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UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH, OAC AND RIDGETOWN CAMPUS LOSE DEDICATED SOYBEAN RESEARCHER, GIFTED ADMINISTRATOR AND FRIEND
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
From a ReleaseAfter a graceful six-month battle with brain cancer, Dr. Gary Ablett, a Ridgetown Campus esteemed soybean researcher, engaging professor, and stellar administrator, passed away peacefully on Sunday, April 4, 2010.
“Gary’s outstanding leadership on both the Ridgetown and Guelph campuses helped advance agriculture in Ontario and around the world. He was a wonderful human being and we will all miss him tremendously,” says Alastair Summerlee, president of the University of Guelph.
Deeply respected by everyone who knew him, Gary began his research and teaching career at Ridgetown in 1979. He soon initiated a public soybean breeding program that would remarkably deliver more than 50 new soybean varieties for Ontario agriculture. Gary’s top priority to serve Ontario’s soybean producers never wavered. He developed varieties combining the high yields that farmers desired and the specialized traits that local and global customers demanded. Until 2008, Ablett’s newly released varieties often held names beginning with ‘RCAT’ recognizing the campus’ earlier history as the Ridgetown College of Agricultural Technology.
“Ablett was a big picture thinker when it came to the world’s demands for soybeans. His interest and commitment supported both public and private industry growth. That was demonstrated time and time again as he worked cooperatively and cohesively with breeders, processors, distributors, farmers and regulators to help advance the Canadian soybean seed sector at all levels,” says Dave Sippel, President of the Canadian Seed Trade Association. “The number of high yielding, agronomically sound soybean varieties registered over the last number of years are a strong indication of Gary’s skill as a breeder.”
Gary was also an accomplished administrator leading the Ridgetown campus through the pivotal amalgamation into the University of Guelph in 1997, and continued his leadership service as director of Ridgetown Campus for the following ten years. A two-year secondment to Guelph campus, acting as chair of the University’s plant agriculture department, the second largest department of OAC, occurred from 2004 through 2006.
As a determined administrator, Gary truly believed that important projects often require a steadfast fortitude. His unwavering dedication to build needed athletic and education facilities to meet the demands of a growing student body culminated with the grand opening of the Rudy H. Brown Rural Development Centre at Ridgetown in November 2006. He celebrated the grand opening events with hundreds of alumni, donors, colleagues, and campus community friends who honoured him with a standing ovation during the celebrations.
In 2007, Gary was recognized for his achievements by his local rural community as 600 Chatham-Kent residents came together to honour him as Agriculturalist of the Year, an award traditionally reserved for producers and agri-business leaders.
In August 2009 Gary traveled to Beijing, China, one of thirty Canadian delegates, where he was co-chair and speaker at the World Soybean Conference scientific meetings.
“Best known for his diplomacy and exuberance, he was well known throughout the University community and admired by all who had the privilege to work with him. The Ontario Agriculture College (OAC) has lost a talented crop scientist, a celebrated research leader, and true friend of agriculture, says Dr. Rob Gordon, dean, OAC.
Gary was active in his Blenheim community as a member of the Blenheim Community Golf Club and a former Blenheim Kinsmen. He was an avid golfer and enjoyed many golf trips with close friends. He is survived by his wife Jane and two sons, Jeff and Greg. Ablett was 58.
2010 OUTSTANDING YOUNG FARMERS FOR ONTARIO-WYOMING COUPLE RUNNERS-UP
04/05/10
From a Release
(Guelph, ON – April 1, 1020) “We produce a wide variety of the best quality vegetables using sustainable and organic farming practices.” Those words sum up the goal of the 2010 Ontario Outstanding Young Farmers, Steve and Lisa Cooper. The Coopers of Coopers CSA and Maze near Zephyr, south of Lake Simcoe in Durham Region, received the top honour at the provincial awards ceremony held in Belleville on Tuesday March 30th. Dairy Goat farmers, Anthony and Marj Sjaarda from Wyoming, received runner-up recognition. Winners of the award are chosen based on career progress; environmental and safety practices; crop and livestock production history; financial and management practices; and contributions to society.
