Huron Soil And Crop Improvement Association Presents Annual Update Of Huronview Demonstration Farm To County Council

by Bob Montgomery

Huronview Demonstration Farm Manager Rick Kootstra says the work on the Huronview Demonstration Farm is a collaborative effort involving Huron County, the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority and the Huron County Soil and Crop Improvement Association.

Kootstra says they started almost ten years ago. They started a tiling project in 2019 that involved putting in control gates and comparing three different ways to tile in order to find a better way to tile the land and then added crop rotation, with no-till, strip till with a goal to keeping the water on the land for as long as possible. Kootstra says the second goal is making sure they're sending clean water to area rivers and that's where the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority comes in because it's extremely important that the water that finds its way back to the river is pure. 

Koostra says they are making progress but it will still be a few years before they're where they want to be, but things are moving in the right direction. Koostra admits part of their challenge is the land they're working on. It's not flat. He says there's a slopey little farm in there with three fields and there's a cemetery in the middle. Koostra says he believes a big part of the success of the Huronview Demonstration Farm is how well the three groups involved in the project work together.