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- Pride Manufacturing calls upon Mainewoodcutters and truckers to supply them with all the rawmaterials they need to create some of the many productsthey are well known for. Pride Manufacturing, LLCbegan 70 yearsago in Guilfordand in January2003 followingacquisition ofSoftSpikes andits sister com-pany, TriSportLtd. of Eng-land, this merg-er formed theworld’s pre-mier golf accessory company as Pride Golf Tee and Soft-spikes have become the world’s leading golf tee and golfcleat lines, respectively. With a move to a central plant inBurnham this company’s known dedication to the quali-ty of the wooden golf tee, Pride has expanded into a fullline of quality golf accessories, emphasizing productsmade in the U.S.A. Like LL Bean buyers have opportu-nity to order products and accessories straight from thesource. They are available on line at pridemfg.com toexamaine a wide assortment of golf tees, pencils, unbrel-las, imprinted products, golf ball markers and towels.

Established for farming interests statewide, 5 issues a year, always FREE!

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AG NEWS Focus:IndustryIndustry in inAgricultureAgriculture

MAg

The Commit-tee on Agricul-ture reportedon the reauth-

2

Ag focuspage 2

Night Camera catches thiefdriving off new L 43

Vol 4 No 2, 2012 Late Spring Ag/Industry

MAg pix

orization ofthe country’s Farm Bill in late April with expectationsthe feuding Democrats and Republicans would findequal means to give back to farmers taxes and tariffscollected on raw products imports and exports to furtherfarm programs for all commodities. A vote on the farmbill is expected in late May. The Senate could move abill targeting $23 billion in budget cuts over 10 years,while the House is likely to face cutting $33 billion dueto the budget reconciliation process being pushed byHouse leaders.

when a man scaled the Union Farm Equipment Company fence,started a $40,000 tractor and used it to push open the locked gateto load it onto his truck. The 2011 tractor backhoe was noticedon a red lift truck by passersby in several towns as it made itsway south on secondary roads; it was later reported goingAugusta south. Due to the nature of the older model truck, thenew tractor and driver was noticed by people up at that hourwho later reported it to state police by calling 1-800-452-4664.

A bold theft in thenight was caught on surveil-lance camera March 17 at 2 am

Recentfires have hurt several farmers whowork various commodities in the stateand while some were covered with in-surance, some were not and some withlimited insurance spawned residual ef-fects to hit many producers. A fire at themeat processing plant in Etna owned by

in early springleft some customers with animals in thelockers and people waiting for orderedmeat. This became a tall order for theWatsons to rebuld the plant and sort outlater. Another fire in Sherman cost

200 pigs and he stillawaits insurance settlement to restart his business. A recentfire at , only partially covered,has …..

Amovement to make municipalordinances stronger than staterules is finding continued sup-port across Maine as propo-nents meet in various venues todiscuss the recent past as re-gards Blue Hill farmer DanBrown who admits to sellingmilk from his one cow to neigh-bors with-out a statepermit todo so.Brown’sargumentis finan-cial in that state rules for dairyproduction permitting requireinvestment beyond scale for asingle family cow productionlevel. The Commissioner ofAgriculture, Walter Whitcomb,himself a dairy producer, waspresent at a recent meeting held

in Ellsworth and said while Maine law per-mits raw milk to be sold, such raw milk sell-ing must first have farm permits applied.Blue Hill sought to bypass that fact with itsown farming ordinance passed in spring 2011to ostensibly allow local food find buyers attown approved locations under the 10thAmendment to the US Constitution that nostate or federal rule supercede food sover-eignty resolutions as passed by municipalitiesallowing for the sale of locally grown pro-duce, seed, processing and exchanges of food.

road debate A number of meetings have been

held around various parts of Maine where aproposed east west highway may have someimpact upon the economy and ecology of thepotential new roadbed with Cianbro CEO Pe-ter Vigue leading the discussions. The re-cent legislative bill sponsored by DougThomas has had Thomas attend some meet-ings to defend the proposed link between At-lantic Canada and

East West

Maine with hereastern provinces.

We have a reporton page 11 that out-lines the proposedroadbed, some ofthe detractors andproponents withnew information re-garding the possi-ble siting of thesame across Maine.

Farm Fact #1: Augur: Opposite of Bode: He augurs’ well the post - bodes ill the fence.

