an antibiotic drug, and many of them get better after being treated, we tend to focus on the bacteria that are part... Read more
OPINION: Rural folk are happier
If you’re happy and you know it, chances are you’re living in a rural community. That’s according to researchers at McGill University in Montreal and the Vancouver School of Economics, who evaluated the happiness levels of residents across Canada. After sifting through 400,000 survey responses and l... Read more
OPINION: Logging Off: The next big thing in social media
My kids set up a Facebook account for me 10 years ago in one of their last attempts to get me to join the wired world. It was a flat failure. My Facebook page has a ghost town feel about it; you can sense the tumbleweed blowing up the main street. I have an old […] Read more
OPINION: Be prepared for end of March USDA planting report
One of the most critical pieces of data which drives grain markets at this time of year is seeding intentions. Knowing how many acres of each crop are going to be planted in the spring is important to calculate the potential supply of each commodity for the coming year. With the South American harve... Read more
OPINION: I like the food guide because Canadians have a terrible diet
I’m okay with the new Canada Food Guide that was launched this past January. Anything to get Canadians to eat better is a must because Canadians have terrible eating habits. I’ve said it before in this column that Canadian farmers grow the best wheat in the world but they eat the worst kind of bread... Read more
OPINION: Why do farmers get conflicting advice on footbaths? Because the research trials are flawed
One of the more frustrating things in trying to figure out how to deal with some common diseases is that the research and the advice that is given out is often conflicting. There are lots of reasons why it is difficult to get recommendations that are likely to work and easy to do, and it […] Read more
Now that’s living: Good friends and a ham buffet, but you’ll have to wait for the agronomist to stop talking
There’s a line I love from Paul St. Pierre’s Breaking Smith’s quarter horse when Smith’s wife suggests he do some reading to improve his farming skills and make the ranch run more profitably. He tells her: “Hell, I’m not running this place half as good as I know how to already.” I think of that [... Read more
OPINION: Finally, a farm group with an idea to reduce red tape and stress
There is growing recognition of what farmers, and their families, have known for decades: Farming is stressful! It is a profession where, at times, it seems everything and almost everyone is against you. The weather, genetics, crops, machinery, disease, pestilence, etc. Nothing ever happens at the r... Read more
OPINION: Brace yourself for the carbon tax
An Ontario grain elevator operator was incensed when he complained about his electricity costs and an Ontario Hydro representative told him to use less electricity. Only a government-regulated monopoly would try to solve a customer’s problems by telling him to “stop buying so much of what we sell.”... Read more
OPINION: Soybean prices in January were too high
It’s certainly controversial to say that in a world where the biggest producer of soybeans is in a trade dispute with the world’s biggest consumer of soybeans, that prices are too high. But considering that the Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures contracts have been trading their way through 2019... Read more
OPINION: Breeding cows by selecting genome traits of sires
A few years ago, I sat in on a dairy conference where farmers talked about their experiences after adopting new technologies. One farmer had fairly recently assumed responsibility for the family farm. His family had focused on breeding cows for the show ring but he had decided that he wanted to focu... Read more
OPINION: Why I hate the new food guide
Canada’s new food guide was unveiled mid-January amid much criticism. Leaning heavily on fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, water and protein from non-animal sources, it has many experts questioning its outright disregard for existing research and studies. The large reductions in animal-base... Read more
OPINION: Don’t Google my address, call ahead
After 40 years on this little farm, I am still not sure where I live. I now have three addresses: one for Canada Post, one for the township and one for Google Maps. None of these organizations will recognize the others’ description of Lot 30 Concession 9 in old Nottawasaga Township. Lord knows I hav... Read more
OPINION: Not-so-free speech
An arrest last October on a downtown Ottawa street drew very little media attention. I was fortunate enough to learn about it by reading Fr. Raymond DeSouza’s column in the National Post. As the man charged was a Catholic priest, one might assume the worst. But 83-year-old Fr. Anthony Van Hee’s crim... Read more
OPINION: Perfect Canadian movie for Valentine’s Day is about ranching and romancing – something for everyone
Valentine’s Day is a very important day in February. Last February, I reviewed the classic British film Far From the Madding Crowd, about farming and romance in the mid-1850s. It brought very favourable comments from a few readers — all women. The romantic movie I’ve picked for this year’s Valentine... Read more
OPINION: Ultra-filtered milk supplied by U.S. farms hits Canadian stores
Silence in response to a question says more than 1,000 words. It indicates that the responder is unable to or doesn’t want to give the answer. This is what has happened with Coca-Cola’s fairlife milk representatives and myself. Fairlife milk is the mega-beverage company’s latest foray into drinkable... Read more
OPINION: Benefits of selective dry-cow therapy
Using dry treatment on only some cows is called selective dry cow therapy (SDCT). The concept of SDCT is not new but has gained new significance, especially in countries where authorities want to reduce the use of antibiotic drugs in situations where there isn’t good evidence they are needed. The be... Read more
OPINION: Here are 13 ways to kill your community — they can also apply to your farm and local church
Have you ever wondered how some television preachers can deliver a lengthy sermon without ever looking at notes or at a teleprompter? You would think they are assisted by some heavenly or divine intervention. How do they memorize every word and every sentence? And do it week after week? I’m thinking... Read more
OPINION: Secret to happiness? Serve others
Another Christmas brought with it touching moments of friendship and reflection and much to be thankful for. But there was more. In our post-Christian culture, pleasures are exalted and misery concealed until friends meet for a meal. I met with many friends over Christmas and was reminded of this so... Read more
OPINION: End of the world is here or near, until it isn’t
Every three or four years, the Globe and Mail writes a truly depressing piece on the death of the family farm. The latest one came out in December and it listed some alarming facts: While the value of land, buildings and equipment has skyrocketed, the price of wheat is exactly where it was in 1980.... Read more
OPINION: Canadian grain farmers need to watch the oil markets
It has often been said that there’s really only one commodity that makes farmers happy as it drops and that is the Canadian dollar. Through the spring and summer of 2018, the loonie traded inside of a relatively compact range between US $0.76 and $0.78. It peaked at about US $0.79 on October 1, then... Read more
OPINION: Harassed 35 years by stalker named Statistics Canada
CTV News still covers the continued fake CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) telephone scam which so many Canadians have fallen for. A mechanical-sounding male voice advises that this is your final chance to clear up a matter before court action is instigated and offers a number to call for instructions on... Read more
OPINION: Group housing encourages diarrhea and pneumonia in calves, Quebec study says
In talking with dairy farmers, it is obvious that more and more farms are switching to group housing and group housing with automatic feeders for pre-weaning calf rearing. Aside from the labour benefits, farmers and calf-health experts point to better opportunities for calf socialization and the eas... Read more
OPINION: As price spreads collapse, expect wheat prices to rebound
One of the most consistently reliable indicators of the direction of price movement in the futures market is the price spread in future’s contracts as you look forward in time. Basically, as long as the price spreads between the different futures contracts remain stable, the direction in which price... Read more
OPINION: Agree with me or else
The day after last summer’s Ontario election, I was speaking with a man dressed in blue and he was not a cop. I asked whether his colours were in celebration of the blue wave, a Progressive Conservative majority government victory. “Hell, no,” he replied. It was pure coincidence, whereupon he launch... Read more
OPINION: Red-lining on the Stupid-o-meter
There’s no business that gives a person the opportunity to humiliate himself in public quite the way farming does. No other line of work offers the range of options for self-destruction while entertaining neighbours and passing motorists. Whatever a farmer is doing, he is always thinking about somet... Read more
OPINION: Easy, effective tests to check the health of a cow
As I have written before, dairy cow production and health has improved to such an extent that major diseases that impact production are now as likely to be ‘subclinical’ as they are to be clinical. By subclinical, I mean that it is not easy to see that a cow or calf is sick. You might […] Read more
OPINION: Why can’t people who work in radio and television learn to speak properly?
