UPDATE: Brant SCIA Bus Trip to the Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois

If you are looking for a great opportunity to see the grand-daddy of all farm shows, join the Brant County Soil and Crop Improvement Association on their summer bus trip to the 60th Anniversary edition of the Farm Progress Show.

The Farm Progress Show alternates between Iowa and Illinois and this year is hosted in Decatur, Illinois on August 27, 28, 29, 2013. This is the 60th edition of what is considered to be the leading outdoor farm show in the United States. This major agriculture event gives visitors the opportunity to see the latest equipment, crop supplies, field demonstrations, livestock handling and equine events, includes a Ride ‘n Drive, rural life programs and entertainment, arts and crafts, and more. If you enjoy Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show, than you won’t want to miss this trip!

Click here for compete event details.

IMPORTANT: Peel SCIA Spring Bus Trip to eastern Ontario next week CANCELLED!

Please note that the Peel SCIA Spring Bus Trip to eastern Ontario for next week has been CANCELLED. The organizing committee assembled an impressive lineup of tour stops and will be -rescheduling the event as a Summer or Fall bus trip. Details to be announced.

UPDATE: Peel SCIA Bus Trip to Eastern Ontario

The Peel SCIA have finalized details on their upcoming spring bus trip to Eastern Ontario.

The final agenda includes many innovative and interesting operations, including the family operation of Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) past president Max Kaiser. The tour agenda should be of interest to many SCIA members.

Click here to access the updated information.

UPDATE: Brant SCIA Production Day & Bus Trip Information

The Brant SCIA have finalized details on two of their upcoming events:

• WED. MARCH 20 – Brant SCIA Production Day
• MON. AUG. 26 to THURS. AUG. 29 – Brant SCIA Bus Trip to the 60th Anniversary Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois

Click the dates above to access complete details on these events.

UPDATE: Peel SCIA Spring Bus Trip

Updated: March 28, 2013 

IMPORTANT: Please note the organizers of this bus trip have cancelled the trip for April 2 and 3. It will be re-scheduled to a later time.

TUES. APRIL 2 & WED. APRIL 3 – Peel SCIA Spring Bus Trip  

to the Kingston/Napanee/Belleville area

TIME

• Departure at 7 am on Tuesday, April 3 from the Brampton Fairgrounds
• Return at 7 pm on Wednesday, April 4

COST

• $250 per person (includes overnight accommodation at the Kingston Holiday Inn, bus and most meals)

DETAILS

• Comfortable coach or half bus (depending on number of participants)
• Members requested to please bring their own lawn chair
• Open to all OSCIA members and their families, all welcome.
• Not an OSCIA member? Add $30 to cover the cost of the 2013 membership fee.

TOUR STOPS

• Ian Greydanus Grafton – Cash crop farm, on-farm elevator, side dress with complete fleet of owned equipment for anhydrous. Doing land clearing and buying more land. Farms a variety of soil types and uses technology a lot.
• Scott and Don Honey Warkworth – Fair size cash croppers for this area, strong on marketing, keep a cow calf herd to utilize some marginal land, have developed a strong market for hay (Mainly in US), like good machinery technology, good rotations, no-till. Bought their own backhoe, and doing lots of fence removal. Scott won the provincial pasture award from the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association (OCA) a few years ago, he is a good speaker.
• Kurt and Darilyn Vanclief, Willowlee Sod Farm Limited, Ameliasburg – Cash crop farm on shallow soils, converted significant acres to sod and started with biocrops (switchgrass), and working on systems for selling biocrops and processing these new crops. Uses winter snow removal to keep equipment and manpower in use.
• Eric and Max Kaiser Napanee – 1000 acres of tough Napanee clay, farmed as one block, pullet and meat chickens, notill, big on manure management, crop rotations. Farm located on a peninsula surrounded by water and cottagers. Developed a strawberry and sweet corn business to involve the neighbourhood community in the farm. Very conscious of keeping the farm looking good to keep the neighbours happy.
• Mr. Charlie Forman, Switchgreen Energy, Seeleys Bay – Former dairy farm, converted to cash crop, took on a greenhouse for veggies and flowers heated with variety of alternative fuels, launched into biocrops (switchgrass) and has recently put in a plant to process and densify biocrops and other materials.
• Biogas Digester at Stirling Dairy Farm – Tentative
• Tom, Steve and Glenn Barrie Bowmanville – Dairy and cash crop farm big on rotations, no-till, nutrient management. Dairy barn new build because of fire couple of years ago.
• Kirk Kemp, Dave and Mike Dixon of Algoma Orchards, Clarington – Algoma Orchards are an apple growing, packing and juice plant. The building started about five years ago and is really high tech, grading on arrival so that when they get an order it is removed and packed quickly. Juice plant was added two or three  years ago, to make use of cull apples on site. Major buyers of apples across the province, even buy some from as far away as Leamington. They feature very high quality and have contracts with major chains including Walmart. They also have state of the art apple production on narrow high density rows, one of these is behind the plant on 40 or 50 acres.

REGISTRATION DETAILS

• Deadline: Friday, March 29, 2013
• Click here for online registration
• Contact Abbie Brander at 226-821-0250 or email: abbiebrander@yahoo.ca

FOR MORE INFORMATION

• President: Ed Russell at 905-843-2076 or norrus@sympatico.ca
• Secretary: Abbie Brander at 226-821-0250 or abbiebrander@yahoo.ca