Farm bill passesSenate Committee

Peter Baldwin

Published for farming interests statewide, 5 issues a year, always FREE

An independent farm journal

Albion farmstand sunflowersPhoto by Anah McCready

Vol 3 No 4 Fall Hunt / Butchers Issue 2011

Farmer Fact # 1: Abalone: Edible marine snail. A flattened, oval, spiraled pearl shell

CHARLESTON - The new home formounted equestrian contestants showing atvarious state fairs throughout the summergather now at Maple Lane Farms under theauspices of an invested arrangement withthe farm and the association to use 100head of young steers here for runningthrough choreographed testing and stan-dard fair competitions. This makes for acentral location to practice and generatetourist interest in the growing sport locallyas a weekend practice event. The action asthis picture attests, is dramatic. A summa-ry of the season just past starts on page 3.

PITTSFIELD - The CEOfor Cianbro and others in-volved and working to-wards building a new eastwest highway across Mainefrom Calais to CoburnGore, Peter Vigue, toldMainely Agriculture thatthe project has gonethrough many changesfrom the original plan butlargely is the same concept.A private and public roadnetwork taking existing im-proved state routes andprivate logging roads moredirectly across centralMaine from New Bruns-wick into Quebec provinc-es - as the crow flies - willbe done by building newspurs. It will involve landpurchases and placement

of roads along existingelectric, other utility andlogging corridors. Pendingagreements to eventuallytravel along these existingvistas and make futuretransport far less expensivefor farmers, loggers, ship-pers and consumers want-ing access to westernCanada and our Americanstates is part of the invest-ment grade feasibilitystudy nearly completed.Some of the stretches willbe toll roads to pay forthese largely private infra-structure improvementsand will be paid for by theusers. A map inside showstowns to benefit from theseimprovements with nearbyaccess. Continued page 2.

East-West Roadstill in planning

Central Maine Team Penning1st season at new home

Maine view fall, 2011

Tree line sky in central Maine.Photo by Randa Higgins

Daniel Nilrem Photography

MILLINOCKET AREA -The sale of two mills locallyends a five month shut downsiege for workers here. Tak-ing the prior mill name,Great Northern Paper, CateStreet Capital of Ports-mouth, NH completed allpreliminary paperwork to dothe deal minus state environ-mental permitting, Sept 16and 29. Some 250 workersout of a job - part of 21%unemployment tally region-ally - now have opportunityto return to work. See pg. 2.

Article by the publisher

Photo by Ellen MacMillan

LePage to merge Ag & ConservationAUGUSTA - Gov. Paul LePage has two departmentheads in favor of his notion to merge the department ofConservation with Agriculture. A bill is being draftedfor the January session of the Legislature to consider thisand may pass muster. Agriculture Commissioner WalterWhitcomband Commis-sioner BillBeardsley havepublicly statedit would savethe state mon-ey as both de-partments havedual missionsfor some areasof public ser-vices, such asmarketing.

MOFGA Fair

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Likely around An-droscoggin and Frank-lin Counties, therearen’t many owners ofan excavator, a smallmanufacturer, sawmiller, farm tractor,skidder owner, farmimplement dealer, col-lector of antique trac-tors and assortedfarming, industriallytraditional craftsmanthat hasn’t used the ma-chine services provid-ed by Navy veteranHoward Towle. Withthree different sizelathes, milling mach

Machine gear tradesman repair2 Industry/Agriculture - Mainely AgLate Spring Issue 2012

machines makes for a tidy operation. Whenneeded Towle has 2 surface grinders and 2 cutoff saws. While he no longer does bearingswork he stocks a good supply of steel, plateand can precisely cut up to two inch plate steel.

Schw

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Towle’s location of the business he calls The Great White BuffaloMachine shop is right on busy Route 2 - the Wilton Road - Farm-ington. A built up area once seriously considered to become therecognized east west highway for Maine. Today’s traffic is te-dious to get in and out of small businessessuch as this and many businesses dot thelandscape on this route from downtownFarmington all the way to and into down-

Wilton. This geographydoesn’t stop customersfrom driving into the dirtyard outside, knowingthat Howard will be wait-ing to off load heavyequipment for repair.Dealing in square, angleand round stock up to 6”in diameter make hismetal inventory and ex-perience what people de-pend upon time aftertime. It is a craft likemany in farming thatwhen needed is difficultto find and Towle saidhis time in the US Navywas well spent in wartime learning this craftand it has stayed withhim all these years togive him a living servingcustomers needing fabri-cation. Call him at 578-1096.

