The Challenges Ahead
By David Morris

Bob Down of Huron County is gearing up for his third term as president of the OCPA.

Bob and his wife Pat own and operate a 600-acre mixed farm in Usborne Township near Exeter, with the assistance of their son-in-law John McAllister and a full-time hired man. Bob is quick to point out that Pat is very involved in the operation of the farm. "She is quite able to manage and operate the farm when I am away and has been a terrific help, especially since I became a director of the OCPA," he says.

In an era when many farmers are specializing in one commodity, the Downs have chosen to remain diversified. Theirs is truly a mixed farm. They run a 250-head beef feedlot, finish about 1,200 hogs per year, and grow a mix of field crops and some processing crops. Their cropping program includes grain corn, silage corn, sweet corn, soybeans, winter wheat, edible beans, processing peas and an alfalfa-timothy mix for either cash crop hay or haylage, depending on the weather.

Most of their corn is fed on the farm, as either whole-plant silage or as high moisture corn. Any excess is dried and stored on the farm and is usually marketed through a local elevator. With this array of crops, Bob isn’t able to follow a set crop rotation. However, corn is usually planted after winter wheat, which follows peas or edible beans.

Bob’s tillage system is still based on the moldboard plow, although he hopes to find an alternative. He does use a Soil Saver on wheat, pea or bean stubble, but has found this system is unsatisfactory for corn on his clay loam soil. At one time, he used the Soil Saver for all the crops, but corn yields steadily declined until he went back to the moldboard plow.

Bob would like to plant some crops no-till, but is deterred by the cost of owning two sets of planting equipment. Because peas and sweet corn need a good, uniform seedbed, he still needs to plough for these crops. Sweet corn, in particular, does not have the seedling vigour needed to do well in no-till. Bob also notes that manure is a factor in his decision to stay with the plow. He is not satisfied with the current methods of applying manure in no-till...and with both solid and liquid manures to apply, he finds it much simpler and more environmentally acceptable to plow the manure down.

Bob describes himself as an "early adopter" rather than an "innovator." He prefers to stick with a proven, reliable system, until he is confident that something else will work better. He is quick to adopt new technologies after they have been refined to the point where he can use them on his farm without further experimentation. Until then, he is quite content to let someone else have the fun of working out the bugs.

Bob has a long history of involvement in volunteer activities, for the community, church or agriculture. He has been a long-time member of OCPA and became active at the provincial level eight or nine years ago, when Huron County was first designated as a separate region within OCPA. The director who had been serving the region that previously included Huron thought Bob would make a good director and encouraged him to run. The rest is history.

Your president is excited by the challenges and possibilities facing the OCPA. For him, the priorities for the coming year are to continue working to expand markets for Ontario corn, to develop a satisfactory replacement for the current safety net programs and to strengthen the cooperation among all farm organizations. He sees the OCPA challenged just to maintain the size of the Ontario corn crop. For corn to be viewed as a viable alternative to soybeans, new markets need to be created and existing ones expanded. Bob feels that the emphasis needs to be on developing markets in Ontario, so that corn growers are less vulnerable to the whims of export markets. He feels quite optimistic right now, given the growth of both the corn sweetener and fuel alcohol industries. In particular, he believes the demand for corn for alcohol production will continue to grow as long as the current concerns about greenhouses gases remain.

Bob sees the OCPA continuing to figure prominently in the development of an acceptable replacement for the safety net programs ending next March. In conjunction with other commodity groups, OCPA directors and staff have devoted much time, energy and resources to this area over the years. From this perspective, Bob sees the coming year as a busy one. "It is crucial that we maintain the level of protection that we have now."

Bob hopes to continue developing co-operative efforts with other commodity groups and general farm organizations. He is very supportive of the coalitions that have been formed and is generally pleased with the progress to date. Although there is currently a good spirit of co-operation among farm organizations, he believes the relationships must continue to evolve. "Although farm leaders must put their emphasis on promoting the interests of the growers they represent, it is important to ensure that the associations and boards work together to use their collective resources to the best effect overall," he says. "After all, to a large extent, we’re all trying to serve many of the same people."

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