John and Marilyn Denys from Parkhill in Middlesex County, winners of the Conservation Farm Award for 1998.

Tour A

Emile Masschelein discusses his orchard with over 500 varieties of apples, some dating back to the 1600's.

Simon Willemse and Helmut Speiser, Ag. Engineer University of Guelph/Ridgetown College, discuss the ability of various nozzle and spray technologies to penetrate an edible bean canopy for white mould control. A UV sensitive dye was added to water and applied using various nozzles, pressures, and air assist, to check for coverage of the bean plants. Participants were invited to view plants under UV light in a dark shop during the tour, or in the field after dark.

Steve Harburn, Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority, discusses the interaction of agriculture and our water and forest resources.

The first bus load of people at the seed treatment talk, with Brian Hall and Nathan Weir.

Brian Hall discussed double cropped soybeans.

Brian Hall, OMAFRA Soil and Crop Advisor in Clinton, and Nathan Weir, OMAFRA/Novartis summer assistant, discuss soybean seed treatments, soybean row widths, and double cropping soys.

Tour B

Joe Thomson discussing the use of a 20 ' rotary chopper in wheat stubble in mid August. This controls weeds emerging after wheat harvest and prevents weed seed set, thus reducing long term weed control costs. This also reduces competition for the under seeded red clover.

Denys Farms Flexicoil Air seeder with custom built (Kearney Planters) soybean/wheat toolbar. Soybeans are planted with Kinze row units on 15" centres with the ability to apply fertilizer through single disc fertilizer openers between the rows. For wheat, all units are used to plant, resulting in 7.5" rows.

from Forest Farm Equipment discusses the use of a Case/DMI deep tillage machine.

Close up look at the Case/DMI deep ripper.

Jerry Bernink from Arkona Machine Shop explains the operation of the Rawson Zone Builder deep tillage tool.

Greg Stewart, corn lead with OMAFRA/University of Guelph discusses the results of trials in reduced or no-till situations with various pieces of tillage equipment and the impact on yield and soil resistance.

Walking Tour

Peter Johnson Soil and Crop Advisor for Elgin, Middlesex and Lambton. Crop diagnostics stop on the walking tour at John Denys. This corn plant doesn't have zinc deficiency, it is just a genetic mutation. Later on we had a lively discussion on the pros and cons of genetically modified organisms (GMO).

The "Master Chefs", from the left, Ross Desjardine, Rob Cornelis, Ron McRae, Warner Seegelken and missing from photo Steve Fonger, prepare hamburgers for the tour attendees.

This annual barbeque was sponsored by the generous donations of many local agribusinesses