Farm Fact #2: Dirty nails: Badge of work for soils toil, wet tooth pick helps ‘til H20

Edie Kirshner& Wally SinclairCall, email965-2332

322-4601ediekirshner@yahoo.com

pvsmilksheep@aol.comOr

Team Sheep Shearingwith

MAg pix

MAg Agriculture

- The University ofMaine at Fort Kent Board of Visitors’

presented aninformational forum on the future of“Mining in Maine” and the potential formining development of Bald Mountain,on May 3 at the UMFK campus. Jim Irving, president of J.D. Ir-ving, Limited was guest speaker for theforum.A bill to change the state’s mining laws,LD 1853,

, passed

both chambers of the state legislatureearlier this month and signed by Gover-nor Paul LePage. The law would holdsignificant potential for the mining ofgold, silver, copper and zinc on BaldMountain, which is located northwestof Ashland and Portage. Bald Mountainis owned by J.D. Irving and Prentiss &Carlisle.

2012 Mainely Agriculture Agriculture in Industry Late Spring 3

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Sam Sides faced a trage-dy most farmers have nightmares about,losing animals in a barn fire and to behelpless to save them.

drove the distance to the farmon Sleeper Road and could see howarea fire departments had all they coulddo to provide the water and get allequipment to this loca-tion to be much good atputting out the fire ofsuch a large barn. Thatdone, with all otherbuildings saved, Samand family took 8straight days to get allcleaned up and eitherburied or moved to de-molition dumps. Fornow, only a cementslab remains awaitingthe decisions of his in-surance carrier to helpthe young farmer ei-ther reenter growingpork at the same level he had been usedto or to reinvest and increase the level ofthe agriculture he had developed overthe last three years. The acreage this farm has,helps make housed pig farming a viableenterprise for Sam Sides and whilesome months saw feed costs range from$3-7,000 per month in expenditure de-pending upon the number of head inproduction, Sam Sides has confidencein a restart happening if insurance al-lows. As he is able to raise about 70% ofthe feed needed there at the farm, theproduction formula he depends uponhas room for profit and reinvestment,season after season.

These animals were out ofstock originally purchased in Iowa andtrucked back to Maine. The Landracebreed with Duroc males used for get-ting sows in heat were matched withartificial breeding to create livestocksales developed through both Maple

Lane Farms of Charleston and contractswith Hannaford Stores. HannafordStores want Sides to reenter the agricul-ture and soon for the “natural” grademeat animals he raises. As fodder con-sists of native oats, barley, corn, thepork is well accepted by consumers inthe cuts provided by Maple Lane Farm.

Depending upon a pending insurancesettlement Sam cannot say to what ex-tent he will reenter pig raising here butcites his long personal history with rais-ing the same since childhood, collegeand after. His agricultural school in thewest centered on pigs and he workedfarms there to find a system he couldmatch here. When he knows what hehas to work with in regards to funds, hewill examine the type of structure hewill need to build on the old slab tomake the new operation viable. He alsoknows that planting season is almost athand and so must be ready to providethe fodder for animals he does not yetown and plan another long trip out westto buy new livestock, when and if thatbecomes possible yet again. Likewise,he has debts remaining from previousprocessing and other miscellaneousfarm debts to clear off before reinvest-ment can begin. A subject he wantssettled as soon as possible.

Pig farmer to start over

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Farm Fact #3: Nabob: Wealthy Indian; “Nabob of negativity” phrase of VP Agnew ‘70s.

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The importance of the reign of terror within and without the middle east at this time of selfindulgence from American banks to Wall Street and even words of war from our presidentialcampaign camps amid what is now openly called the Great Recession is played upon by thosewithin the greater middle east region casting the United States and her allies as the bad guys.As we - indeed - were first and last (one hopes) nation on earth to ever have used the A bomb.It is no wonder we have the legacy of that weapon necessary then as an ultimate weapon tohave something to say in regards to further promulgation of such weapons - no matter whereand when or in what form - a so called dirty nuke or tech savvy nuke, until the end of time everbe used. It is our watch to lead. We hold the responsibility for having used it to end a terrible,terrible war and see to it that continued semi-enemies such as the Russian state or other Rogue“nations” still nursing muddled dreams of totalitarianism via theocratic or mafia style greedsold under the table from Russian and Chinese services to other bad guys thereby winking-marching orders for the Syrian dictator to operate under a false notion of self protectiongeo-politically. Nation states have no credibility calling themselves nations if they cannot seethe logic of world peace at the United Nations or the Hague and otherwise lean upon paid-offvoting member states for carte blanche for continued killing of their own people by the thou-sands in the name of protecting the potentate. That is rivers of blood on the hands of theChinese and Russian votes at the UN as much as any historical Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin, or Nero.Appeasement to petro dollars by communist new capitalists. Our splendid antique isolation-ism for America now long gone that our economy is drained by policing for peace the mess ofothers in this new time of religious dementia couched as legal by the UN security councilvoting with an absence of logic.

