When we think of our five senses, we think of sight, sound and smell first. We know someone who is blind or deaf. Most of us are fortunate enough to have all of our five senses but take them for granted.
I know several excellent musicians who were either born blind or lost their sight through some unfortunate accident. When a once-in-a -century drought in the early eighties left western farmers with only a fraction of the hay needed to bring their cattle and horses through the winter, many sold off their stock because they couldn’t find hay.
The McWilliams family from near Navan Ont. began a goodwill effort known as “Hay West” to assemble surplus hay graciously donated by Ontario and west Quebec farmers. William and his son Wyatt McWilliams also organized the 50 horse hitch for the Navan fair in 1995. They did it again in 1998 at Rideau Carlton to raise money for the great Ice Storm relief effort. When drought fell upon much of Ontario and Pontiac in 2012; Wyatt McWilliams again was a key member of the team that organized “Hay East” to bring hay from as far west as Alberta to help eastern farmers. It was during these meetings that I learned that Wyatt McWilliams was blind and had been since he was thirty four years old. I was completely amazed that Wyatt could remember thousands of phone numbers, many from only being told once.
Some of my friends that were born deaf were taught speech therapy, how to read lips, and how to use the “text” feature on cell phones to communicate even at a distance.
A neighbour once told me that if you close your eyes and held your nose, you could not tell if you were eating an apple or a Spanish onion! Smell is a sense that we take for granted but use thousands of times every day.
Most people start the day with the smell of coffee. My bedroom window is right beside where our TMR feed that the animals get is mixed. I love the smell of fresh TMR.
If the corn silage had been cut too early before the fall frost had turned some starch in the corn into sugar; then the corn silage would smell “sharp” or too high in acid. If the hay was too dry when it was chopped to make haylage then it would have a “caramelized” or too sweet a smell. When forage is caramelized; some of the protein content is “tied up” and cannot be digested by the animals. If dry hay that could be loose, in small bales, big square bales, or large round bales is made too wet, then it will smell musty and have reduced feed value and if fed to horses can cause “heaves”.
When a veterinarian first enters the barn; he can tell a lot by the smell of the air in the stable.
He can detect fresh air, necessary for animals to have healthy lungs. If he smells stagnant air then he might expect to find respiratory problems. If there is a smell like toe jam between a cows udder and her leg, then there is a bacterial infection there. If there is putrid smell at the rear of a cow that has calved recently the she has a uterine infection that has to be treated. If a cow’s breath is sweet smelling, then she has acidosis and feed rations need to be reformulated and the sick cow treated right away. If the feed in the bottom of the manger smells bad then the mangers need to be cleaned out every day. If a calf has diarrhea it can be smelled even if you don’t step in it. A barn that has been freshly bedded with straw has a wonderful smell that you never forget.
Everyone loves the smell of freshly mown hay. I loved the smell of freshly plowed ground. Anyone who was in the “sugar house” when maple syrup was boiling will want to return to visit or make syrup every spring. I love the smell of electricity in the air after a good thunder storm. Nitrogen is made by lightning and when it is delivered free in a rain storm; it is like “pennies from heaven!” Farmers hate to smell freshly spread manure because that smell is nitrogen being released into the air. Farmers like to incorporate the manure into the soil ASAP to avoid having to buy expensive fertilizer to replace that nitrogen loss!
We have all driven behind a car that needed a tune up and inhaled that half burned gas. When an electric motor, starter, alternator or other electrical device is disassembled; that burnt electrical smell is a sure signal that this will be expensive!
If you think that your dog doesn’t have a good smeller just give him one Timbit and keep the second one in your pocket. A bear has very bad sight but it can smell you from the other end of the cornfield. A turkey vulture must have no sense of smell and can be seen eating a dead skunk on the side of the road that we could smell a half a mile before we passed by!
Chris Judd is a farmer in
Clarendon on land that has
been in his family for generations. gladcrest@gmail.com
