Ottawa Valley Seed Growers
Guest Column
GREELY — It was a rainy day outside, but things sure were shining inside the Greely community centre when the Ottawa Valley Seed Growers Association (OVSGA) celebrated 95 years of ag in the valley and hosted an awards presentation event. On March 19 in Greely, OVSGA brought together award winners and sponsors to highlight results of the 2022 Ottawa Valley Championship Seed, Feed and Forage Show.
A week earlier, the OVSGA volunteers gathered with official judges to place the 370 entries from more than 80 exhibitors from across the 12 counties of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. In addition, there were about 50 4-H entries from 30 4-H exhibitors. The entries coming to the Championship Show are winners at local county shows held earlier in February and March. This year, 9 counties held local seed shows, a tribute to the hard-working Soil and Crop volunteers across our community. Upon winning first or second at the county show, the entry is then eligible to come forward to the Championship Show where it competes against other winners from the ag community. Competition is always strong and bragging rights are coveted.
Congratulations go to all the winners – but especially to those in the County of Dundas for the second year in a row receiving the much-admired OVSGA Past President’s Award for the county with the most points in the open field crop classes. In 2019 and 2020, Lanark County accumulated the most points, and this year they achieved reserve.
Scott Banks and Sean Cochrane judged the spring wheat entries in Greely on March 12 at the Greely Community Centre.
Dundas County award winners included John & Ryan Devries for best soybeans and champion hay; Rick Hess for best barley; Dave Chambers for the award-winning ear corn; and Tibben Farms for their shelled corn.
Awards were presented to Lanark County exhibitors Harold and Shelley McPhail for champion sheaf; Bruce Paul and John Nanne for special export hay entries; and Merlin, Deb and Ashley Knapton for best corn silage.
Ottawa winners included Bruce and Spencer Hill for champion wheat; Eleanor and Jeff Robinson for haylage; and Bruce and Brian Hudson for red clover and champion forage seeds entry. Frontenac County perennial exhibitor Gary Gordon was awarded champion potato entry and had the winning entry in the hay quality class. Stormont County’s Alex Beaudette won the haylage quality award. 4-H awards went to Stormont County’s Haleigh-Jo Teplate and Ottawa’s Caroline Nixon of Ottawa.
Since 1927, OVSGA has held a seed show in some form every single year. Normally the awards would be presented at the annual Ottawa Valley Farm Show. Although we have missed the farm show for the last 3 years, seed shows have been able to continue. In our 95th year, OVSGA volunteers wanted to find a way to highlight the achievements of seed show exhibitors and worked together with all our sponsors to make this successful event happen.
“We are very proud of everyone involved for pulling together such a great event in a return to our roots presenting the opportunity to recognize and appreciate people in our ag community” said OVSGA president Jess Waldroff.
For more information, and complete show results, visit ottawafarmshow.com.
