Ontario Nature Youth Challenge

Nature is

Kenny
Grade 7 – Pleasant Corners Public School in Vankleek Hill

Explain the different of nature to your family’s well being. Wow, nature has everything to do with my family. We are Ontario dairy farmers.

I have been blessed to grow up in such a rich rural environment and realize that not all children are as lucky as I am. My family owns and operates a small Ayrshire dairy farm just outside of Vankleek Hill. Growing up, I have come to realize that my family’s survival has to do with most aspects of nature, such as climate, landforms, and the ecosystem we are in. As I became more interested in farming, I knew that is what I wanted to do. The atmosphere, the thrill of dealing with animals, and of course, driving tractors…

Yet farming is not all fun and games. It is a career that takes hard work, and of course, some luck with the weather. The fact that it is not sunny all year long makes it hard for us to plan what to do. Whenever the weather comes on, we are silent, for that is what we plan our week on. Will we cut hay on Sunday? Or, wait until Tuesday so we can get those bales of hay picked up before it rains. It is very hard though to plan ahead, because as we all know weather can change quickly.

As I told you before, we are dairy farmers. We milk purebred Ayrshires. Sometimes these animals do not have the right adaptations to survive in our ecosystem. In the summer, we can have very intense heat at times. These conditions are not appropriate for humans or cows to be outdoors, especially when they are due to calve. We could end up losing a calf or even the cow! It is not only summer that takes a toll on the animals in Ontario though. We can get very harsh winters and if your barn is not well insulated that young calves who have not fully adapted to the temperature could get very sick! This is why most farmers, my dad included, breed most of their cows so they will be due in the spring and early fall months.

In addition, we have many other species of animals in our ecosystem and not all are friendly. Animals such as fishes, coyotes, wolves, and of course insects all thrive in our environment. Some of these predators have been known to attack and kill domestic animals. Therefore, certain precautions need to be taken. Page wire fences make it hard for large animals to get in and out of our pastures, and newborn calves are brought inside, out of danger. You may ask how insects affect our family’s well being. Well, insects and other plant-eating bugs love nothing better than to chow down on a nice field of corn or alfalfa. Out west in the prairies, insects have been known to eat entire fields. That could be several hundred acres of hard work, demolished!

The landforms that surround my family also affect our business. We are situated around lowlands and hills, making it difficult to plan where we will plant our crops. Our fields situated in lowlands seem to attract rain, and sometimes too much of it. This means we will have to tile the land to achieve good crop quality. Many of our fields are situated on hills. In most cases, these are the most successful fields because of the amount of sunlight they get. However, these fields also have a great amount of stones and gravel, so there is a bit more work to be done (we must pick stones). So by looking at our fields and where they are situated we find, depending on the year, which fields will be most successful in growing good quality crops.

So, as you see, nature has a lot to do with my family’s well being. In fact, it has even more to do with my family’s success!

Ontario Nature gratefully acknowledges Dow Chemical Canada Inc. for sponsoring the Ontario Nature Youth Challenge Essay Writing Contest.