I don’t listen to news talk radio and I seldom watch Question Period on television. When I do watch talk shows, I get turned off by the filler words that are used over and over. There are certain words and phrases that drive me nuts. They’re overused, they’re often grammatically incorrect thanks to... Read more
Tribute to Ma Bell: Remembering rural landlines and the party line news service
It seems everyone I know in the country is struggling these days with his landline. My sister-in-law has had the same telephone line for 50 years and the roots of a maple tree have grown right over it. Talking to her reminds me of the old days of the party line when you had to […] Read more
OPINION: No solutions for dairy in the ‘room of gloom and doom’
I am still so angry that I could spit. On Oct. 17, a dairy producer meeting was hosted in St. Isidore by Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s Graham Lloyd, and local MP Francis Drouin. With no bucket of tar and bag of feather waiting outside the door, it must have seemed safe to enter. Held in […] Read more
OPINION: Corn price depends on exports and is easy to track
Although most Ontario corn producers go into the fall with at least a portion of their crop already forward sold, as harvest progresses and growers have a better sense of exactly how big their total production is going to be, there are always a lot more selling decisions which need to be made, and a... Read more
OPINION: On trading with China: How far should we go?
Now that the U.S-Mexico-Canada trade deal has been signed, Canada is moving on to new trade with China. Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay was to go to China for eight days. It appears that agriculture has a lot to gain from more business with China. More commodity sales abroad are good.... Read more
OPINION: How fires and tornadoes offer insight into the meaning of life
Moments after the wind ripped apart dozens of houses in the village of Dunrobin and several other locations across the Ottawa region last month, it also opened the doors of thousands of other homes in the neighbourhood. People rushed to the scene of the devastation with bottled water, chainsaws, cas... Read more
OPINION: Eradicating disease here and overseas
Last month, I was lucky enough to attend an international veterinary conference. I don’t get to do that very often, although I do attend conferences in North America frequently. International conferences have quite a few attractions but two of the most important are that you get to hear about new in... Read more
OPINION: Soybean price is not set by tariffs
There are too many Canadian farmers who think that if they patiently hold onto their crop until the Chinese tariffs are lifted, the soybean price will rally. Unfortunately, that’s only true if you are producing soybeans on the other side of the border. In the current market situation, Canadian soybe... Read more
OPINION: Poison for sale
By Patrick Meagher What if I told you that I had a new product that I knew would make tons of money but there were just a few health risks? What would you say? If you cared about your fellow citizen, you would likely ask, “What are the risks?”My product will make tons of money […] Read more
OPINION: It’s my quota, not Ottawa’s quota
By the time this is published, there will either be a new NAFTA (or USMC if U.S. President Donald Trump yet again gets his way) or trade ties with the USA and Mexico will be finished and our government will make deals with other countries, including Mexico. Personally, I would prefer the latter, whi... Read more
OPINION: Panic, the trade deal and the real scary negotiator
I don’t own a television. One reason is that I often learn a lot more, a lot faster, by reading. Another reason is TV news is forever presenting a world in constant state of panic. Everything is an emergency. TV talking heads love to peddle fear and, clearly, people like to be frightened. The eviden... Read more
OPINION: The things you learn in the meat section down at the grocery store
Grocery shopping can be an interesting experience. I actually enjoy shopping for food. The interesting thing is I spend the most time in the produce and fruit section of a grocery store, but it’s at the meat counter where people come up to me with comments. It’s been that way for years because folks... Read more
OPINION: Expect fewer soybean acres, more wheat and corn in 2019
One of the core fundamentals of understanding the grain markets is that prices are always reacting to the crop ahead and not the inventory that’s already in storage. Over the next few weeks, the pricing mechanics of the commodities futures is going to forget about the crop that we’re harvesting, and... Read more
OPINION: Calves fed earlier grew taller while calves housed with other calves were smarter, studies say
How to feed dairy calves tends to vary a lot from farm to farm, maybe even from person to person on the same farm. There have been quite a few changes in expert recommendations since Dr. Neil Anderson and others started to question whether we should severely limit how much we feed calves. There has... Read more
OPINION: Nobody cared about sunflowers in Renfrew until Hamilton selfies went viral
I live in a very picturesque agricultural landscape with the nearby Bonnechere River flowing through productive fields of corn, wheat, soybeans, canola and sunflowers. There have been large fields of sunflowers in my neighbourhood for many years. Two area farmers grow them every year for their birds... Read more
OPINION: 5 clues to a NAFTA deal
If you sifted through the noise on U.S.-Canada trade talks over the past year you would have seen signs that hinted to how it might all play out. Here are five. Firstly, take Canada’s official position to defend supply management. What it means in practice is what makes dairy, poultry and egg produc... Read more
OPINION: Sometimes changing your mind can change your life
A lot of people in the modern world are locked into the way they live. They have a job, a boss, a mortgage and a lot of obligations. They live their way into a box and it becomes very difficult to get out of that box. Oprah Winfrey made a brilliant career selling the notion […] Read more
OPINION: Windbreak program needed to stop winds from sweeping away land
My contention is that a population’s satisfaction level is indicated by the number of candidates running in an election. With Ontario municipal elections slated for Oct. 22, if my theory is true, a lot of South Glengarry residents are dissatisfied with current council. On July 22, 12 newcomers had 2... Read more
OPINION: Mad Max: How will Bernier affect the federal election?
By Patrick Meagher The pundits are almost unanimous. Former Conservative Quebec MP Maxime Bernier had a tantrum. No, Bernier is not going to the Liberals. He called them, under Trudeau, a disaster. He plans to start his own party based on free market principles (he wants to do away with supply manag... Read more
OPINION: Summer of 2018 is hotter than during the drought of 2012
The summer drought was one topic of conversation during barbecued lunch in Cobden for farmers on the on the Ottawa Rideau Soil and Crop annual car tour on July 25. The car tour started at Valley Bio in Cobden (viewing plots and lunch) and finished at Larry Reaburn’s farm at Westmeath. Some farmers f... Read more
As trade war depresses soybean prices, here’s what a farmer can do
On May 31, 1984 a tornado swept through the south end of the City of Barrie, and having lived my entire life in the area, one of the things that I’ve observed is that when conversations hit a lull, people often fall back to reminiscing about where they were when the tornado hit. I have […] Read more
Why I can talk chickens all day and am willing to trade cash for a paper bag of hatching eggs
When my wife and I go out to a dinner party, she often stops me on the doorstep and says, “Try not to talk about your chickens too much tonight, will you?” Compared to a lot of tricky subjects like Donald Trump, wind farms and the children, I would have thought chickens were a pretty […] Read more
OPINION: Sand beds, manual manure removal and automatic feed pusher best for robot-installed barns, study says
As more and more farms install milking robots in Canada and the United States, research on those farms gives us more and more knowledge of what works and what might not in our production systems. In the past few months, there have been a few new research trials. One trial looked at locomotion scores... Read more
OPINION: Public relations problem: Ear tags that leave cows with ripped and bloodied ears
In May, we passed our fourth “Full Validation” for the Canadian Quality Milk Program (CQM)/ proAction program). Seeing the process unfold, it is easy to understand the how and why of most regulations on the checklists. Thinking back, farmers with little interest in their animals’ well-being caused p... Read more
To fix government, start by recalling politicians
It’s nice to know the government works for you. Ha ha. But seriously folks. This sorry gag was prompted by a recent question about how we can have political accountability with elected officials so tied to their parties. Theoretically, they’re accountable every election. But don’t party signs and we... Read more
OPINION: Want to sell corn? Watch for July weather rally, lower Cdn. dollar
The month of June saw an enormous drop in cash corn values in the United States and American corn is now working its way into the Ontario end-use markets. Competing against cheap American corn, the width of a river away, is like running a small town department store when they open a Walmart down the... Read more
OPINION: Can a cow’s somatic cell count get too low?