I write this on Easter’s Day not just as a Methodist but as a practical matter. We (all)can aim guns and talk large but in the end we must meet our makers within or without the threegreat religions and finally God. There are not 72 virgins awaiting those who promote terrorwhen the true virgins are on the ground following orders either on poppy seed or warpeddefinition of theocracy. Perhaps we are put here to go forth and multiply and perhaps not but,containment of our unruly comrades within the constructs of mother earths’ many societies andher flora and fauna is all that really matters on earth, not just ourselves as stewards, ultimateleaders, as God has taught most humans. Now, as we near our summer warmth in four seasonlands such as Maine, may we all have grand vistas in 2012 and a slow down of tempers andtantrums and at last, sense and sensibilities within the voting booth in the fall. The rigors of theArab Spring continues now into its second summer within most of the Middle East, Afghani-stan Pakistan and possibly Iran. It is not about to end soon until those imprisoned people say itwill. That is their manifest destiny under the rule of world law and all must face world law inthe final analysis. Small worlds collide and fall eventually. Make no mistake about it, what goesaround comes around for all dictators either in peace or by poison in a cement bunker or beforeGod.

Ronald Reagan, Actor, delivered a speech at a California Press Club in July, 1963. Iknow this not from the Internet or a decent personal education but from finding the samespeech copy left in my high school yearbook - the Junior Exhibition I won at town hall -repeating Reagan about encroaching control. America and her allies do not seek encroachingcontrol over any nation’s ability to defend it self from outside aggression but at present, we cansee clearly from the skies and on the ground what is fact or fiction in the name of theocracy vsdemocracy. In the name of democracy vs theocracy, theocracy will always lose in the frame-work of terror or war. As if any war has winners and losers. In Maine and our other 49 states,there are remnants of Native American Nations. These are the true first nations within a nationwho see the value of mother earth peace and her new Global Village within the onslaught of asuggested 21st century peace. Pity the North Korean people starving to launch failed war headsand not knowing the result, total failure and folly lost into the sea. It is no wonder we canceledan order to ship food to the same regime as a result of world wide condemnation of this missilelaunching and a recent promise to behave as a world citizen state. It was a lie to all. Punishmentbegot. Arab Spring - ongoing in Syria, a catastrophe for the victims of slaughter by cowardlyshelling ordered by a so called medical doctor. God fear the Syrian military taking such orders

Agriculture in Industry / Late Spring Issue Mainely Agriculture 2012

4

Wallace Sinclair, founder ph 965-2332Editorial offices in Lincoln & Brownville

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WNS is not harmfulto humans, thoughhumans can aid inspreading thisdisease, by notfollowing theproper decon-tamination pro-cedures, thuscarrying the fun-gus with themand spreading itto non infectedsites. Scientistare still learninghow this new fungusthat thrives in a cold

damp environmentbehaves and are seek-ing a way to stop this

disease. Bats have alarge part in our eco-

systems pest controlnamely in the insecteating field. I'm sure I

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Editorial Contributorsif the world allows oth-er regional states to goin and clean that messup. We know thisnew Nero and wife aregoing to hell in a handbasket and Iran seeksnukes. Both facts un-acceptable. And eachpoints to further en-croaching military con-trol within the fervor ofa potentate vs personalfreedom.

It is our volunteer mission to support and encourage a vibrant and thrivingreturn to family farming / foresty / fishing along with building a more healthy farminfrastructure, a sustainable and wider regional economy based upon agricultural tradi-tions handed down for centuries. Such agrarianism is indeed a culture at the same timeit is an economy. We foster and support such a local agriculturally based economy, statewide.

- M I S S I O N S T A T E M E N T -

Farm Fact #4: Collide: Haphazard bump in the night. Bodies in motion, accident.

In my experience Ihave found thatknowing there is aproblem, and know-ing the extent of aproblem are two dif-ferent things. Formost people gettingrid of the Bat nests intheir barns and attics,it seems like the batpopulation is doingfine. But the reality istheir not! Roost num-bers are dwindling atan alarming rate. To-day's topic of discus-sion: White NoseSyndrome in Bats.What is White nosesyndrome? (WNS) iswhen the muzzle andwings of a Bat arecovered in a whitefungus. This Fungusnamed GeomycesDestructans gets intothe skin of a Bat. Howthis Fungus actuallykills bats is still un-known. What isknown is WNS hasaround a 90% mortali-ty rate in sites thathave confirmed cas-es, and since WNSwas discovered in2006 over a millionBats have died, andWNS has been con-firmed in Maine.Here are a few thingsto keep in mind.

