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?

1. Have the students choose the types of farmer they wish to be.
2. 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.
3. Divide the classroom, so that all of the dairy farmers are on one side and all of the cash croppers on the other.
4. The students may pick their partners from the people on their side of the room (Cash croppers work with cash croppers.).
5. 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.
6. Circulate through the room as the students work on their plans.
7. 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.

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:

1. 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).
   
   
2. 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.
   
   
3. 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.
   
   
4. 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.
   
   
5. 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:

1. 
   Reduce the tillage (the turning over of the soil) on the fields. In some cases this requires new equipment (See earlier equipment costs.).
2. 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.
3. 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:

1. 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 crop’s development, store the livestock manure properly and apply it to the land at the correct time (See previous calculations.).
2. 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.
   
   
3. 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.

1. 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 won’t 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.

1. 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.
2. 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:

1. Fence around wood lots, so that livestock cannot destroy the native vegetation.
   Fencing costs $9000.00.
2. Harvest the timber and firewood in a managed fashion.
   Potential return of $500.00 per year.