{"id":9538,"date":"2021-06-27T08:57:06","date_gmt":"2021-06-27T12:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=9538"},"modified":"2021-09-09T07:19:14","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T11:19:14","slug":"fwd-episode-376-the-face-of-modern-agriculture-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=9538","title":{"rendered":"Fwd: EPISODE 376 THE FACE OF MODERN AGRICULTURE….2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Begin forwarded message:<\/div>\n


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From: <\/b><\/span>ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>
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Subject: <\/b><\/span>EPISODE 376 THE FACE OF MODERN AGRICULTURE – ANTHONY ACRES….2021<\/b>
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Date: <\/b><\/span>June 26, 2021 at 3:08:23 PM EDT
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To: <\/b><\/span>askeoch@bellnet.ca<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
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EPISODE 376    THE FACE OF MODERN AGRICULTURE – ANTHONY ACRES – 2021<\/p>\n


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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
June 2021<\/div>\n

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CORPORATE FARMING:  STRIKING A DEAL WITH ANTHONY ACRES<\/div>\n

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There are still 100 acre farms here and there in Southern Ontario. Winaries for instance.  They must be economically worthwhile.  But the face<\/div>\n
of modern agriculture is increasingly changing in scale.  That is not really news.   Just a drive in the countryside presents lots<\/div>\n
of evidence.  Empty old bank barns and oversized tractors. We meet the new machines of agriculture every time we drive to the farm.  Imagine the investment necessary for<\/div>\n
corporate farming like Anthony Acres.   How could they  make a profit.  Thousands of acres are necessary.   Anthony Acres rents thousands<\/div>\n
of acres.  Most of their Land is rented not owned.   <\/div>\n

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Our two sons and partner Nick own a farm with about 60 to 70 acres of cropland.  They are not farmers.   Andrew dropped in to<\/div>\n
the home farm of Anthony Acres which is just a short distance from their farm.  fifth line, Limehouse, Ontario.  The meeting was a good one.   Perhaps I can<\/div>\n
put the conversation in dialogue form.  (My words)<\/div>\n

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\u201cHi, we own the old McLean – Saunders – McLeod farm up the road and wonder<\/div>\n
whether you are interested in leasing the cropland before the weeds take over.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMight be interested but I\u2019ll have to take a look first.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNow?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes\u2026good a time as any\u2026if land is good we can get a cover crop in fast.\u201d<\/div>\n

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(Visit to farm)<\/div>\n
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\u201cLet\u2019s strike a deal\u2026we need a three year lease at least\u2026and will pay $90 an acre yearly\u2026about 60 acres.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat will help pay the property taxes\u2026for sure.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cShould cover about 75% of the cost.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWe  want to keep one field and the barnyard.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cFine.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI overheard a conversation once that claimed rented land was just being mined\u2026corn, year after year,<\/div>\n
until the land was exhausted.  Hate to think of that.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s pure hearsay\u2026not true.  We care for the land.  No till agriculture\u2026always keep the top soil covered<\/div>\n
\u2026cover crops like clover\u2026nitrogen fixing.  We improve the soil.  Crop rotation\u2026corn, soybeans, wnter wheat\u2026<\/div>\n
top soil never gets exposed to wind.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDid you notice the stones?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI did.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWon\u2019t they be a problem?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLots of the land around here is stony\u2026ancient ice sheets 10,000 year ago pushed and ground stones as the ice<\/div>\n
age advanced.  Then, when the ice retreated, the land was strewn with rocks.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cOne of my dad\u2019s uncles ruined his Massey Ferguson combine when one rock got into the cylinder\u2026bent it all to hell.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWe are super careful.   I will send in a rock picker to go over all your fields before planting time.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cRock picker?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cTractor with steel forks\u2026gets all the big rocks.  Where do you want them dumped\u2026we\u2019ll send one of the boys<\/div>\n
up here next week.   Fields will be safe for combines after that.\u201d\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBut the  rocks get pushed up every year by the frost.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThen we\u2019ll do another picking.  Part of the business.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cDid you noice the old stone silo>?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSure did.  Not many of those around.  Made out of the stones gathered by the Mclean family in the 1870\u2019s.  Never saw<\/div>\n
one before.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cUsed for Sileage, I think\u2026Chopped up corn\u2026.stalks and all\u2026fine dining for cattle n winter.”\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes. Some people think our silos are used that way.  Not true\u2026our steel silos are filled with shelled corn\u2026.moved around with elevators to <\/div>\n
get the kernels dry.   Eliminate any chance of mould.    No relation to your fieldstone silo.  Better get a roof on it if you can.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cAll those machines must set you back a fortune\u2026all John Deere except for the tractor trailers \u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why we need a lot of land\u2026thousands of acres.\u201d<\/div>\n

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(Unspoken thought:  \u201cOne of those tractors with attachments would cost a small fortune.<\/div>\n
If Anthony Acres tried to buy all the land they needed the business would not be viable.  Renting, however, made good sense.)<\/div>\n

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NOTE:   BELOW IS A SHORT EXCERPT FROM ANTHONY ACRES WEB PAGE<\/div>\n

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Where and how we operate<\/h1>\n
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Anthony Acres Ltd is a Canadian company operating in Southern Ontario within a large region from the Greater Toronto Area in the south, to the Dundalk Highlands in the north, from Guelph in the west to Caledon in the east. This area, inclusive of the Regions and Counties of Halton, Peel, Wellington and Dufferin, represents some of the best farmland in all of Canada.<\/div>\n
By means of Best Management Practices and Precision Agriculture, Anthony Acres Ltd is dedicated to conserving, preserving, protecting and improving the farmland and the environment in which we work.<\/div>\n
We are vertically integrated, with all facets of the business being done in-house.<\/div>\n
This includes:<\/div>\n
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  • crop marketing and sales<\/li>\n
  • agronomy<\/li>\n
  • seed cleaning and treating<\/li>\n
  • field cropping and crop protection product application<\/li>\n
  • equipment maintenance<\/li>\n
  • trucking<\/li>\n
  • cropland improvement and protection.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    We have 2 elevating, drying and storage facilities, one in the Greater Toronto Area and on the border of Wellington County and Dufferin County.<\/div>\n
    \"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n


    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Begin forwarded message: From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com> Subject: EPISODE 376 THE FACE OF MODERN AGRICULTURE – ANTHONY ACRES….2021 Date: June 26, 2021 at 3:08:23 PM EDT To: askeoch@bellnet.ca EPISODE 376    THE FACE OF MODERN AGRICULTURE – ANTHONY ACRES – 2021 alan skeoch June 2021 CORPORATE FARMING:  STRIKING A DEAL WITH ANTHONY ACRES There are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}