I was late getting on my way to Freeport, not a lot of traffic goingthat way this time of year but was able to hitch a ride with the RiverRat as he had some boots to have repaired as well. So we threw allgear in the back of his 1949 Ford truck and I climbed into the frontseat. The trip was long but not altogether unenjoyable. I soon foundout why there was hardly any traffic back at home they appear to behere in Freeport on account of the Memorial day sales. The RiverRat had to ride around the block twice before we found a place topark. Good thing the doors are said “Never to close”. It didn't takeme long to realize my new fishing pole was out of the question,prices have sky rocketed since the last time I was in there. Before Icould complain I was distracted by the sound of the River Ratyelling at a panic stricken sales girl who had told him, his bootswere beyond repair. I managed to talk him into taking the replace-ment pair and he stormed off angrily cutting in front of a youngcouple leading to more verbal malcontent. While River Rat waitedin the truck I had my boots repaired and found a rack that allowedme to get four pairs of wool slacks and two nice cotton shirtssuitable for tasks I have in mind. The trip home was quiet unless youcount us being pulled over, but I'll save that tale for another day.

On the RFD with MainelyAgsBy Jack Strout

Alors que dans quelquesheures, nous connaîtrons lenom du ‘champion’, le futurprésident de la Républiquefrançaise, que les jeux nesont pas encore faits, maisqu’il y a de fortes chancesque François Hollande soitélu, je ne peux m’empêcherd’avoir un goût amer dans labouche.Non pas que je craignel’arrivée de François Hol-lande au pouvoir, au contrai-re, il est bien possible qu’ilsoit un meilleur président dela république que son pré-décesseur, qui a réussi à semettre à dos une grande par-tie de la France, mais il y a

15 jours, un troisième partis’est invité dans cette élec-tion : le Front National, partinationaliste et fascisant, quirassemble de plus en plus defrançais autour de sescouleurs, qui aujourd’huin’ont plus honte de dire :« J’ai voté pour le FN. »Cela est très inquiétant, etannonce des temps mauvais,car que se passera t’il si dans5 ans, ce parti fasciste, qui sedonne des airs républicainsparvient au pouvoir ? c’estpourquoi cette bataille decoqs qui se joue devant nosécrans depuis quelques moisa quelque chose de futile,mais je n’en serai pas moinscontente si le champion apour nom ‘François’.

Within in a few hours,we will know the name of the 'Champion',the future president of the FrenchRepublic; games are not done yet, but it islikely that Francois Hollande is elected,yet, I can’t prevent from having a bittertaste in the mouth.Not that I fear the arrival to power ofFrancois Hollande, on the contrary, it isquite possibly he will be a better presidentthan his predecessor, who has succeededin alienating a large part of France againsthim, but 15 days ago, a third party has beeninvited in this election: the Front National,a fascist nationalist party, which bringstogether more and more French around itscolors, who today are no longer ashamedto say: "I voted for the FN. "This is very disturbing, and announce badtimes in France, because what will happenif in five years, this fascist party, whichgives himself Republicans airs come topower? That's why this battle of roosterswhich has been playing in front of ourscreens these recent months has beensomething trivial. Nevertheless I’ll bepleased if the next champion's name is'Francois'

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Photos & Stories for tourists. June 9

2012 Mainely Agriculture Agriculture/Industry Spring Issue 5Maine Grange NewsOur activities each quarter

acknowledged themany works of Geoff & Ruth Ragsdale ofRichmond and Eleanor Everson of Dresdenpresenting them with

in April. The Ragsdalesactively support veterans, scouts, hungry, andlonely with activities through Legion, BoyScouts of America, Richmond Area FoodPantry, Meals on Wheels, Special Olympicsand Dresden Richmond United MethodistChurch. Ruth crochets prayer shawls, hats,etc. to donate. Active in the Arnold Expedition andall the local Historical Societies, Eleanor hasserved on the Dresden Planning Board, on TheDresden Volunteer Fire Department, as Trust-ee of Bridge Academy, the first Administra-tive Assistant for Dresden and served as TownClerk working out of her home for 4 years.

packed ‘em in for degree day!

ex-plained that her interest in joining the grangewas based on her ongoing interest in agricul-ture. was part of a group of sixinitiates who travelled all the way from

to receive their degree instruction.

admitted that her introduction to the grangewas a result of her managing an organic farmand selling products at the Bangor GrangeFarmers’ Market. Like many of the candi-dates, Denise was obligated some time agoand actually holds the office of Lady AssistantSteward.

