Timberline Farm

On October 24th the Norwell LEAF program went to Jared James’ Timberline farm near Harriston. Timberline Farm is 150 acres (120 workable) and Jared has been on the farm for 5 years. Jared raises cattle and grows hay. He runs an intensive rotational grazing system on his pasture. Jared sells 90% of his meat in Toronto to a high end market. Jared has Speckle Park and Wagyu breeds of cattle. He has experimented with pigs, maple syrup, chickens, gardening and ducks. He did not like the noise or labour with those farming practices. He uses “grass fed” as his selling point. Jared has no machinery because he does not need it for rotation grazing and it also costs a lot of money. He is also helping the environment to save the bobolink bird population by cutting his hay later in the year to save their nesting spots from getting destroyed. Jared is not planning to expand because it is a lot of money but is going to get his neighbours to raise cattle his way. In conclusion, the trip was a lot of fun and we got to learn Jared’s way of farming.

Maitland Valley Conservation Tree Planting

On Friday October 26 Norwell’s LEAF program teamed up with the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA) to plant some coniferous and deciduous trees. Our goal was to create a buffer zone between a waterway and some farmland. We did this because the land was cropped too close to the waterway which was causing the soil to erode into the water. Potentially cropping a field this close to a stream could lead to water pollution, soil erosion, and sedimentation. Something that we learned is that even simple things like planting trees can have a big environmental impact (stopping soil/water erosion) and can protect waterways.Thank you MVCA for giving us the chance to help impact our local environment in a positive way.

C&M Seeds and Palmerston Grain

On October 23rd the Norwell LEAF program went to C&M Seeds and Palmerston Grain. During the tour of C&M Seeds we met up with Mike Holzworth - a farmer that works at C&M seeds as well as on his own farm. He took us into the facility and told us a little bit about the history of this company. We learned that the business has been family- owned since 1979 and that they are wheat researchers not breeders. The difference being that they do not create new wheat varieties. They receive wheat varieties from other researchers in different countries around the world and test the wheat seeds to see if the varieties are successful in Ontario. When testing the wheat they check not just for a good yield, but for disease resistance, new diseases, as well as good characteristics for milling use. They test for this in the 6000 plots they have on their land as well as farms all over Ontario and other provinces all over Canada. The reason they test in so many places is to test for changes in the soil as well as the weather. For example, the plot that they have in Kincardine has different results than in Palmerston. C&M Seeds as about 15 employees during the spring, fall, and winter but during the summer they have more employees because they hire students to work for them during that time. At C&M Seeds they grow a large amount of wheat varieties such as winter, spring, hard, soft, red, white and durum. These wheats are used for many different things. Durum wheat is used for making pasta while soft wheat is used for making pastries and hard wheat is used for making bread. The reason durum wheat is used to make pasta. Also at C&M Seeds they grow barley, oats, and hemp. Our stop at Palmerston Grain was a lesson in the marketing and storage of grains. Our local farmers and grain marketers are connected to domestic and international markets. We walked by several large bins that contains soybeans waiting to be shipped to China. We would like to thank C&M Seeds and Palmerston Grain for this excellent tour and teaching us about our local agriculture businesses.

R-LIL Maple Syrup

On Wednesday October 10th the LEAF program visited R-LiL Maple Syrup. R-LiL Maple Syrup is owned by Ron and Lillian Grub. Their sugar bush is 14 acres of which 12 are in production. The main trees in the sugar bush are sugar maple but there are also ash, black cherry, beech, aspin, and some soft maple. They produce 1400 liters of syrup per year. They sell locally to stores as well as to family and friends. They also have a maple syrup open house in April. The Norwell LEAF program was joined by MP John Nater, Minto mayor George Bridge, Norwell principal Paul Richard, and Danielle Schill the LEAF program community contact.  We all took a tour of the sugar bush and then did a forest mapping assignment. Finally, we got to taste the syrup and eat Danish pancakes. (10 out of 10!). The most important thing we learned was to have diversity on your farm like the diversity in trees we saw in the sugar bush. Diversity allows for more disease resistant crops and allows for crops to survive changing weather conditions like drought. Diversity build more long term sustainability into any farm. My favourite thing about the trip was the maple syrup taste test because it was delicious. The LEAF program would like to thank Ron and Lillian Grub for having our class for the day and teaching us about their sugar bush. We would also like to thank all of our special guests for helping us officially launch the LEAF program.

Mapleton's Organic Farm

On Tuesday, October 6th, 2018 Norwell’s LEAF students partnered up with three grade nine classes to take a trip to Mapleton's Organic Farm, just outside Teviotdale. We visited five different stations. Our first station was learning about alpacas with Suelaine Poot of Poot Corners Farm. She told us about alpacas and how their wool is very important and is very warm. We also learned that when the alpaca stops producing the desired amount of wool then they get sold for meat products. We tried some delicious alpaca pepperettes and got to meet three of her own alpacas. Our second rotation was a tour of the dairy barn. The herd manager was there explaining to us about the free stall barn that they have. The barn gives the cows more freedom and gives them the option to go outside or stay inside. Also, there is a large compost pack in the middle of the barn for the cows to lie down and stand however they want. Compost pack gets cultivated and turned up a couple times a day to help break down the manure and bring heat back to the surface. The barn is cleared out of manure twice a year and then the manure acts as a natural fertilizer for their organic fields. Third rotation was the importance of trees in agriculture with Allison from the Wellington County Green Legacy program. Living snow fences was what we focused on. If trees are planted at the edge of the highway about 30 meters from the road then the trees are an effective living snow fence. The trees slow down the amount of snow and wind blowing around them and keep it from going on to the roads. This minimizes the cost of snow removal from the roads. We participated in a game to understand why this method is important for protecting the road from too much snow coverage. Fourth rotation was about soil and how important the soil is to us. We are growing so much food to feed a growing population on a very small amount of land. We learned that there is lots of life in the soil and that the life is the main building block to producing good crops. The final rotation was learning the difference between conventional and organic crops and some of the regulations of both types of farming considering the use of pesticides and herbicides.  At the end of the day we all got to enjoy a cone of Mapleton’s Organic ice cream and we were all very excited for that. The trip was amazing and we would like to thank everyone who helped out to educate us during Ontario agriculture week.