Can a cow’s somatic cell count (SCC) get too low? Does having a low SCC mean that cows are more likely to get mastitis? Will selecting cows for low SCC mean that you are also selecting cows that are more likely to get clinical mastitis or even are more likely to get severe mastitis when […] Read more
Controlling father can kill son’s spirit, then the farm
A man came up to me at a recent farm auction and asked if I remembered a column I’d written many years ago about farmers cutting the first few rounds of hay around a field and then letting the son take over. Of course I remembered writing it. It was in the early 1990s when […] Read more
OPINION: When day of persecution comes
On the day that the Supreme Court of Canada made a big decision and a big blunder, I was too busy to notice. I organized my day so I could watch an important World Cup soccer match with my kids. When I got back to following the movement of our culture, it seemed that most […] Read more
OPINION: We all want free trade… sort of
One of the cardinal rules of economics is that profit margins in free markets trend relentlessly toward zero. Another rule is that, in this race to the bottom, the small guy always gets squeezed out first. The history of all business is a relentless pattern of technical change, price-cutting, corpor... Read more
OPINION: The Deep State is just another word for lethargic government
Every time we approach an election, tempers flare, marriages fray, friendships are strained, lunch groups shrivel up. To what end? Does any of it make any difference at all to the way the country, or the province or even the village is run? Are we just sending a bunch of birds to perch on top [... Read more
OPINION: Too much corn in Ontario means growers need a weather rally or exports
One of the curious things about Ontario agriculture is that we become so clearly focused on market intelligence coming in from American sources that we often forget to monitor our own backyard. A great example occurred when Statistics Canada released its March 31 on-farm grain stock estimates last m... Read more
Solve two vaccine headaches: Read the label on bottle and store it properly
Over the years that I’d been a member of the CQM (Canadian Quality Milk) and now ProAction Food Safety technical committee, questions have come up over various statements made on drug and vaccine labels. The most recent one was, “How important is it to follow the storage instructions?” There are not... Read more
OPINION: Government is broke, broken and mismanaged
Only in the public sector would they celebrate the month Ottawa’s light rail expansion was meant to finish, even though it didn’t. It’s one laughable indication that government in this country is broken. Not broke. Broken. OK, it’s also broke. From Queen’s Park to Ottawa, even the debt governments a... Read more
OPINION: Mega-box farms saved by pastured cows
The DFO’s February Grass-Fed Milk meeting in St. Bernardin drew about 20 farmers. Some, like us, have had cows feeding on grass for years out of a personal preference. A larger number of farmers were there to find out more and possibly drop the feeding of corn silage and butterfat-enhancing additive... Read more
OPINION: Global warming hysteria still makes the rounds, still gets debunked
Perhaps there are as many professional climate scientists in the world as pro boxers, but at least those lacing up the gloves to enter the ring want a formidable opponent in there against them to prove they are the best. Not so for the climate scientists making a living off researching and preaching... Read more
OPINION: Ontario’s next government: Get out of the way
I have an artist friend who is planning to move to the United States. Regulations pushed this free spirit over the edge. She recalled travelling recently to a large Canadian park for inspiration but was ticked by all of the signs telling her what she could and could not do. The most offensive was a... Read more
I was there when all the political leaders came to Renfrew — Doug Ford drew the biggest crowd
I was there when Pierre Elliott Trudeau visited Renfrew in the late 1960s when he was running for the leadership of the federal Liberals. Trudeau came by helicopter and landed at O’Brien Park by the swinging bridge. I recall there was a good crowd on hand to see him. He was a dashing figure and [... Read more
OPINION: The alarming disappearing dairy farmer
The April 2018 Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) Quota Exchange almost set a record, but not a good one. As usual, the online release listed all the pertinent figures, total quota bid for (11,753.81 kg), number of farmers looking to buy quota (827), the total amount of quota offered for sale (1,037.00... Read more
OPINION: Focus on cleanliness, colostrum and checking milk replacer for pre-weaned calves
Over the past few months, I have had the good fortune to discuss pre-weaned dairy calf management with several hundred dairy farmers. It is always good to listen to farmers discuss their experiences of trying to implement all the recommendations about how they should deal with new-born calves. On ac... Read more
OPINION: Corn price will pop if American planting goes slowly
The most fun thing about the grain markets as we move into spring is that instead of trading around crop conditions in other parts of the world, or political issues which potentially never turn out to be real, the market finally starts to trade values based on agronomic conditions in our own back ya... Read more
OPINION: Storm of the century? Hogwash
I was driving around the province last month trying to get to three distant and remote places on the same weekend just as winter gave its last wheeze and died. An ice storm swept up from the south, paralyzing all of the weather forecasters from Windsor to Ottawa. At first I thought of cancelling eng... Read more
OPINION: Socialism 101
I thought everyone understood the concept that stealing was wrong. But I assume too much because there are many who believe that socialism is the way to go. To me, socialism is as wrong as stealing because it is a form of stealing. Socialism, described by socialists, sounds as if it is a compassiona... Read more
OPINION: Ford or Wynne? We know the answer
If asked whether Kathleen Wynne or Doug Ford should win the Ontario election, many voters will be tempted to say “No.” Some are NDPers. Others simply find the choice unappealing. But if one must win, who should it be? OK, NDPers, there are three major party candidates. But yours won’t win. Remarkabl... Read more
OPINION: Are we really in favour of free trade?
If a true free trade deal were being made between two countries, it would take several hours to negotiate and be about two pages in length. Drawing on 1700s Scottish economist Adam Smith’s economics of “comparative advantage,” it would eliminate all subsidies, tariffs, anti-trade programs and free u... Read more
OPINION: The Ottawa Valley Farm Show is a top-shelf classy event
I take my hat off to all the machinery exhibitors who show their wares at the Ottawa Valley Farm Show (OVFS). Taking huge farm equipment to Ottawa, getting it parked inside the building and then taking it home after the three-day show is a huge undertaking. And who do you see sitting up in a [... Read more
OPINION: Lesson from the school yard: Don’t get into a trade war
Most of us learned back when we were only 7 or 8 years old that no matter how badly we thought that some other kid in the school playground deserved to be punched in the nose, that if we actually went ahead and hit him, he would most certainly hit back. Over the past few […] Read more
OPINION: Sticking your nose in everyone’s business makes you unpopular
She’s the champion of identity politics. He’s the champion of common sense. She is the most unpopular political leader in Canada. He is Canada’s most popular psychologist. He’s also hated. Not sure if she’s feeling the love. She is Kathleen Wynne, the Liberal premier of Ontario, with unsightly bagga... Read more
OPINION: When the insurance company finds you uninsurable
I used to work for a big life insurance company in the city. They started a little property casualty company just for the staff and when I left and moved out of the city in 1988, they let me stay on the rolls. I’m sure it was the only farm they insured. Over the years, […] Read more
OPINION: 40 years of treating mastitis has changed a lot
The National Mastitis Council held its annual conference in January in Tucson, Arizona. A major objective was to examine the 5-point mastitis control plan that has its roots going back at least four decades. The speakers who traced back the origin of the plan noted that it could be judged to have be... Read more
OPINION: Tight soybean supply a selling opportunity for growers
Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who commanded the U.S. forces in the Pacific Rim during the Second World War, once famously said, “It’s better to be lucky than it is to be good.” Ontario’s grain producers get to own a bit of that logic as they watch commodity markets unfold this spring. The “lucky” part is... Read more
