Ontario Agriculture Week Celebration Underway

Oct 01, 2012

Ontario PC MPP Celebrates Ag Week with Agriculture Open Houses

The first week of October marks Ontario Agriculture Week. This celebration has been an ongoing tradition since 1998, when former Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Bert Johnson (Perth-Wellington) started the initiative.

Perth-Wellington MPP Randy Pettapiece is doing his part to ensure that Ontario Agriculture Week doesn’t go unnoticed. Pettapiece will be hosting two agriculture open houses in his riding on October 5th. The first open house one will take place at the Arthur Public Library from 9:30am-11:30am and the second one will take place in at the Royal Canadian Legions in Mitchell from 2:00pm-4:00pm. All interested constituents are asked to RSVP by calling 1-800-461-9701.

“The week leading up to Thanksgiving is the perfect time to reflect on the importance of agriculture in Perth-Wellington and in our province,” said Pettapiece. “It’s a chance to celebrate the contributions and accomplishments of our farmers and all those who work in the agriculture and agri-food sectors.”

The Ontario agriculture and agri-food sectors together contribute more than $33 billion dollars to the economy and employ almost 700,000 people in the province.

Video: Seed Storage: Protecting Quality from Harvest to Planting

Protecting seed quality starts in the field and continues through storage until planting — that was the focus of the Spud Smart–NAPSO webinar with Leroy Salazar, Amanda Wakasugi and Bill Crowder. Speakers stressed that vine kill timing, harvest conditions (soil moisture, pulp temperature), and minimizing mechanical damage set the stage for successful storage; modern buildings, calibrated sensors, VFD-controlled airflow,

rapid field-heat removal, and tight temperature uniformity then preserve seed quality. Ongoing monitoring for hot spots, condensation and early issues, plus sanitation and variety-specific handling, keep losses low and seed viable for shipping or cutting.