Dr. Steven Johnson, UMaine Extension Crop Specialist reports, this year, Mainepotato seed has been planted down the Mississippi, into Texas, acrossthe Deep South, and back up the Eastern Seaboard without issue. We have had no late blight in seed screenings or plant-ings from Maine seed for at least the past 3 years, more likely thepast 10 years, owing to proactive efforts. This year, over 170 lots of potato seed have been screenedfor the presence of late blight and, yes, the pathogen has been foundin few lots. These lots have been voluntarily culled out (although they still passed certified seedlaws and requirements). We are being proactive in trying to deal with the problem in the mosteffective and economical method, namely, controlling the initial inoculum that comes frominfected seed. For more details contact Steve Johnson at the University of Maine CooperativeExtension, 57 Houlton Road, Presque Isle, Maine 04769, 1-207-764-3361 stevenj@maine.edu

The recentacquisition of 2 miles of Seboeis Lake shore-land with other properties, is expected to en-hance outdoor recreation, tourism, publicaccess and economic development through-out the greater Millinocket region, accordingto state and conservation officials. The $2.7million Lakeview land expands the SeboeisLands Unit managed by the Maine Bureau ofParks and Lands (BPL), to more than 21,000acres and the total parcel purchased amountsto 5,741 acres.

It was funded through federal and state mon-ies and purchased from the Bigelow TimberCorp. of Madison. As a result, the purchasebrings into state ownership a key linkage in aregional system of snowmobile and ATVtrails between Milo and Millinocket and in-cludes important shoreland and associatedwetlands. Designated as “Public ReservedLands” by the BPL, it will continue to bemanaged for timber production, recreationand wildlife, officials said.

Seboeis Lake is popular for boating, wateraccess, and its views of Mount Katahdin andthe Barren-Chairback Range. Maintaininglarge intact sections of productive forestlandwill complement and enhance the region’sforest-based economy. Key regional ATVand snowmobile trail linkages on the proper-ty will facilitate future trail investments andsupport outdoor recreation and tourism de-velopment.

Conservation of the property creates one ofthe only remaining linkages for ATV travelalong the 50-mile-long, multi-use trail run-ning between Millinocket and the southernand western parts of the state. Nearly 12 milesof the proposed trail travels through the Se-boeis Land Unit and now links north andsouth legs of the trail, which both terminatedat the property’s borders. The public now canaccess approximately 5 miles of ITS 111,which links southwest to the Brownville areaand north to the Jo-Mary region and directlynorth through Millinocket.

The addition of the southern Seboe-is Lake property also will serve as an anchorto Maine's largest contiguous block of con-servation land -- more than 500,000 acres.From this property, visitors can travel acrossentirely protected land in all directions, northalong either side of the lake, through the Ka-tahdin Forest to the Nahmakanta Reserve andon to the Canadian border, or through the 100Mile Wilderness to Baxter State Park and theAllagash Wilderness Waterway.

Paul Sannicandro, secretary of theNorthern Timber Cruisers ATV and Snow-mobile Club, a Millinocket recreation groupinstrumental in supporting the funding of theSeboeis acquisition, pointed out the five-year

Katahdin Forest Management LLC, The Trustfor Public Land and MDOC in acquiring theunique property. He also stressed the possibleimpact of the acquisition on the area as it re-lates to the newly developed Katahdin RegionMulti-Use Trail.

“This purchase is what this regionhas been relying on to encourage trail connec-tivity to the ATV system to the south,” Sanni-candro said. “It is going to expand ourrecreational and economic opportunities.

“The Katahdin region already isknown as the gateway to the Northern MaineWoods, but now we have the opportunity toenhance the potential of what ATVs can dofor our outdoor recreation and tourism devel-opment,” he said. “It’s been proven to helpeconomic development in other parts of thestate, and now it can happen here.”

The link up to central Maine snow-mobile trails and clubs, likewise to benefit allnorth and south, east and west regions.

Maine buys Seboeis Lake Shoreland

club, the KatahdinArea Chamber ofCommerce, the com-munities ofMillinocket, EastMillinocket and Med-way, Katahdin Forest

Maine spuds have no late blight screenings gave out

the communitycitizen award tohusband andwife Robbie andKathy Gray forfor over 30 years of assistance to civic projectsto include the food pantry. Over 60 visitorswere on hand to greet and thank them.

Mainely Agriculture’sSummer Issue is devoted

to State FairsHoulton to Fryeburg

15,000+ circulation state wide

Bureau of Public Lands mappingPhoto by: Jerry Monkman, Ecophotography

- Sebois Lake Canoist

Farm Fact # 5: Goldenrod: any plant, with many yellow flowers.

will attend the PCES Third Grade Performing ArtsDemonstration at 6 PM in the PCES gym Guilfordand Bookworms will attend the PCES Grade 4- 6

Concert 6 PM at PCES gym to show sup-port of the bookworm buddies. FMI contact WalterBoomsma at 343-1842. Parents and friends shouldcontact the school.