OPINION: Banning raw milk took 50 years — we abandon it at our peril
Maybe, just maybe, we’ve heard the last of raw milk crusader Michael Schmidt, who wants consumers to be able to legally buy raw milk so he and others can sell it directly to the public for $5 or $6 a litre. He’s been permanently barred from selling or distributing raw milk. That milk could be [... Read more
OPINION: We need a farmer-turned-politician again
George Washington is the most famous example of a farmer-turned-politician. He reluctantly left his sprawling plantation overlooking the Potomac River to command the Continental Army for seven exhausting years. He got the worst of 16 battles over that time but he kept his army together and won the v... Read more
OPINION: Canada needs to be wary of doing business with Communist China
By Patrick Meagher OTTAWA — Our federal Liberal government and our provincial Liberal government love the idea of doing business with China in spite of that country’s long history of oppression of free speech, violation of basic human rights and heavy restrictions on foreign investment. As Canada lo... Read more
OPINION: Conditioned to live on the public teat
I was in a Quebec dairy barn in mid January. The smart, hard-working young couple running the show were about a month and a half into their new robot facility. Now that cow flow and production were going as planned, there was another pressing worry occupying their minds. Their banker had said that i... Read more
OPINION: What pickup trucks are really for
Every farmer inherits a set of choices that have already been made for him. He may think of himself as a rugged independent who charts his own course, but his green tractor, his Chev truck, Winchester firearms, white rum and Coke, and Die Hard movies all fit a pattern laid out for him by his [... Read more
OPINION: Smaller wheat acreage in USDA report means American soybean acreage will likely go up
One of the most interesting things about the January USDA Report is that in addition to the ordinary supply and demand estimates for major field crops in both the United States and other parts of the world, it also contains information of the winter wheat seeded area from this past fall. It’s import... Read more
OPINION: Orchestrating and managing a decline
Why do I get this sinking feeling that our prime minister is happy to orchestrate and manage the decline of the Canadian economy and the closing of Canadian minds? Maybe it’s just the words he uses and the plans he pursues. Here are some observations. As 2017 came to end, Germany, New Zealand, Austr... Read more
OPINION: Test new cows in the herd for disease
There doesn’t seem to be much actual data to support it, but my perception in speaking with dairy farmers in a few provinces is that some farmers are buying many more cows than they have in the past. In some cases, they have been buying entire herds. Buying cows often implies that there is an [... Read more
OPINION: Dairy cows are vulnerable to heat stress
Midwinter doesn’t seem like a very good time to be writing about the impact of summer heat on our dairy cows but a couple of subjects have come up in conversations with dairy farmers in a few provinces that have made me think of it. One situation is that a lot of dairy farms seem […] Read more
OPINION: Give a farmer something to worry about over certainty any day
The poet tells us that April is the cruelest month, but he was just talking about the weather. For my money, January is the roughest month for farmers and it has nothing to do with climate. January is the month when we know everything. All through the growing season, we worried about the cold, wet [... Read more
OPINION: Don’t panic about rising grain production; demand keeps climbing right beside it
If people allow themselves to become preoccupied with the enormous increases in grain production in the world, it’s easy to develop a rather somber outlook on where prices are headed. While it would be wrong to suggest that we’re on the edge of a giant breakout in worldwide crop prices, a thorough e... Read more
Grass-fed milk the new niche market, but not in Eastern Ontario
When the email from Jersey Ontario arrived mid-November, we couldn’t believe our eyes. A processor, Rolling Meadows Dairy, was looking for grass-fed Jersey milk producers. The only odd part was that he was having a meeting of interested farmers in Woodstock while seeking milk in the Perth and Oxford... Read more
OPINION: You can’t depend on getting to plow after Nov. 5
I remembered the advice I got about fall plowing from an elderly farm neighbour in 1970. That year I quit my construction job and started farming full time with my father in a partnership. We had purchased a much larger dairy operation and moved in after Thanksgiving Day to our present day farm near... Read more
OPINION: Market soybeans now in case South America produces higher-quality beans
As if understanding the soybean market wasn’t already complicated enough, Mother Nature threw a curveball this past summer which has added an extra layer of uncertainty to the Ontario soybean markets. The cooler than normal growing conditions during the late summer created a soybean that is lower i... Read more
OPINION: 30 years on the book-speaking tour with audiences Stephen King would die for
About 30 years ago, when my first book came out, I was invited to do a reading of my farm stories in front of a sophisticated literary luncheon in the city. The first speaker was an investigative journalist who had written a scathing exposé of then-prime minister Brian Mulroney. When she was finishe... Read more
OPINION: Why God exists and our Governor General has a weak argument
In this 21st century post-Christian world of political-correctness and moral relativism, the world is becoming a very confused place. An emboldened atheistic culture scoffs at those who ask the “wrong” questions about the origin of life and the universe. Our new Gov. Gen. Julie Payette is only too h... Read more
OPINION: Tillage is dead! Long live tillage! Practice doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon
Has interest in no-till planting peaked and is it waning fast? I ask that question because I see a lot of tillage being done this fall. I see farmers who were huge proponents of no-till for 10 years or more and are now doing tillage with chisel plows or elaborate cultivators. I saw tillage demonstr... Read more
OPINION: Forward contract your beans, and don’t overdo it on Las Vegas beans
One of the interesting things that happens in a market when end-users believe that supplies are more than adequate is the marketplace actually starts to discount prices for prompt movement of those commodities. With a record-sized North American soybean crop in North America this fall, we’ve now shi... Read more
OPINION: Legalizing pot is a bad idea that will change society for the worse
Health Canada wants us to take them seriously. This federal government department wants people to stop smoking and stop taking drugs. But Health Canada is also issuing applications to grow pot and is looking for farmers with empty barns. You can start by growing medicinal marijuana (for people with... Read more
OPINION: Whole milk is better for you, despite all the fear around fat
On our farm there is a painting that hangs beside our back door and gets lots of chuckles. It is a reproduction of an almost 30-year-old Hershey Chocolate Syrup ad painted for me by an artist friend of our daughter after the original paper ad started to fade and fall apart. The gist of the […... Read more
OPINION: Federal tax changes risk costing government what good will it had
In all of the fuss about Canada’s 150th this year, we completely forgot to do anything about the 100th birthday of income tax. That’s always the risk when your birthday falls within a few days of some other high holiday like Confederation or Christmas. My wife complains that because her birthday com... Read more
OPINION: Just like 50 years ago, basic food items are still a bargain
One of the perks of writing columns is getting mail, emails, pleasing phone calls, and occasionally visits from readers who appreciate what I write about. I sometimes reminisce about the past, which readers enjoy very much. This past summer a large brown envelope came in the mail from a woman in Sau... Read more
OPINION: 2017 will be the largest soybean crop in history
This past spring, American farmers planted the largest soybean acreage in history, and with only a few isolated exceptions, the environment didn’t do anything to limit that crop from reaching maturity in good condition. The challenge facing oilseed producers today is how do we find upside opportuni... Read more
OPINION: Doing business in town means dancing for the building inspector
One night in July, the South Glengarry bylaw enforcement officer’s car tires were slashed and his mail box was smashed in. Who could have done it? Well, take a number. Building or expanding a home, or any other type of structure, or even putting up a tent for a gathering in these parts, has become [... Read more
OPINION: When should someone go to jail for animal cruelty?
