Milk Producer - April 2009 - (Page 4)

EDITOR’SNOTES By Bill Dimmick THE MILK PRODUCER is published monthly by Dairy Farmers of Ontario 6780 Campobello Road, Mississauga, Ontario, L5N 2L8 EDITOR: Bill Dimmick ASSISTANT EDITOR: Sharon Laidlaw Co-ordinated by Communications and Planning Division, Bill Mitchell, Assistant Director. Change of address notices should be sent to: THE MILK PRODUCER 6780 Campobello Road, Mississauga, Ontario L5N 2L8. Subscription rates: $25.20 for one year, $46.20 for two years and $63.00 for three years in Canada (includes GST), $36 per year in the U.S., $36 per year overseas. Single copy: $2.50. Make cheques payable to Dairy Farmers of Ontario. Canada Post Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 40063866. Return postage guaranteed. Circulation: 10,000. ISSN 0030-3038. Printed in Canada. ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE James Fitzgerald and Associates, 257 Huntingdon Avenue, Stratford, Ontario N5A 6P7. Toll-free advertisers only: 1-888-460-6212 Phone (519) 273-9369/Fax (519) 273-9289 E-mail: jfitzger@milk.org Opinions expressed herein are those of the author and/or editor and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or policies of Dairy Farmers of Ontario. Publication of advertisements does not constitute endorsement or approval by The Milk Producer or Dairy Farmers of Ontario of products or services advertised. The Milk Producer welcomes letters to the editor about magazine content. Phone: (905) 821-8970 Fax: (905) 821-3160 bdimmick@milk.org slaidlaw@milk.org Website: Go to publications at www.milk.org E-mail: Scary odds Chances of a barn fire probably much worse than you think odern communications equipment has long done away with the need for those sirens that once sat atop the fire halls in small communities. I’m old enough to remember their wailing call to duty. No, I wasn’t among the volunteer firefighters—those brave folks who drop what they’re doing to help rescue their neighbours from peril. I was a reporter, photographer and editor in Small Town, Ont. for several years before taking up farm journalism full-time. I clearly recall covering a barn fire that broke out in the community where I landed my first full-time reporting job. Well after midnight, I awoke to the fire siren’s wail and followed the sound of the fire trucks to the scene. Flames had engulfed an old barn in town. It no longer housed livestock, but the local little theatre group had stored all its sets, costumes and other paraphernalia there. While no one was injured, the group lost it all, and insurance only partially covered the loss. I covered several barn fires during those early years. I got to one by hitching a ride with a snowmobiler after my car got bogged down in a drift. Another memorable blaze a few years later involved not one but two barns south of Kincardine, Ont. The first stood between Lake Huron and Highway 21, which runs parallel to the shoreline. A brisk westerly wind whipping off the lake carried sparks from the first blaze across the highway where they lit up the second barn. Our local firefighters did their best, but were unable to save either structure. These memories flooded back as I edited this month’s cover story by Sharon Laidlaw, our assistant editor, starting on page 26. What were the odds that I would have covered as many barn fires as I did? Quite high, actually. Barn fires are probably more common than you might think. The 2006 census recorded 57,211 farms in Ontario. Since the qualifier was simply selling an agricultural product, a goodly portion of them wouldn’t be considered commercial farms. Nevertheless, let’s keep that number. The same year, the Ontario Fire Marshall reported 205 barn fires. If you divide the number of farms by the number of barn fires, you get 280. This number suggests a one in 280 chance of having a barn fire if you operate a farm. Given the large number of non-commercial farms, the odds are probably even greater. Of course, you can greatly reduce the odds on your farm by taking all available fire prevention precautions. Still, there’s always a chance, and barn fires do occur far too often for comfort. As our cover story this month demonstrates, having insurance to cover lost income, as well as lost buildings and livestock, has proven prudent for dairy farm families who have had to deal with the aftermath of barn fires. As they can attest, barn fires don’t just happen to other people. M 4 | April 2009 | MilkPRODUCER http://www.milk.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Milk Producer - April 2009

Milk Producer - April 2009
Contents
Editor's Notes
DFO Chair's Message
Dairy Update
DFC Promotion
Industry Roundup
National Policy
Triumph Over Tragedy
Policy Update
Research
Applied Science
Ruminations
Markets
New'N'Noted
Back Forty

Milk Producer - April 2009