Commending local farmers, good stewards

Editor:

Many thanks to The Creemore Echo for the informative review on the current and future of farming in Clearview and area. I learned many new things about farmers in our community. As graduates of the University of Guelph and owners of farms, my husband and I have been able to see the evolving of technological and economic changes over the 50 years that we have operated our cow calf operation near Dundalk and in Mulmur. Farming truly is a lifestyle, as frequently pointed out in your articles. It is labour and capital intensive, often involving shared workloads and outside work to support the business operation. I commend the many farmers in our area who support sustainable farming techniques such a zero til, crop rotation, reduced pesticides etc. Thesefarmers are good stewards of our valuable land, whether owned or rented from other people as in many instances. Today’s larger equipment means that farmers can work much larger parcels of land, much more productively and with less labour. Crop yieldshave increased enormously (eg corn from 70 bushels an acre to over 200 bushels an acre.) I recognize that many these farming advances need to be carefully monitored for many reasons. All of these factors contribute to our sustainability and food security.

I would also like to thank the fire departments of Honeywood, Creemore and Rosemont for fighting a major early morning fire (1:15 a.m.) at our farm on Easter weekend. The fire burned the epicentre for operating our farm – that is the utility centre with all of our equipment and office building. The good news is that our 150-year-old wooden barn stocked with animals and our 1902 farmhouse were totally saved! Fortunately, no one was physically hurt. The bad news for us was that we received the unfortunate news by phone as we were away celebrating Easter in Seville, Spain observing their unique Easter traditions.

As farmers say, manure happens! Thanks again to the many firefighters and support workers who were actively involved to help us save our farming operations and cattle We truly appreciate their skills and assistance within our community and at our farm in particular on Easter weekend.

Anne Arrell,

Mulmur.