The Coopers were chosen from a group of six farmers including Matt Fischer (Fischer Family Poultry, Listowel), Hugh and Arlene Hunter (Maple-Ain Dairy Farm, Smith Falls), Amy Strom (Strom’s Sweet Corn and Pumpkins, Guelph), Anthony and Marg Sjaarda (Sjaarda Caprine Farms, Wyoming) and Katie Normet, (River’s Edge Goat Dairy, Arthur). For information on all of the finalists, visit the OOYF website at www.oyfontario.ca.
The judges, Brian Little (retired from RBC), Jack Gilliland (retired from John Deere) and Tom VanDusen (agricultural journalist) chose the Coopers in part due to their innovative and customer-oriented ideas.
Steve and Lisa’s story began after meeting at the Ontario Agricultural College at the University of Guelph. Upon graduation, they took over the running of a family cattle and sweet corn business. They quickly realized that weather, low commodity prices and a diminishing cattle market were not going to provide them with financial stability and meet their desire to farm full-time. In the late 1990’s they put in a market garden and delved into direct marketing helping to begin Farmers’ Markets now available in Newmarket, Aurora, Uxbridge, Gravenhurst add Oshawa. In 2000 the cattle were sold and replaced with meat goats, and the cropping end of the farm was altered into an on-farm store and later an agri-entertainment area with a corn maze, kid’s play area and fall festival and even more recently an expanded pick-your-own section.
In 2007, the Coopers entered into a Community Shared Agriculture program for the marketing of their fruits and vegetables. 50 families sighed up and paid to receive a weekly basket of vegetables for 20 weeks. In 2008, this was expanded to 235 families from all across the GTA. They continue to expand this aspect of their farm with the building of a small greenhouse and planting late spinach and greens in order to extend the growing season and now deliver food 23 weeks of the year. They have also added pasture beef and pasture raised broiler chickens to the product list. Their farm and products have been certified by Local Food Plus and over the last ten years, they have been able to reduce their pesticide use by over 75%.
Steve contributes part of their success to “being on the right side of a trend.” “We were really lucky to have had a business that we could quickly expand when the local food movement started to gain momentum”.
As with many successful young farmers, Steve and Lisa understand that education and networking are critical to their success. They are both graduates of the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program and have also completed the George Morris Centre’s C-Team program for farm business managers. They also volunteer time to local farm organizations, and Farmers’ markets, and several minor sports teams. They are also committed to spending as much time as possible with their two children, Cayla and Trenton who are both starting to take an active role in the operation.
Over 150 people were on hand at the awards banquet to celebrate with all of the finalists.
John Steele, Co-chair of the 2010 event noted that “the pride that these finalists had in their operations, and the love they had for their communities was very infectious. Spending time with such imaginative and successful young farmers reminds us all that farming is a rewarding occupation and we need to keep that in mind more as we deal with our daily challenges.”
To be eligible for the Outstanding Young Farmer award, farmers must be between 19 and 39 years of age, derive at least two thirds of their annual income from farming and demonstrate progress in their agriculture careers. Nominations for the 2011 award will open in September 2010.
Steve and Lisa will now represent Ontario at the National competition being held from November 23-18 in Victoria, British Columbia, where they will compete with other farmers from across Canada for the title of Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers.
The 2010 event was sponsored by Pioneer Hi-Bred Limited, TD Canada Trust, Syngenta, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Conservation Ontario, Better Farming and GROWMARK.
The national competition is sponsored by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Bayer Crop Science, CIBC and John Deere.
BIOMASS PROJECT – BETTER POLICIES FOR FARMERS
04/05/10
This week's guest commentary comes from Lambton County farmer and the Vice-President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Don McCabe,
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture continues to work with government and others to develop policies and procedures to bring biomass as a source of energy from Ontario farms to Ontario society.
Biomass can be broadly defined to include all various feedstocks from manure to crop residue to purpose-grown crops.
Fortunately, there are many ways to process biomass to make it a useful source of energy – everything from anaerobic digesters to pellets, to gasification, to direct burning.
This highlights the beauty of biomass in its flexibility – the process can be matched to the market requirements: anaerobic digesters transform manure into heat, power and fertilizer; bio-diesel turns oil seeds into feed and fuel; ethanol comes from grains and cellulose; pellets come from crop residue or purpose-grown crops; crop residue can be turned into gas, heat and ash.