Photo courtesy of Terry Chick Like the swallows that return to

San Juan Capistrano osprey have returned toWolfe’s Neck Woods State Park say park offi-cials.

A male osprey, or fish hawk, landed at Goog-ins Island and appears to be the same male oftwo pairs that annually return to the park.While there, three immature bald eagles flewby in formation and checked out the newcom-er. The birds, which can be easily viewed byvisitors, have been a regular attraction at thepark. These birds mate for life and spend thewinter separately in more southern climes,such as Brazil. The male’s arrival is right onschedule, showing up as expected during thelast week of March to the first week of Aprilwith the female arriving the next week to befollowed in succession by the other male andfemale.

One pair always returns to the nest high in apine on Googins Island, just off the park’sshore, while the other pair nests in a tree on themainland. Soon the male will begin to addtwigs to the nest; then the pair will mate, withthe female laying two to three eggs. Bothbirds rotate the eggs and sit on them and taketurns bringing back food to the nest. Bothparents later hunt for food to feed the newlyhatched chicks. For more information aboutviewing the birds, call the park at: (207) 865-4465.

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While most people would agree the above bum-per sticker is clever it is not always accurate in Get Real, Get Maineterritory. Professor Mark Lapping, executive director of the MuskieSchool at the University of Southern Maine, said at the University ofMaine at Farmington's Maine Fiddlehead Festival, Apriil 29, "Aquarter of our children are poorly fed. Who's going to do the (farm)work in the future? How are we going to sustain the (farm) wealth ofthe state if you've got the most aging population and at the same timea quarter of your youth are poorly fed and come from homes that arefood insecure? If more produce and meat products were produced inMaine, farmers markets - already growing in the state - would seegreater benefit given a culture weaned from spending money outsidethe home. If 40 % of all purchased food were not wasted, as is oftenthe case, reports Lapping, the 50% of this same dollar outflow islikewise spent at fast food places or other restaurants. We dependupon food trucked into Maine instead of becoming farmers our-selves. He said the Good Shepherd food bank in Auburn supports600 food cupboards all over Maine. We used to have chicken pro-cessing, vegetable canning, larger dairy numbers and fish packingplants on the coast. At one time, the professor said, there were 300varieties of apples grown here and now, only about 5 varieties.

This begs the question why are there so many obese chil-dren in Maine. The Maine Public Health Association has listed thefollowing five policies to affect childhood and adult obesity in thestate: 1) Increase the amount of physical activity available to chil-dren in schools as data says Maine does not come up to nationalstandards. This is 150 minutes per week for grammer schools and 225minutes for middle and high schools vs Maine with 36 minutesaverage and 86 minutes respectively. 2) Improve nutrition standardsfor all food available in schools. Students have access in schools tovending machines with soda and snacks not suited to good nutritionand these should not be available. 3) Add physical activity andnutritional standards to licensure and certification criteria for childcare facilities to foster better habits with younger children. 4) Advo-cate for menu labeling rulemaking process as part of both consumerand school menu planning to work towards a better track record offood use in homes and public schools. 5) Provide Maine people withaccess to nutrition information at chain restaurants across the state.If food addiction is part of the reason for a rampant obesity in Maineand elsewhere it may be for the following reasons, say mental healthprofessionals: Being obsessed with food. Having a lack of self-control with food. Bingeing despite negative consequences. Re-membering a sense of comfort with food and being unable to stop.Having a need to eat which results in a physical craving for food.Not unlike alcoholics, these same mental cravings for food are verysimilar to those issues of problem drinkers and treatments may needto be the same in practice.

6 Agriculture/Industry Spring Issue Mainely Agriculture 2012

The Guild be-lieves thatcheese of thehighest qualitycan only bemade with athorough andregularly refreshed knowl-edge of food safety. TheMaine Cheese Guild pro-motes and sponsors regularopportunities to learn aboutbest practices for cheesemaking. The Guild also be-lieves that the best way forprofessional cheese makersto guarantee the quality oftheir product is by being ap-propriately licensed by theMaine Department of Agri-culture, as only licensedcheese makers are legally al-lowed to sell cheese to thepublic, and only licensedcheese makers receive feed-back from the dairy regula-tory inspectors throughregular testing for contami-nation and facility inspec-tions. This feedback iscritical, together with on-go-ing education, in maintain-ing the high quality ofaward-winning Mainecheese were recent wordsoffered in recent testimonyagainst a bill in the last legis-lature to relax regulatoryrules re milk and milk prod-ucts.

