Environmentally
Friendly Farming
Program
Area
This activity
is designed for use in the Grade 9 Mathematics, Science and Technology
program as part of a Numerical Methods,Ó Green Plants or Food
and Energy unit. It can also be used in the Grade 10 Science units
The Wise Use of Resources or Aquatic and Terrestrial Ecosystems.Ó
It also may be used in the Grade 10 Environmental Science units
Introduction to Soil Science,Ó Essentials of Plant Science or
Forestry. This activity is best used after Strip Tease,Ó since
it extends the notion of working with nature while producing food.
Learning
Outcomes
Teaching,
learning and evaluation will focus on the student's ability to:
- Identify
the environmentally friendly practices being implemented in
our food production system;
- Weigh
the costs of each practice and formulate a farm;
- Collaborate
with another class member to create a final plan.
Classroom
Development
Provide
students with the following:
- copies
of (11" x 17") Environmental Farm Plans (one per group of two)
and copies of Environmentally Friendly Farming (one per group).
Introduce
the idea that we all change the way we think about the environment;
preferably through discussion and examples. Without pointing fingers
at particular generations it is interesting to note the changes
in consumerism from the depression days and the war years to the
present. Having students comment on their grandparent's actions
compared to their own, their parents, will help them see this
pattern. All of the figures in this exercise have been taken from
average 1992-3 prices in Ontario. It is worth reminding the students
that Canada's food is the second cheapest in the world (only American
food is cheaper. It is more heavily subsidized and only marginally
cheaper). Would a higher price at the grocery store mean that
farmers could afford to be more environmentally conscious?
- Have
the students choose the types of farmer they wish to be.
- Allot
a set amount of time for the students to individually read through
the possibilities. They will calculate how much money they have
to work with and circle those practices they would like to implement.
- Divide
the classroom, so that all of the dairy farmers are on one side
and all of the cash croppers on the other.
- The
students may pick their partners from the people on their side
of the room (Cash croppers work with cash croppers.).
- Allot
a set amount of time for the groups to formulate a plan which
both partners can agree on. Instruct them that they should first
identify the changes for which there is an immediate payback
and little cost (ie. growing legumes). They should then look
for changes which will save them money (ie. using zero till
practices), and then determine the costs they would have in
changing (zero-till requires new machinery). Have them first
formulate a plan on scrap paper, then record their plan on the
budget sheet and write or draw the changes they will make on
the Environmental Farm Plan. Both the plan and the budget will
be submitted for a group evaluation.
- Circulate
through the room as the students work on their plans.
- It is
important to wrap up the exercise together as a class, since
the Cash Croppers were working with different amounts of money
than the Dairy Farmers are.
Wrap-up
questions
- What
was the most difficult thing about this exercise?
- What
was the easiest thing to do?
- Do you
think that you would be frustrated being a farmer? Why or why
not?
- How
do you now feel about nonfarming people complaining about farming
practices being environmentally destructive?
- How
do you feel about non-farming people complaining about the high
cost of food?
Background
The farms
involved in this exercise grow the following crops:
DAIRY FARM
135 ha
- hay and
haylage 53ha
- pasture
10 ha
- corn
for silage 14 ha
- corn
for grain 16 ha
- wheat
for sale 16 ha
- barley
for grain 16 ha
- soybeans
for sale 10 ha
CASH CROP
FARM 135 ha
- wheat
45 ha
- corn
45 ha
- soybeans
45 ha
*One hectare
(ha) is about two football fields.
Timing
Allow at
least 1.5 h for this activity.
Cross-disciplinary
Links
This activity
puts students in a decision-making position. They are required
to use their budgeting skills, environmental awareness and imagination
to create a viable environmental farm plan. The realistic nature
of this exercise gives students an idea of the costs of producing
our food in an environmentally friendly manner.
Resources
There are
a number of terrific resources available for teachers on this
subject, but the best are:
The slide
set found in Soil Conservation,Ó a very well designed, classroom
ready resource available from: The Federation of Ontario Naturalists,
355 Lesmill Road, Don Mills, ON, M3B 2W8 (416) 444-8419
Best
Management Practices is a very graphic, informative booklet
available free of charge from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture
(O.F.A.).
Our Farm
Environmental Agenda is an expanded version of what you have
been given to work with. It is available free of charge from either
O.F.A. or Ontario Farm Animal Council (O.F.A.C.).
Agriculture
and the Environment and other pamphlets in the You were asking
about series are available free of charge from O.F.A.C.
Food
for Thought Facts about Food and Farming in Canada. This is
a very attractive, well organized document which sells for $2.00
from O.F.A.C. Ontario Federation of Agriculture, 491 Eglinton
Ave. West. Suite 500 Toronto, Ontario M5N 3A2 (416) 485-3333.
