IVANHOE - Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Brian Coburn will officially open the Hastings County Farm Show and Plowing Match on the Kerbidell Farms property here Wed., Aug. 22.
The show runs Aug. 22 and 23 with more than 250 exhibitors, displays including antique machinery, plowing competitions, livestock, and Queen of the Furrow contest.
The opening ceremonies will take place at noon on the farm operated by the Kerby families and owned by Don and Molly McGregor near this community.
The minister is expected to spend most of the day at the event - perhaps as a tune-up for Rural Expo 2001 next month near his home in Navan.
Field demonstrations, particularly nutrient handling equipment, are expected to draw the minister’s interest especially since the provincial government’s All-party Justice Committee will soon begin its road show on the government’s new Nutrient Management legislation.
The official opening will be preceded by the Media Plowing Challenge, to be held at 11 a.m., during which media types will down their cameras, notebooks and microphones to see if they can keep on the straight and narrow when behind the wheel of a tractor.
Nutrient management will take centre stage at this year’s show.
Both days of the show, beginning at 1:30 p.m., a nutrient management program will take place. The program will include as its main speaker Don Hilborn, OMAFRA waste management specialist from Woodstock. Other OMAFRA specialists will be making presentations.
Machinery for handling and spreading will provide field demonstrations as part of the program each day. This should be a good opportunity to be informed of the latest in nutrient management benefits and handling techniques. There will also be an exceptional display at the corn plot demos. On-site plots will include both silage and grain corn varieties.
Varieties will be compared, based on heat unit designations.
Yield, moisture, etc., will be recorded for grain varieties. Silage varieties will be recorded for yield, moisture, etc., and will be lab tested for feed values at time of harvest and reports will be available.
The plowing match site is just east of Ivanhoe, located on Highway 62 between Belleville and Madoc. For those travelling to the site on Highway 401, take the Highway 62 exit at Belleville, travel north to Ivanhoe and then go east.
For those coming from Highway 7, take Highway 62 south at Madoc to Ivanhoe and follow the signs.
From the Archives:
News, August 2001
