Ontario farmers using social media to show need for neonics</

May 12, 2016

Some tweets directed at government officials

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Farmers in Ontario are taking to Twitter to show why neonicotinoid-treated seeds are an important part of their operations.

Using hashtags including #grainbugs and #needneonics, farmers are posting photos of bugs lurking on their fields as a result of reduced neonic use.

Mark Brock tweet
Tweet from GFO chair Mark Brock

Tweets have been coming in since April, but on Thursday afternoon, Grain Farmers of Ontario encouraged more farmers to do the same to “help everyone see (the) impact of new neonic regulations.”

Neonics have been a hot-button issue for farmers recently as the Provincial Government is introducing regulations in 2017 to reduce neonic usage by up to 80 per cent; as part of the regulations, some farmers will need to fill out a pest assessment to prove their need for neonics.

In April, Ontario’s Court of Appeal denied GFO’s request for an appeal when it comes to the regulations.

At the time, GFO chair Mark Brock called the decision “both frustrating and disheartening for myself, out farmer members, and the grain industry.”

GFO has since enlisted BDO to investigate the socio-economic impacts of the regulations.

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.