I have been bitten by three dogs in my life. The last time was about five years ago when I was walking home from work. I was crossing a field in the dark. A dog walker let her dog off the leash and it attacked me, biting me twice on the leg. To the alarm […] Read more
OPINION: Tax changes claiming to be about fairness are anything but fair
Canada’s minister of finance wants to tax business savings. He wants to clamp down on people setting up companies in order not to pay tax. He says that his proposed tax changes, the most radical in 50 years, are all about “fairness.” As a former minister of national revenue, I fully agree that fairn... Read more
OPINION: Dairy farmers should be concerned about NAFTA talks and supply management
Some have claimed that supply management was established as a social contract between farmers and consumers. Our heavily-criticized quota regime to support dairy, egg, and poultry industries in Canada was set up decades ago to protect strategic agricultural sectors by implementing high tariffs on im... Read more
OPINION: Consumers need a better understanding of supply management
What’s making Oxford County dairy farmers nervous is the aggressive quid-pro-quo stance taken in the U.S. Are we ready to keep NAFTA only to trade away our managed marketplace for the no-holds-barred U.S. approach likely to overwhelm us? If Canada agrees to accepting U.S. milk, we open our doors to... Read more
OPINION: Food fraud is an emerging problem with no emerging solution
My wife and I are concerned about the food we buy for ourselves and our kids. We are also concerned about mislabelling on food packages and other forms of food fraud. A recent study found that most Canadians have similar worries. Dalhousie University researchers found that 63 per cent of 1,088 respo... Read more
OPINION: You can’t drown a soybean anymore than you can a goose
The old guys used to say that in a dry year you worry to death but in a wet year you starve to death. This has been a wild and wet summer. We’ve seen fields re-planted three times, fish flapping on the fields after a rain, first crop hay taken in mid-August. My neighbour Josh […] Read more
OPINION: Supply management isn’t perfect. But, what is?
In the summer of 1965, I was a 16-year-old farm lad working in building construction during the day and helping with farm chores before and after work. All of Eastern Ontario was suffering from three very dry summers and many farmers had expensive hay shipped in from southern Ontario. There was plen... Read more
OPINION: Keep the mind sharp: Learn a dangerous skill
Now that I have turned 65, the inbox on my computer brings me a daily flood of new ideas for keeping my brain from turning to potato salad. Experts say the most reliable way to stay sharp is to learn a new skill — like playing the piano or picking up Spanish. I put four […] Read more
OPINION: Is pain management the new frontier in cow profitability?
I just returned from a farm animal welfare conference in Italy. The conference lasted a day and a half. The speakers ranged from dairy farmers to food retailers so there was a wide range of views and opinions on welfare and well-being and its impact on everyone from food producers to food buyers and... Read more
OPINION: Ontario’s wet spring not affecting crop prices, but the market pays for risk
It seems counterintuitive, but sometimes uncertain crops make for uncertain markets. It seems that a key feature of spring seeding and the early summer in Ontario crop production has been a lot of concern about wet fields, slow planting progress and exploring the rules surrounding unseeded acreage b... Read more
OPINION: Anti-Trump vitriol is more outrageous than Trump
There are more outrageous things in this world than Donald Trump. Some come easily to mind: The news media that covers him, university campuses where it is politically correct to discuss killing him and social media, where if it were up to many users, he’d already be dead. I don’t like Trump tweetin... Read more
OPINION: WTO challenge brewing as Canadian dairy exports soar
Simply by following Canadian government public documentation, plus questions and discussion documents from the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agriculture Committee, a clear picture is emerging of the actual results and ramifications in Canada’s attempts to expand its production with the new Class 7... Read more
OPINION: What to do about creepy activists giving who-knows-what to livestock
The case was a loser from the get-go. Last month an animal activist was found not guilty of criminal mischief for offering liquid to pigs on a livestock truck headed to a Burlington slaughterhouse. From the outset, it looked like criminal mischief: Creepy strangers swarmed a truck when the traffic l... Read more
OPINION: We need a village or 100 souls to fill our need to be social
Life in a rural neighbourhood has been taking a beating in literary circles for about 200 years. Legions of writers, starting with Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, have been working steadily to show us how dull, backward and unpleasant small towns can be. But now an Israeli writer named Noah Hara... Read more
OPINION: Antibiotics, livestock, and the effect on our children
Antibiotic resistance is killing over 700,000 people a year, experts state. In 2000, there was a zero percentage of children in the world with antibiotic resistance. Three years ago it was 5 per cent. This year it’s at 9 per cent. There were 58,000 babies who died in India last year, whose mothers w... Read more
OPINION: Foot pad thinning and lameness related, but we’re not yet sure how
Lameness is one of the most common health problems in dairy cows. It is also a welfare concern for individual cows and for the entire dairy industry. Some causes of lameness like digital dermatitis are relatively well understood, at least to the point that it is possible for most herds to be able to... Read more
OPINION: Stalled wheat means you can make money selling 2018 wheat right now
Like most farmers, I was watching for the May USDA Report, hoping that U.S. government analysts would reveal something new that would kick start the wheat market. They came up empty-handed. The fact that there is no news seems like an odd thing to write about in a newspaper, but since everyone who g... Read more
OPINION: Research suggests some issues with switching to robotic milkers
Earlier this year, I wrote about the findings of a research report on Canadian dairy farmers who had switched to robot milkers. The research was published in the Journal of Dairy Science. The researchers from Universities of Calgary, Guelph and British Columbia surveyed 217 farmers from eight provin... Read more
OPINION: Anti-clear-cutting agenda decimates trees in farm country
A few times a year, someone in the anti-tree cutting groups raises their voice and bombards papers with letters to the editor as bush land next to or near their property is cut down and the process of returning land to agriculture begins. Farmers are called every name in the book, accused of thinkin... Read more
OPINION: Canada needs to follow the U.S. in cutting red tape and regulations
Canada’s 2017 federal budget failed to offer any plans for deregulation. This is ironic because regulations are among the most important obstacles to innovation, the holy grail of the government’s plan for future growth. Planned subsidies will not prevent the death of nascent innovations in garages... Read more
Opinion: Dairy farmers have to accept new regs to the hilt or get out
You’d wonder, really, how it came to this. Dairy farmers sitting on county milk committees from across the province, congregated in March for three days in Alliston, being lectured on the plethora of new regulations on how to care for their animals and document it all. There are 11 required environm... Read more
OPINION: Does the truth matter anymore?