Ontario’s Green Energy Act has opened the doors to establish a market for the optimum use of biomass fuels.
Agriculture deals in commodities on a daily basis, so one of the first actions necessary will be to identify an acceptable standard that defines the commodity for buyer and seller.
In the case of biomass to replace coal, a fuel standard needs to be defined.
Getting biomass products to market will require a network of roads and trading equipment to facilitate the buying, selling and delivery of the farmers’ biomass material to the end user.
To be a realistic option, we must ensure value retention is done at each level of the production chain including on-farm handling to delivery to the end user. If trucking the product to market is not feasible, then maybe the material can be gasified and moved through a pipeline.
Ontario is interested in developing energy sources to replace the coal-fired electricity generation plants that are used today. The Green Energy Act is a reflection of society’s concern over climate change that’s happening because of increased greenhouse gas production. Coal-fired generation is a major source of Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions.
It’s an accepted fact that only farmers and foresters can manage carbon cycles in their daily business. Plants take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and return it to the soil. Farmers manage plants. Therefore, biomass production by farmers and foresters is one example of supplying above-ground biomass energy to society while building organic matter in our soils.
Before we can expect society and its government to accept biomass production from our agricultural land, we need to develop proof that biomass production is sustainable for the long term benefit of society.
OFA on behalf of the province’s farmers will need to ensure all the necessary research is done. We must make sure the project can make economic sense, environmental sense, and social sense.
Society is going to want to know that farmers are not diverting crop production from food to biomass in order to capitalize on the energy market – we have witnessed the lack of understanding by society when crop land was used to produce crops for ethanol production.
Because of yesterday’s research employed on today’s farms, Ontarians enjoy the cheapest food basket in the grocery store. Now Ontario farmers will not only keep food on the shelves, but keep the lights on.
To meet the needs of tomorrow, the OFA will continue to work on bringing the necessary policy tools and research forward for Ontario’s farmers in a profitable, sustainable manner.
AG CANADA BRACES FOR SERIOUS CUTS-BUDGET
04/05/10
From Farms.com
A budget winners and losers list, compiled by the Globe and Mail, shows Agriculture Canada is looking at a 41 percent reduction in funding – within the next 3 years. There are only 4 other federal departments that will see higher cuts. The list is shown below, and highlights the projected amount of money a department is expected to spend. While is does not represent what will actually happen, the Globe and Mail sees it as a forecast for what will come in future budgets.
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To view these articles online, please visit us on the web at
http://www.ridgetownc.com/agrilink/agrilink..._scoops.cfm
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TekTalk
WEATHER IMPACTS ON NITROGEN RESPONSE
04/05/10
by Keith Reid, Soil Fertility Specialist, OMAFRA
When we apply nitrogen (N) fertilizer in the spring, we are assuming a certain pattern of weather over the growing season. Fertilizer recommendations have been developed for “average” conditions. We either consider weather variations to be something that is outside of our control, or not very important relative to other variables. These assumptions, however, may mean that we are ignoring opportunities to improve N management, or that the management we do apply actually reduces rather than increases N use efficiency.
Changes in the soil as a result of weather conditions affect every part of the nitrogen cycle, but not all of them are affected in the same way. Mineralization from soil organic matter will increase as the temperature increases, irrespective of soil moisture content, but so will immobilization. Nitrification also increases with temperature, but only in soils with adequate air. In waterlogged soils, nitrification almost stops but denitrification increases as the soil warms up.
Further complicating matters, the growth and N uptake by the crop will vary with the amount of heat and moisture available.
Understanding the impact of weather on the various nitrogen transformations in the soil has been useful for explaining what happened to a crop after the fact. Using this information to adjust nitrogen fertilizer rates is more difficult. Two approaches that seem to have some merit are starter N applications to avoid early N deficiencies, and adjusting side-dress N applications based on early season weather.
Starter N
Cool conditions in the spring and early summer can significantly delay the release of N from organic sources, such as manure or legume plowdown. It is not uncommon to see pale and stunted fields of corn where there should have been lots on N but it is still tied up in organic forms. N applied at 15 – 30 lbs/ac at planting can overcome this “lag”, and carry the crop until the weather warms up and the rate of N mineralization increases.
