Behind the Lines - November 2013

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Research, often sponsored or at least sanctioned by governments, has been a driver of agricultural innovation in Ontario and Canada for more than 100 years. Shrinking budgets have been changing all of that since the mid-1990s, and now the infrastructure behind it is evolving as well. Writer Mary Baxter travelled across Ontario last summer and, in her cover story starting on page 12, she reviews the changes in how research looks from the grassroots up to the highest echelons of government. It's a reminder of just how diverse agriculture is in Ontario, and also the competition it faces.

In a similar vein, The Hill columnist Barry Wilson points out the reality of the careful wordsmithing in briefing notes that Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada sent to provincial agriculture ministers. The terminology used all points towards reductions in long-term basic research funding. Wilson thinks science investment may be insufficient to support the new five-year national farm policy that Ottawa rolled out recently. For the complete story see page 54.

Not all innovations come from government. Baxter also looked at compost bedding pack barns, a dairy development which originates with producers. The benefit is to cow comfort – and comfortable cows put more milk into the bulk tank. That story starts on page 38.

Of the three fertilizer sisters – nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium – the last one gets the least respect, writes Seedbed columnist Keith Reid. Starting on page 48, he warns why crop growers ignore this essential nutrient at their own risk.

Growers in the European Union receive a fixed farm payment which, on most farms, averages around the equivalent of C$110 to $125 an acre. On page 46, European correspondent Norman Dunn tells us about a plan to use a portion of this money as leverage to force farmers to grow certain crops.

Winter is nearly upon us and our Crop Scene Investigation column is starting again. This month, writer Bernard Tobin asks what were the pests that attacked one corn hybrid while ignoring another in Kent County, the heart of cash cropping in the province.

All of us at Better Farming are very proud of field editor Mary Baxter and regular contributor Bernard Tobin, winners at this year's annual Canadian Farm Writers' Federation awards banquet. Baxter won bronze in the Monthly Press Reporting category for her feature: "The promise and the challenge of perennial commodity crops," our October 2012 cover story. Tobin brought home gold in the same category for our June/July 2012 cover story, "Cancelling the slots," which explored the impact on agriculture and rural communities of the Ontario government's changes to the race-horse industry. BF

ROBERT IRWIN & DON STONEMAN