As we drive around Pontiac County, we notice how farmers’ fields have changed since grandpa used to farm. One of the first things we notice is that there are a lot less cattle in the fields. Then we notice that there are a lot less fences?
Sixty years ago, there were 600 farms in Pontiac County where . . .
dairy cows were milked. In 2021, there are less than 20 dairy farms.
Most of grandpa’s neighbours milked cows and the smaller dairy farms separated the milk and shipped cream. Some of those farms only milked cows in the summer when the pastures provided lots of nutritious feed to let the milk cows produce milk much less expensively than cows did in the winter when farmers had to store excellent quality hay, corn silage and feed grain and expensive high protein concentrates.
Through the years consumers began to drink low fat milk with the cream skimmed off. This cream was skimmed off the milk that consumers drank all year and was a steady supply for the butter plants, unlike the farms which only milked cows in the summer.
Pontiac County used to have two butter plants that provided jobs for many people. As the smaller farms stopped milking and switched to beef production or only crop production the butter plants shut their doors. The few farms that shipped cream either found butter plants farther away or took advantage of a program the milk boards provided to switch their cream quota for a milk quota. This was a big switch for the farmers who had shipped cream in cans because to ship whole milk they had to build a new bigger milk house and purchase a bulk milk tank.
Many of the cream shippers who were left chose to sell the cream quota to farms that switched to bulk milk as they switched to beef production.
Cattle on pasture and well kept fences continued for many years and the round baler allowed farmers who were getting tired making those labour intensive little square bales to make hay while sitting on the tractor.
As our climate began warming up, more farmland was used to grow small grains, grain corn, and soybeans. That’s when we noticed that fences were being torn down to make fields larger which meant less turning for working fields and more comfortable use of larger, more efficient equipment.
Then we noticed more fences and trees brought down allowing farmers to grow crops and work the land closer to roadways. This allowed farmers to keep roadsides and shallow ditches looking nice with less maintenance for our townships.
We have also noticed more farmers wrapping individual round bales in white plastic or wrapping them in long white tubes. As our climate changes, we notice that those long, dry periods that were needed to make quality dry hay seemed to be getting fewer. Making dry hay requires three or more rain free, sunny days. Making excellent quality wrapped wet bales or haylage chopped with a forage harvester requires only a few hours of sunny, rain free weather.
Many non-farmers wonder why a soybean crop is left in the field until all the leaves turn brown and fall off before the farmer combines them. The soybeans have to be dry before the elevators will buy them for storage. If they are combined too wet they have to be dried in a gas fired hot air drier and we all know how expensive that gas is.
Sometimes we notice farmers combining soybeans at night. Some varieties of soybeans shatter or fall off when touched when they are dry. If they are combined at night when a little dew is on the bean pods they do not shatter as much.
Some of our non-farming neighbours wonder why farmers leave corn that looks brown and dry in the field for weeks or longer before combining it. Even though the standing corn crop looks brown and dry, the corn grain on the cobs may still be 20 or 30 per cent moisture. Before corn grain is accepted at mills or elevators, the moisture must be 14 per cent moisture or less. It can be combined with more moisture in it than that but it must be dried in one of those gas-fired driers until the moisture is lowered below 14 per cent. Some farms spend hundreds of thousands of dollars buying propane every year.
Some corn is left standing in the field until the moisture is below 14 per cent, even if it stays in the field all winter. Some of the corn stalks will fall down and some kernels will be eaten by birds, but the farmer will save the drying costs.
Corn price is usually lowest at harvest time in the fall and the corn price increases through the winter. There is a choice that the grain farmer must make every year; either harvest early to avoid loss from stalk breakage and bird damage or pay drying costs and storage costs until the crop is sold. The grain prices increase as the months go by but the farmer may be paying interest charges on seed, fertilizer, etc. until the crop is sold. Some farmers future contract part of their grain crop for a predetermined price and delivery date to lock in a price for some of the crop. The rest of the crop the farmer will gamble on and hope that the yield will be good and that the price will go up more than what the contracted price is.
If you don’t have nerves of steel, then farming is not for you.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations. gladcrest@gmail.com