Note that the only situation where this would mean an increase in total N rates applied to the field is where the organic N sources should meet the entire needs of the crop. For optimum productivity, it is probably better to
leave some room for fertilizer N in your program rather than depend completely on manure.
Side-Dress Adjustments
The adjustment that is most firmly based on research is the use of the pre-sidedress N test (PSNT) to account for the nitrate content in the soil. While it works well in some situations, critics point out that it cannot account for variations in the capacity of the soil to supply N through mineralization. An alternate approach, being investigated at Cornell University in New York State, suggests that the weather up to side-dress time can be used as an indicator of potential N supply from the soil. Researchers there suggest that cool and wet weather during May and June will depress the rate of N mineralization, so that the N fertilizer rate should be increased. This is opposite to the approach of many farmers who assess the crop at side-dress time, and apply more fertilizer if the crop looks like it has high yield potential.
Neither approach is perfect. The Cornell approach looks only at N supply, while the farmer approach assumes that the supply of N is constant and makes adjustments according to expected demand. To make real progress towards optimum N rates for different weather conditions, we will need to develop systems that at least acknowledge both supply and demand. Good conditions for corn growth are also good conditions for N mineralization, so the decision to add more N to a good crop may depend on whether that particular field has enough organic matter to supply extra the N. Similarly, conditions that reduce N availability from the soil early in the growing season would only justify increased N application if the crop appeared to have overcome any early setbacks.
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To view these articles online, please visit us on the web at
http://www.ridgetownc.com/agrilink/agrilink_...tektalk.cfm
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AgriLink Upcoming Events
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Event - Grain Drying & Storage Workshop Date - April 6, 2010 Time - 9:00 AM Place - Elora Contact Name - Ag Business Centre, University of Guelph, Ridgetown Campus
1-866-222-9682 or 519-674-1592
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Event - Agris Solar Co-op Information Meeting Date - April 6, 2010 Time - 2:00 PM Place - Wallaceburg, Oaks Inn Contact Name - Jim Campbell 519-354-7178 Email - jimc@agris.coop
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Event - Agris Solar Co-op Information Meeting Date - April 6, 2010 Time - 7:00 PM Place - Brigden Fairgrounds Contact Name - Jim Campbell 519-354-7178 Email - jimc@agris.coop
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Event - Agris Solar Co-op Information Meeting Date - April 7, 2010 Time - 10:00 AM Place - Eagle, Lakeview Gardens Contact Name - Jim Campbell 519-354-7178 Email - jimc@agris.coop
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Event - Agris Solar Co-op Information Meeting Date - April 7, 2010 Time - 2:00 PM Place - Appin, Ekfrid Community Centre Contact Name - Jim Campbell 519-354-7178 Email - jimc@agris.coop
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Event - Agris Solar Co-op Information Meeting Date - April 7, 2010 Time - 7:00 PM Place - RDC Bldg, Ridgetown Campus, UoG Contact Name - Jim Campbell 519-354-7178 Email - jimc@agris.coop
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Event - CAFA Meeting Date - April 7, 2010 Time - 7:30 AM Place - Chatham, Satellite Restaurant, 145 King St., W. Contact Name - Ron Vandehogen, 519-676-9849
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Event - Agris Solar Co-op Information Meeting Date - April 8, 2010 Time - 10:00 AM Place - Chatham, Agris Co-op, Park Avenue East Contact Name - Jim Campbell 519-354-7178 Email - jimc@agris.coop
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Event - Agris Solar Co-op Information Meeting Date - April 8, 2010 Time - 2:00 PM Place - Stoney Point, Agris Co-op Contact Name - Jim Campbell 519-354-7178 Email - jimc@agris.coop
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Event - Agris Solar Co-op Information Meeting Date - April 8, 2010 Time - 7:00 PM Place - Woodslee, St. John's Parish Hall Contact Name - Jim Campbell 519-354-7178 Email - jimc@agris.coop