Ontario Farm Animal Council, 7195 Millcreek Drive Toronto, Ontario
L5N 4H1 (905) 821-3880.
There
are few households in the country which have not taken at least
one small step towards becoming more environmentally friendly.
Teenagers are pitching their pop bottles in the Blue Box,Ó not
so differently from the way their grandparents saved the rags,
bottles and bones for the people who collected and recycled such
things in the 30s and 40s.
Although
always more attuned to the natural environment than most of society,
the farming community has had to reevaluate its environmental
practices.
Living completely
in harmony with nature is a state few of us ever attain. We must
each work with the circumstances we have been given and make our
choices. For instance, a person with nothing to cook the handful
of grain she has, will burn a branch of a tree she finds, whether
or not that tree is an endangered species. Likewise, a farmer
struggling to feed her family on a family farm near bankruptcy
will apply commercial fertilizer and forgo building a new manure
storage facility if she thinks she might be able to hold on to
the farm for one more year. Just as the farmers are sitting down
to draw up their environmental farm plans, so too will you.
What type
of farmer do you choose to be:
A DAIRY
FARMER
You milk
cows twice a day, 365 days a year, at 6:00am and 4:00pm. You have
all of the work associated with producing quality milk, caring
for the cows and growing the crops you will feed them.
A CASH
CROPPER
You produce
corn, wheat and soybeans which are made into thousands of different
products. You work very hard at times in the spring, summer, and
fall (At busy times you sleep only for a few hours at night while
someone else drives the tractor). The winter is much more relaxing,
when there is only some bookwork and machinery maintenance to
do. I WILL BE A: Now that you have made your choice,look to the
top of the next page to see how much you will make this year.
My Income
Dairy
Farmer* $213 000.00
Cash
Cropper** $120 000.00
You now
know how much money you have to work with. Make the following
allowances for the cost of running the farm. These values were
taken from the average income on 135 ha farms in Ontario in 1992.
|
Dairy |
Cash Crop |
Gross Income |
$213 000.00 |
$120 000.00 |
Farming Expense |
$165 000.00 |
$99 000.00 |
Money left
over, to use in improving the farming practices: (gross income
farming expenses)***
Dairy farmers*
are guaranteed a set price for their milk, when the set volume
of quality controlled milk is produced. Canadian farmers are afraid
that their system of producing milk will be altered by the Canadian
government, causing the price of milk to fluctuate and adding
uncertainty to their plans.
This income**
was made by the average producer in 1992, an extremely wet, cold
year, when much of the province's corn and soyabean crop wasn't
worth the expense of harvesting.
Cash crop
producers*** may wish to borrow money to finance some environmental
work. You can borrow from the Farm Credit Corp. at a rate of 9.25-9.50%
over 10 years.
Erosion
is the displacement of good soil from the areas where it can be
used for producing food to areas where it is unwanted, such as
rivers and lakes. It occurs when the soil has little cover and
wind and rain manage to carry the fine particles of soil away.
Farmers
in Ontario are using several different methods to retain their
soil:
- Plant
trees around the edges of the fields and near waterways. The
trees prevent the wind from traveling too quickly over the soils.
Planting trees will also remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
as they grow. The planting itself does take a lot of time in
the spring, which is the busiest time of the year. The land
will also be somewhat slower to warm up in the spring, which
means you will have a later start at the spring work. Ordering
and planting 7000 white spruce trees will cost $885.50 (not
including labour).
- Leave
the soil with a covering from residue of the previous year's
crop, or some newly sown crops, which act like a blanket over
the soil for the winter. In the spring, you might work the ground
just slightly, so that just enough soil is exposed to sow the
next crop. Minimum tillage equipment $12 000.00; no-till equipment
$25 000.00, but there will be a saving in fuel, wear on the
equipment and labour.
- Leave
a strip of Òunworked land beside creeks and rivers. Weeds will
grow in these places, but water erosion will be stopped, and
animals, including insects will have a place to call home. No
direct cost; there will be a slight loss in money made on land
which is not producing a crop, but this should be offset by
the soil conservation.
- Put
fences up along the creeks and rivers. This will prevent livestock
(mainly cows) from tramping soil into the water. If you do this,
you will also have to provide the cows with a water trough,Ó
so that they can get their water elsewhere. Fencing the creek
$730.00; providing a water trough uses water pumped from the
creek $350.00.
- In hilly
areas, keep the land in pasture for cows, sheep,or goats. These
animals are ruminants, and are able to make use of grasses which
are indigestible by humans. Pasturing such land prevents it
from being worked by equipment and allows the grasses to hold
the soil in place. Another possibility is to plant trees on
this land.