Another undercover anti-chicken farm video has been circulating, accusing Canadian chicken farmers of cruelty to animals. Problem is, this video does not depict a Canadian chicken farm. But the deception doesn’t surprise us. We expect it from the extreme left. When they howl, the news media often re... Read more
OPINION: Brazil’s bumper crop is a bummer for beans
The start of the South American soybean harvest in early March seemed to directly coincide with a significant downward trajectory in North American soybean prices. Yet throughout this whole process there was very little movement in American farmers’ indications on 2017 soybean planting intentions.... Read more
OPINION: People needed for the ethical treatment of farmers
Just about every week I shake open the pages of the newspaper to find that some routine chore I have been performing since childhood has suddenly become illegal. Dragging trash to the road for the garbage truck used to be a sign of responsible citizenship. The progressives among us cheerfully said f... Read more
OPINION: The old days and old ways of selling grain are gone
Should grain growers build on-farm storage bins to store grain crops so they’ll be able to sell when the price is better? That used to be the case, but not anymore. In recent years, prices haven’t been much better in the spring, so why invest in huge storage bins? There are better options for marke... Read more
OPINION — Farmer Math is the key to sanity in both good times and bad
Some days you can tell by the way Uncle John opens the door of the diner that he’s full of wisdom and can’t cork himself up. Even if a person is reaching for his coat after three cups of coffee, he will see that look on John’s face and resume his seat. It has always […] Read more
OPINION — Beef farmers annual meeting a disciplined affair in year of down prices and herd numbers
The Beef Farmers of Ontario annual meeting in Toronto conjures up images of rough and tumble guys in jeans wearing cowboy hats and enjoying many drinks. That may have been the case years ago but today’s beef representatives are a very disciplined bunch. The 400 or so attending the 55th annual meetin... Read more
OPINION — Watch corn and soybean planting estimates because they’ll affect price
The key variable in North American grain markets over the course of the month of March each year is in fine tuning the estimates of planting intentions for the coming crop year. There are really just two factors which make up crop supply: the area of land planted to each crop and the harvested yiel... Read more
OPINION — Average gestation-time makes calves healthier, not more productive
Last month, a reader asked why his cows might have shorter gestations than he expected. I am not sure that I can provide the exact reason for his cows, but it is a great opportunity to talk about gestation length. The average length of gestation in Holsteins is just about 278-279 days, with heifer g... Read more
When a caretaker minister is preferable to an active one
I remember growing up in rural Eastern Ontario in the 1970s and hearing my father complain about caretaker politicians, so-called do-nothing ministers of large portfolios who didn’t do much of anything. Sometimes I prefer the caretaker minister to the ones who suggest anything because the ones with... Read more
Dairy farm’s hydro bill doubled in eight years
A winter job was to get rid of the old receipts dating back to 2000. Definitely too old, so I started opening binders and dumping the contents in a huge garbage bag to be burnt, stopping at 2010. As papers tumbled into the bag, one fell out, almost on cue. You guessed it, Hydro One […] Read more
Sometimes going digital is good; sometimes a wrench is better
Just got back from yet another farm conference where the tech guru made the scary prediction that anybody who is not totally committed to digital technology today will not be farming in five years. Reminds me of that day back in 1974 when a professor from Guelph came out to the annual boiled beef lu... Read more
There are plenty of misconceptions about farming out there
A century ago, over half of Canada’s population were farmers. Most folks understood farming as it was done then because it was fairly simple. Today people are so far removed from agriculture and what they know is the scary stuff they read about growth hormones, steroids, genetically-modified organis... Read more
Worst case Ontario: Heating or eating
In the past two years, my provincial and federal taxes have increased. I lost my federal tax credit for my children’s soccer and swimming lessons. Our family’s child care tax credit has decreased. Even the cost to renew my vehicle licence went up. I have just started paying more for gasoline thanks... Read more
Watch the corn market; it’s controlling wheat prices
The total demand for Ontario grown wheat in this province’s flour mills is roughly 560,000 tonnes. Assuming that the North American Free Trade Agreement stays intact, we can traditionally move another 400,000 tonnes into the U.S. flour mills in New York, Ohio, and Michigan. The first million tonnes... Read more
Class Six milk unleashed export market for dairy products
Canadian dairy product per capita consumption is publicly updated every quarter by the federal government. Canadian dairy imports and exports are tallied on a monthly basis by Statistics Canada, comparing data to the same time period during the year before. Boring stuff, but also accurate as to tren... Read more
OPINION — Times were better when you could bring a cap gun and pocket knife to school
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, doorways, passages, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. It is conventionally thought that the month of January is named for Janus. As we ge... Read more
OPINION — Eastern Ontario school closures are justified
The announced closing of up to 29 rural schools by the Upper Canada District School Board has woken people up. Apparently many were oblivious while the education system rotted in our rural society. For some, the hope now is if they bellow with the mob and put a sign on their lawn, their school will... Read more
OPINION: Canada’s carbon tax plan will make our food more expensive and our agriculture less competitive
By Dr. Sylvain Charlebois From farm to fork, our food is responsible for around 25% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. This is much higher than what most people would think. Whether we realize it or not, every decision a consumer makes when picking what to eat has an impact on our environment... Read more
This year is setting up for a Santa Claus rally
In the Christmas season when so much of society’s conversation is about the joy of giving, and the value of generosity, it would seem appropriate if the commodity markets would share a little Christmas cheer with those of us in agriculture. Is there such a thing as a “Santa Claus rally?” And might... Read more
OPINION — Farmer thinking is how we’ll make it through Trump era
Elections are a blunt-force instrument we use on the body politic to move it forward, much like a mahout prods the elephant with a goad. Votes by themselves tell us almost nothing about who we are or what we think. One pile of ballots is simply higher than the other and things change, usually quite... Read more
Celebrate Christmas the Dutch way with pickled herring
In some countries, pigs are a lucky symbol and pork is eaten to ring in the New Year. It’s symbolic because pigs root forward while they forage for food (as opposed to cows, which stand still, or chickens, which scratch backwards). Pork, in all forms, is enjoyed by many hoping to embrace the challen... Read more
Trump struck a chord with rural and agricultural voters
Some are interpreting Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential election win as a rural roar. Looking at an election result map, aside from the urban West Coast and North East in Democrat blue, a vast swath of the United States — the part that is more rural — is solidly Republican red. Rural voters also ensu... Read more
OPINION: How to properly treat cows and calves with antibiotics
In mid-October, I was involved in a series of seminars with dairy farmers about how farmers actually treat cows and calves on their farms. Each seminar started with a short introduction, followed by a discussion among farmers about how they might treat certain diseases like clinical mastitis, calf s... Read more
This farmer is feeling like the world left him behind
I have been scoffing at animal activists and vegans for most of my adult life. That is partly because my mother came from a long line of Free Thinkers and food faddists who all shared the same deathly pallor that you see in people who work in health food stores. My grandparents were also nudists [... Read more
OPINION: Trump’s 15 % biz tax great for America, not for Canadian agriculture
By Sylvain Charlebois After the shock comes the reality of understanding what a Trump Presidency and a Republican-dominated Congress will mean to all of us. Over the last two years, policies on immigration, trade and security have dominated the campaign. Not much was said about agriculture or food... Read more
OPINION: NEWS MEDIA CREATED THE TRUMP TO BE HATED
By Patrick Meagher SWEET BUTTER CRUMPETS! What happened in America? The American people crowned the man that the mainstream news media vilified. They crowned the man that Facebook users called a clown, a pig, and much worse. He was the man that his opponent Hillary Clinton said was supported by a “b... Read more
OPINION: We could see a pop and rally in wheat prices
By Steve Kell All too often as we analyze commodity markets, there tends to be a preoccupation to look just at the big “bottom line” numbers such as total supply and total demand. We tend not to unpack those categories into the detailed elements which actually make up the figures we see... Read more
OPINION: OFA election and lack of interest
November is election month for Ontario’s largest farm organization, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA). It should be something farmers care about. But I dare say that most don’t. Sure, they’re busy but they also need a reason to be interested. Who’s running this year? Most farmers don’t kno... Read more
OPINION: CETA trade deal good for meat sales, bad for dairy but will likely die anyway
By Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, Dalhousie University Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is learning the hard way that multilateral trade agreements, agriculture and food always create a recipe for contentious debates. Farmers in Belgium have stalled the EU’s ratification of the CETA agreement by voting agains... Read more
OPINION: Glyphosate fears, green energy, show people are full of inconsistencies
We, the people, are full of trouble and incongruities. Sometimes we’re only a little better than children. This is reinforced with observations from current events. Last month the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, like a voice crying in the wilderness, announced that the herbicide glyphosate doe... Read more
OPINION: As food prices drop, will it become harder for farmers to make a buck?