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Event - Memorial Service for Dr. Gary Ablett Date - April 9, 2010 Time - 1:30 PM Place - RDC Bldg, Ridgetown Campus, UoG
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Event - RABIES VACCINATION CLINIC Date - April 10, 2010 Time - 9:00 AM Place - Public Works Garage at Rutherford, 4590 Lambton Line Contact Name - 519 383-8331, toll free 1-800-667-1839 Website - www.lambtonhealth.on.ca
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Event - RABIES VACCINATION CLINIC Date - April 10, 2010 Time - 9:30 AM Place - Public Works Garage at Cairo, 1345 Cairo Rd. Contact Name - 519 383-8331, toll free 1-800-667-1839 Website - www.lambtonhealth.on.ca
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Event - RABIES VACCINATION CLINIC Date - April 10, 2010 Time - 1:00 PM Place - Florence Community Centre, 6213 Mill St. Contact Name - 519 383-8331, toll free 1-800-667-1839 Website - www.lambtonhealth.on.ca
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Event - Poultry Industry Conference and Exhibition Date - April 14,2010 to April 15, 2010 Time - All Day Event Place - Western Fair Grounds, London Website - http://www.westernfair.com/shows/poultry.html
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Event - Information Meeting on HST Date - April 15, 2010 Time - 7:30 PM Place - Wyoming Legion Contact Name - Brenda Miner, Federation Secretary 519-828-5028 or 519-828-3516 Email - lambtonfederation@hotmail.com
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Event - Lambton PORK PRODUCERS DINNER-DANCE Date - April 16, 2010 Time - 6:00 PM Place - Centennial Hall, Watford Contact Name - Anna-Lee Straatman at 519-849-5611 Email - ajstraatman@brktel.on.ca
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Event - OIA Conference and Annual General Meeting Date - April 16,2010 to April 17, 2010 Place - Hilton Garden Inn, Niagara-on-the-Lake
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Event - NeighbourLink Chatham-Kent Pig Roast and Pie Auction Date - April 24, 2010 Time - 4:30 PM Place - St. Paul’s Congregational Church, Park Ave. W., Chatham Contact Name - Myrna Panjer at 519 397-3677 Alt Contact Name - NeighbourLink office at 519 352-5646
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Event - RABIES VACCINATION CLINIC Date - April 24, 2010 Time - 1:00 PM Place - Alvinston Public Works Garage Corner of Lorne and Elgin streets Contact Name - 519 383-8331, toll free 1-800-667-1839 Website - http://www.lambtonhealth.on.ca/
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Event - RABIES VACCINATION CLINIC Date - May 15, 2010 Time - 9:30 AM Place - Oil Springs Fire Hall 4589 Oil Springs Line Contact Name - 519 383-8331, toll free 1-800-667-1839 Website - www.lambtonhealth.on.ca
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Event - RABIES VACCINATION CLINIC Date - May 29, 2010 Time - 9:30 AM Place - Enniskillen Township Public Works Garage 4465 Rokeby Line Contact Name - 519 383-8331, toll free 1-800-667-1839 Website - www.lambtonhealth.on.ca
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Event - CAFA’s 6th Annual Ontario Conference Date - June 1,2010 to June 2, 2010 Time - All Day Event Place - Stratford Website - www.cafanet.com
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Event - Annual Ontario Pork Congress Date - June 23,2010 to June 24, 2010 Time - All Day Event Place - Stratford Website - www.porkcongress.on.ca
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Event - Progressive Agriculture / Chatham-Kent Farm Safety Day Date - July 21, 2010 Time - All Day Event Place - Ridgetown Campus, University of Guelph Contact Name - Sue Kelner 519-674-1584 Email - skelner@ridgetwonc.uoguelph.ca
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Event - Outdoor Farm Show Date - September 14,2010 to March 16, 2010 Time - 1:00 PM Place - Woodstock Canada's Outdoor Park Website - http://www.outdoorfarmshow.com/
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Event - International Plowing Match & Farm Machinery Show Date - September 21,2010 to September 25, 2010 Time - All Day Event Place - Elgin – St. Thomas Website - http://www.ipm2010.com/
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To view these listings online, please visit us on the web at
http://www.ridgetownc.com/agrilink/agrilink..._events.cfm
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John Jordan
Editor, AgriLink and Farm Market News
University of Guelph, Ridgetown Campus
Tel. 519-674-1577
Fax. 519-674-1530
E-mail: jjordan@ridgetownc.uoguelph.ca
AgriLink website : www.ridgetownc.com/agrilink