- Beef
cow $1000.00 x 4 cows = $4 000.00
- Sheep
$85.00 x 16 sheep = $1 360.00
- Goats
$85.00 x 16 goats = $1 360.00
- Trees
$1 265.00
It is worth
noting that trees remove carbon dioxide from the air, and in several
years will provide the farmer with revenue. The livestock will
of course produce revenue in the form of offspring within the
year.
Maintaining
Organic Matter
Organic
matter, the living and decaying plants and soil animals, is an
essential component of healthy soil. It also acts as a reservoir
for atmospheric carbon dioxide (the major greenhouse gas).
The use of commercial fertilizers and excessive working of the
soil deplete the organic matter.
You may choose from the following to guarantee fertile soil on
your farm:
Reduce the tillage (the turning over of the soil) on the fields.
In some cases this requires new equipment (See earlier equipment
costs.).
- Grow
and plow legumes (plants like alfalfa, which is grown to produce
hay) into the soil after a few years. Such a practice also adds
nitrogen, which has been taken from the air by the plants and
added to the soil.
Saving for dairy farm $4662.00 on fertilizer bill.
Saving for cash crop farm $6660.00 on fertilizer bill.
- Store
livestock manure and spread it on the soil just before planting
the crops in the spring.
manure lagoon $10 000.00 or concrete tank $35 000.00
This type of storage facility is required on sandy soil:
- agitator
pump $5 000.00
-
liquid manure spreader $13 000.00
Spread
the cost of this over 10 years.
Water Quality
Nitrates,
phosphates and biological by products of farming contribute to
water pollution along with households and industry. Investigate
each pollutant separately and decide what you can control:
- High
levels of nitrates in the water are a health risk for infants,
and are the most difficult to control. You will have to be certain
to apply commercial fertilizers at the proper times in the crops
development, store the livestock manure properly and apply it
to the land at the correct time (See previous calculations.).
- Phosphates
are another pollutant when found in water. Those from agricultural
sources mainly enter the water through erosion. What you can
do to prevent soil erosion and also manage the livestock manure
will prevent phosphates from entering the water (See erosion
control.).
Phosphates were a serious problem in the Great Lakes in the
60s and early 70s when the phosphate content of laundry detergents
was not restricted. The level of phosphates now allowed in laundry
detergents is 5%, but household dishwasher detergent, which
has no such limitations, can contain up to 30% phosphates.
- Biological
byproducts of the farm can include the water used to wash the
milking equipment. It is critical that drainage systems from
the barn not flow directly into water supplies. Milkhouse water
is best added to a liquid manure system. If you do not have
one, you might consider digging a weeping bed at $7000.00.
Pesticides
Agricultural
pesticides are used to control crop and livestock pests. When
not used properly they present a particular threat to those people
in closest contact with them, that is, the farm families. To ensure
safe usage of licensed chemicals, all farmers must be certified
in Ontario.
- Farmers
throughout Ontario are rotating their crops (varying what they
grow on the fields from year to year). If you choose to do this
and also to reduce pesticide use by spraying only when the populations
of insects reach unacceptable levels or when the plants are
most vulnerable to competition from weeds, you should realize
a savings. This wont be without costs to you, since you
will have to monitor your fields much more closely and also
suffer the loss of some crop due to insect and disease damage.
For the dairy farmer account for a savings of $3112.00
For the cash cropper account for a savings of $4410.00
Fuel
Consumption
As society
attempts to drive fewer, more efficient cars, so too do you as
a farmer look for ways to reduce the amount of fuel consumed on
the farm.
- Every
time a field is worked, energy is used to run the equipment.
If you choose to use the notill method of production then you
will save:
For the dairy farmer account for a savings of $1788.00 in
fuel.
For the cash cropper account for a savings of $3307.50 in fuel.
- If pesticide
is applied carefully and with precise timing, it can also reduce
fossil fuel use by reducing the number of passes over the field
you have to make with equipment.
For the dairy farmer account for a savings of $116.80 in
fuel.
For the cash cropper account for a savings of $216.00 in fuel.
Resources
Ontario
was once almost entirely wooded, and would not produce the food
it does, if it were still so. However, most farms have woodlots
which were maintained so that the farm families would have fuel
for their homes. Some farms still make use of this resource for
fuel; others harvest timber and others maple syrup. At the same
time, these lots provide habitat for wild animals. To maintain
these areas it is important to:
- Fence
around wood lots, so that livestock cannot destroy the native
vegetation.
Fencing costs $9000.00.
- Harvest
the timber and firewood in a managed fashion.
Potential return of $500.00 per year.
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