By Sylvain Charlebois Dean of the Faculty of Management, Professor in Distribution and Policy, Dalhousie University It is becoming cheaper to buy food in Canada. Canada experienced deflationary food prices in August for the first time in years. Prices are actually dropping in every province, except... Read more
OPINION: Cows down 24 hours are three times less likely to return to milking
By Dr. Rob Tremblay Down dairy cows, or ‘downers’, are not common but they are a challenge to deal with for dairy farmers and veterinarians. Downers can be a lightning rod for tension when they don’t respond quickly to nursing care and get up. The causes of downer cows are quite varied, anywh... Read more
OPINION: Facebook comments reveal too many think farmers are a bunch of money grubbers
I am not what you would call a ‘Facebook Fanatic.’ I only joined this past winter to connect with a friend who had moved. My personal picture is of the canning in my cold room last fall. I don’t post pictures, give a minute-by-minute account of my life, nor check in daily. I rarely comment […... Read more
OPINION: Don’t hoard the harvest despite world record-breaking yield
It was only four years ago, but we are already getting nostalgic about the grain markets in 2012 and 2013 following a big drought which produced small grain crops in the United States, and pushed agricultural commodities to the highest price levels in a generation. As the news sinks in across North... Read more
OPINION: Battle the activists or shut down Farm and Food Care Ontario
By Ian Cumming In late August, in a Toronto-area courthouse, Oxford County farmer Eric Van Boekel was being grilled on the witness stand by an animal activist’s defence lawyer. The lawyer’s client was charged with minor offences for, along with her co-animal terrorists, swarming Van Boekel’s truck l... Read more
OPINION: Bring back the greasy pig
By Patrick Meagher The cancellation of the greasy pig contest last month at an Eastern Ontario fair isn’t the end of the world but it offers us just one more clue that perhaps the 21st century really will shape up to be the century of the special interest group. The greasy pig contest was a [... Read more
Welcome to the grain market rodeo and the largest corn crop in history
By grain merchant Steve Kell I don’t know how many people got to watch the bull riding at the Calgary Stampede in the first week of July, but anyone watching the commodity markets buck and twist between the June 30 and July 11 USDA reports got to see essentially the same show (minus the music [... Read more
Dairy farmers of Ontario now biting the hand that feeds it
Commentary by Angela Dorie Most likely the email inboxes at the Dairy Farmers of Ontario were filled with questions from farmers that seemed to all begin with: “What the hell…?” It was Friday, May 13, bad luck Friday, the day the Dairy Farmers of Ontario released the online copy of our ‘Final’ milk... Read more
Welcome to crazyland: where ridiculous ideas become laws
Commentary by Patrick Meagher Reading the headlines the other day, I couldn’t help thinking that our country is headed for crazyland as more and more ridiculous ideas are becoming mainstream. Sometimes they become laws. In farm country, the increasing and often unnecessary legal restrictions infuria... Read more
Wanted: Courage in farm country
I’ve been reminded more than once about a speech I gave five years ago in Nova Scotia to that province’s federation of agriculture annual meeting. The theme concerned rural Canada being steamrolled by urban-centric governments with their environmental and animal rights agendas. A timid sort of a man... Read more
If a watch needs a watchmaker, the universe requires a bigger brain
Easter came and went with nary a peep. For many, if not most, Easter became nothing more than a day off, a chance to sleep in. The power of what Christians call the greatest event in the history of the world and the main reason why western civilization had the wherewithal to become the most [... Read more
Questioning the diesel tax exemption does not mean changing diesel tax exemption, says Ontario environmental commissioner
By Patrick Meagher TORONTO — Ontario’s new environmental commissioner Dianne Saxe says that her critics got it wrong. She is not calling for coloured diesel to run clear and drive up farmers’ fuel costs, but she does want the province to take a hard look at the long-running “subsidy.” She is not cal... Read more
Lower soybean price as South America starts harvest but a lower soymeal price just makes things worse
Excluding the farmers who both grow cash crops and feed livestock, there are not too many producers who keep an eye on both the price of soymeal and the value of soybeans at the same time. There are a few farmers who sell a load of soybeans every time that they buy a load of […] Read more
Happier, healthier and hardier on the farm
When I married a city girl, I gave up my acreage in the country and my dream of owning livestock. But I am constantly reminded of the benefits of country life. You get to see more sunrises and sunsets than most and the tranquility can be existentially soothing. You have space to do what you [... Read more
Skotidakis wants to build 130-million litre plant but does Dairy Farmers of Ontario want it?
By Ian Cumming Once again, like with Chobani several years back, the Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) and the rest of the industry have a choice: Let a plant be built that will buy Ontario dairy farmers’ milk, or, once again, go to court to stop it.\ They can let an “ingredient” plant get built [... Read more
The longest battle is over public opinion
The battle for genetically-modified (GM) crops was supposed to be over. Science won and the National Farmers Union, among many others, dropped the “frankenfood” attacks. That was 10 years ago. But now the battle for public opinion on GM food is back. And it’s no longer the big battle for hearts and... Read more
With no expertise, I became a consultant
By Dan Needles It’s hard to make a living as a full-time writer these days. To make ends meet, we all have to take teaching gigs, go out on the speaking circuit or pick up a little freelance work in the business world. We live a lot like farmers do, trying to keep doing what […] Read more
What farmers do in winter — some keep coffee shops in business
Many farm operators are approaching an age when they might retire. The most recent Census of Agriculture found that farms, where the oldest operator was 55 years or older, represented more than half of all farms, compared to 37.7% in 1991. That means that 100,000 family farms in Canada will likely c... Read more
A lower loonie means lucky farmer
As farmers we place an enormous amount of focus on crop conditions as a decision-making criteria for our marketing. But the biggest single variable in grain prices for Canadian farmers this winter is the exchange rate of the Canadian dollar. It has created a really nice up-swing in cash values for c... Read more
I believe in climate change but not in a crisis
We now have a provincial Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change and a federal department of the same name. Climate change must be a big deal. The Ontario government website explains. “The world is warming faster than ever and weather patterns are changing because of human activities.... Read more
OPINION: ‘The people are always right’ and other absurdities
By Patrick Meagher People believe the funniest things. There are those who think they offer common-sense answers that aren’t and others who present ideas as facts when they are just superstitions or wishful thinking. Elections seem to bring out the worst of the absurdities that don’t stand up to scr... Read more
IAN CUMMING: No one really knows how much foreign milk will come into Canada under the TPP
The question is not “how much dairy access is allowed under TPP?” But why weren’t dairy farmers told the facts by their leaders? Especially when dozens of them congregated in Atlanta. On Oct. 7, two days after the TPP announcement, I interviewed a person affiliated with the dairy processing industry... Read more
STEVE KELL: Holding all of your corn is gambling
As harvest wraps up and the final bushels of the 2015 grain crop come in the from the field, many of Ontario’s grain producers are putting the final touches on their 2015 crop marketing plan, and sorting out which crops to store and for how long. One of the most interesting (and for sellers,... Read more
ANGELA DORIE: Dairy farmer’s COOL response to huge new trade deal
To paraphrase a well-known rant, I’m mad as hell and refuse to be told by those with no investment in supply-managed farms that I should be ‘pleased’! I do not agree that the present Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement proves the previous government supported supply management. It slowly disma... Read more
DAN NEEDLES: How sheep destroy the animal rights’ arguments
By Dan Needles I was in a little arts and crafts shop last week when I heard an earnest young woman with two children in tow grilling the saleswoman about a basket of “densely felted organic dryer balls” sitting in a basket beside the till. “Are they made of natural fibres?”... Read more
STEVE KELL: What do we do with the biggest wheat crop ever?
With an early start to the soybean harvest and excellent weather in the Great Lakes Basin, winter wheat planting is approaching record levels in the fall of 2015. Winter wheat acreage for the 2016 crop could be very close to double the 2015 harvested area. The question for all of the enthusiastic wh... Read more
OPINION: I’ll vote for who is most likely to protect us and not raise taxes
By Patrick Meagher I want three things from the party that wins the federal election on Oct. 19. Firstly, stay away from my wallet. The Fraser Institute reports that almost half of what Canadians earn each year is taken in taxes to satisfy the voracious appetites of municipal, provincial and federal... Read more
Angela Dorie: Who wants to drive the premier at the IPM?
The latest edition of the Williamstown Fair has ended. And, like every year in its 204 years, if there are two things it is good for, it is meeting up with people you haven’t seen for awhile and catching up on all the latest news. The following tale came from a trustworthy friend and is […] Read more
My election wish list: Raise voting age to 30 and other radically ‘fantastic’ ideas
By Patrick Meagher There’s a federal election on Oct. 19 and Canadians are agonizing over who should get their vote. There’s talk of balancing the budget by some parties whose promises would put us so far in the hole that one wonders where the billions of dollars would come from to pay for them. As... Read more
What Simon Crouch worries about: losing farmland but not feeding 9 billion people
In the late 1970s, central bankers decided the threats posed by high inflation were worse than the threat of unemployment and the potential foreclosures of farms and houses. Interest rates went up. That ended the threat of inflation but not before unemployment rose to levels not seen since the Great... Read more
Fears about food and good news about pesticides and fertilizers
By Maynard van der Galien A variety of beliefs exist about the effect of commercial fertilizers and crop protection products on our food supply and well-being. Some people firmly believe that home-grown, backyard produce is so much better than the “stuff” in the store because home-grown... Read more
ANGELA DORIE: Urbanites don’t understand the sound of love
By dairy farmer Angela Dorie “Heading to bed,” he said. Then with a wicked grin, added, “Hope you two sleep well tonight!” As if on cue, the heifer in the yearling paddock started another round of high-pitched bawling. Our bedroom window faces the paddock, several hund... Read more
Farmers make lousy patients
By Eastern Ontario dairy farmer Angela Dorie Just over a year ago, our Number One farmer broke his kneecap completely in two. “Like cracking an egg!” observed an ER nurse after seeing the X-rays. But “how?” “It was a stupid old man thing!” our Number One farmer s... Read more
OPINION: The not-so beautiful mind of the extreme environmentalist
By Patrick Meagher . In an elaborate plan, two desperate murderers escaped from a New York state prison last month. With power tools smuggled into their cell, they cut a hole in the wall and into a large steam pipe and out they went. They were at large two weeks later. Police warned that they [... Read more
Disease prevention in calves will boost your bottom line
By Dr. Rob Tremblay An international farm animal welfare conference was held in Ontario a few weeks ago to focus on the welfare and well-being of dairy and beef calves and included veterinarians from 11 countries. With the ProAction initiative from the Dairy Farmers of Canada, interest in dairy calf... Read more
OPINION: Premier is uninterested and out-of-touch
By Patrick Meagher It was back in 2002 when the U.S. Farm Bill passed that required retailers to attach country of origin labels (COOL) to perishable agriculture products. That’s right: 13 years ago. Premier Kathleen Wynne was a school trustee, not even an MPP candidate. The year began with Premier... Read more
Opinion: Ag policy by survey or science?
By Patrick Meagher I recently received, from a very personable and sincere beekeeper, a 10-page list of about 400 studies on the harmful effects of neonicotinoid-insecticides on honeybees. It was an impressive, long list. It looked exhaustive and unanswerable, a veritable slam dunk: Neonics are evil... Read more
OPINION: Now I understand how Hydro One became a Harvard business school case study
Ontario Hydro has thousands of managers but can't solve the issue of properly billing its clients Read more
OPINION: Succession planning? Ask all the questions now
It will take a few years to sort out your wishes Read more
OPINION: FARMERS VS. FACEBOOK
How junk science permeates everything Read more
A dirty barn means dirty teats and the dreaded summer rise in somatic cell count
By Robert Tremblay Dr. Dan Shock presented a summary of his research on the factors that influence the summer rise in bulk tank somatic cell count (BTSCC) in Ontario at the recent dairy research communication and extension event at the University of Guelph. The summer rise refers to the increase i... Read more
OPINION: Half-truths about bees
Ontario Beekeepers Association is eco-activist and wrong, says Alberta beekeepers By Lee Townsend Last month, a new website called Bees Matter was launched and included an open letter to Ontarians titled “Getting the facts straight on honeybees.” The site was develop... Read more
No such thing as hormone-free beef
By Maynard van der Galien I dont like it when I see beef advertised as “hormone-free beef” because there is no such thing as hormone-free beef. Occasionally I see such a sign at a farmers market and I will go over and tell the vendor that its giving a wrong message to consumers. Hormo... Read more
Use sexed semen and genome testing to get best replacement herd
By Mario Mongeon When visiting dairy farms, I am often surprised to see the number of heifers. In many cases, pretty much all females born on the farm will be raised and eventually milked. I often ask why such and such animal was raised and the reason is often vague. It usually involves what I [... Read more
Toronto mosque prays to defeat non-believers in the wake of another Islamist attack
By Tarek Fatah One of the reasons I avoid attending Friday congregations at mosques is a specific ritual supplication uttered by imams at many mosques in Canada and around the world, just prior to our formal Friday community prayer, the Jumaa. In the supplication, the cleric prays to Allah for, amo... Read more
Ontario declares war on crop farmers
By Patrick Meagher Is your government looking out for you? How has it handled the issue of neonicotinoids? These are insecticide-treated seeds that are on almost every corn and soybean seed in the province, used by the vast majority of Ontarios farmers. The province is right on top of it micro-... Read more
Is a government-forced pension plan a good one?
By Gord Hawley The Ontario government under the leadership of Kathleen Wynne made good on its promise to create a new provincial pension plan for all Ontario residents who do not work for an employer who already has a structured pension plan for employees. The pension plan will be mandatory and is... Read more
Raw milk? Not for calves
Pasteurized colostrum is better for the calf, researchers say Raw milk? Not for calves By Robert Tremblay At the risk of offending readers by writing about colostrum again, I want to bring dairy farmers attention to some recent research on a method of pasteurizing colostru... Read more
On dynamite, the Nobel Peace Prize and a boy who likes things that go boom
By Maynard van der Galien When I was a youngster in the mid-1950s, we lived on a small farm that had a high rocky hill behind our house and pasture field. A mining company asked if they could drill some holes and then blow up the rock with dynamite to see if there were […] Read more
Milk board gets competitive
Canadas farm gate milk price drops 1 % as Europe ends quota system, increases milk supply By Sylvain Charlebois For the first time in 22 years, the Canadian Dairy Commission has decided to reduce the price of milk at the farm gate by 1 per […] Read more
Mysterious case of missing sheep and the heavy-handed CFIA
By Ian Cumming During the last two weeks of February, in an Ontario courtroom, lawyers prosecuting charges brought by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) hope to persuade a judge that there is enough evidence to go to trial. A farmer could present the evidence in a day, but these are govern... Read more
If you werent already in business why would you want to do business in Ontario?
By Jerry Agar Id like to ask Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne why my son should choose to set up his business in Ontario. He graduated in December from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth with a degree in business; specifically entrepreneurial business, a program designed to train future busin... Read more
We can do better than superficial
By Patrick Meagher What are the things about people we really like? We could say its their good jokes or their good looks. It could be their charisma, or maybe its just that theyre fun to be with. We know thats superficial but a quick look back on 2014 and it appears that were […] Read more
How to weather-proof hay
By Maynard van der Galien Waste and carelessness dont seem to bother some people. Every winter I see sparkling new, riding lawn mowers parked by the house. Its fairly common to see motorized equipment just sitting out in all kinds of weather not covered. I frown when I see farm machinery like... Read more
If premier likes low oil prices, why does she like high electricity prices?
By Parker Gallant According to the Globe and Mail, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne says her province “is ready to shield Canada from the economic tsunami caused by declining oil prices and a sinking dollar.” Ms. Wynnes comments came after an RBC report estimated the fall in oil prices... Read more
My dad, MacNaughton Cumming, the common sense dairy farmer
By Ian Cumming Dad, farmer that he was, died just as he got up at milking time early on Tuesday morning Dec. 16. There wasnt his usual alarm clock beeping and feet instantly on the floor, but rather the ringing of a bell, summoning my sister managing his at-home care, during these last weeks [... Read more
Tax tips: Know your credits, advice is worth paying for
By Gord Hawley The Big Bang. That was the door slamming shut on 2014. Did you have a successful year? A profitable year? Did you reduce your debts? Did you increase your assets and net worth? This is the time of year to review last years results and make plans for 2015. Yes, I […] Read more
Up to 40 bacteria types can cause mastitis
By Robert Tremblay Staphylococcus aureus (SA, for short) is a well-known cause of contagious mastitis in cows. SA is difficult to diagnose because milk samples from cows infected with SA are often negative when the milk is sent for culture. Not only is SA infection difficult to diagnose, it is dif... Read more