No Farms No Food

Dan Brown ofGravelwood Farm in BlueHill is being sued by the De-partment of Agriculture forselling raw milk and otherproducts from his farmwithout a license from thestate, even though Blue Hillpassed a Local Food Com-munity Self-GovernanceOrdinance allowing thepractice. A total of sixtowns in Maine have passeda similar ordinance. Sayingthat buying local produce issupporting family farming,"There's total accountabili-ty when you buy from asmall farm," Brown argues."I mean if I sell bad meat tomy neighbor up the road,he's right on my door stepthat night." Maine Agricul-ture Commissioner WaltWhitcomb said state in-spectors performed tests on

Brown's milk and claimedthe level of bacteria was toohigh. "It exceeds the toler-ance. It has the potential tobe dangerous," Whitcombis quoted. Brown has al-ways denied that, saying hissample was mishandled bythose who took it. Brownand his attorney's filed a re-quest under the Freedom OfAccess Act to see all corre-spondence about his caseand alleges some emailswithin state governmentprove he's being targeted inan attempt to discourageother municipalities frompassing similar food ordi-nances like the one BlueHill. "They saw me at afarmers market in Blue Hilland the next day there's anemail that says looks likewe found our test subject."

Whitcomb deniesBrown is beingtargeted, sayingit's a publichealth issue. "It'stoo bad that thetowns have takenthis action," Whit

comb said, "be-cause eventhough it's a pop-ularity contest,we all support thefarm community,it isn't doing any-thing to changethe law. The lawsstill apply to Danand everybody

else."

A Maine farmer in dis-agreement with the

movementis Eric Rector who ownsMonroe Cheese Studio. "Itjust belies reality to say thatit's too hard to get licensed."He thinks Maine has someof the most liberal laws inthe country when it comesto selling raw dairy, arguingthat getting licensed will ac-tually save farmers moneyin the long run. "For thedairy license they will testyour water for you, for mydairy license I pay $25.They come and test myproducts ten times a year."Rector said the state is rightto go after Dan Brown.

In fact, Maine hasa vibrant sheep, goat and

cow dairy production andprocessing craftsmen kepteducated with regular meet-ings and workshops at areafarms.

The Maine CheeseGuild was formed to servethat need to encouragerules and milk selling,cheese making statewide inthe last decade.

- Recognizing that schools, hospitals, and manycommercial businesses are concerned about rising oil pricesand their dependence on fossil fuel, Pelletco LLC, aMaine-grown company, has developed an alternative highenergy, low moisture patented pellet fuel offering signficantsavings over fossil fuels by 50-70%. Pelletco's pellet is made fromsustainable, renewable resources from Maine's forests and grass-

lands and ismixed with apolymer bind-er, creating 37-percent moreenergy in amore durableand water-re-sistant pellet.Pelletco is cre-ating jobs andkeeping dollarslocal, all actionssupporting Pel-letco's missionof Making En-ergy Local."Together wecan support thelocal economywith renewable,sustainable re-

sources," she said. Tom Wood, senior planner for the Maine De-partment of Forestry, supports the use of wood products andcommented, "It's a renewable, clean, efficient energy source and itgets us the oil bandwagon. Offering its patent under a licenseeopportunity, pellet mills can produce higher BTU energy perpound, and save on fuel delivery costs, according to ElizabethFossett, Pelletco's business development manager. Pelletco is cur-rently focused on bulk production for commercial and institutionalusers in Maine and the Northeast, expanding to the residentialpellet market later. Extensive research went into the developmentof Pelletco's patents, conducted through the University of Maine atOrono and independent,third-party laboratories. Case studies tomeasure the increased performance of the pellet fuel were conduct-ed at Poland Regional High School and the Mechanic Falls TownOffice buildings in Maine. The Poland school, which has a woodchip boiler and uses high moisture green wood chips, is unable tooperate on warm days. The blending of Pelletco fuel with the greenwood chips allows the school to operate the boiler longer, extend-ing the heating season and saving the school money. "No questionthat we saved money, and going forward we can make a biggersavings and lengthen the heating season with Pelletco pellets,"Tony Bennett, Poland Regional High School's maintenancedirector,said recently. "We wouldn't be able to do it with just chips;and that's a given." Pelletco pellet product is "unique in its durabil-ity and BTU value," said Kyle Michael, owner of Power Steam inVassalboro, an independent consultant hired to design the case

2012 Mainely Agriculture Agriculture/Industry Spring Issue 7

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Special to Mainely Agriculture by Diana Bowleystudy for Pelletco."High moisture con-tent has the greatestnegative effect onboiler efficiency sothe ability to mix thehigh BTU water-re-sistant Pelletco fuelis critical. We mea-sure operating effi-ciency and found thatPelletco com-posite fuel performedconsistently betterthan biomassalone."Testing ofPelletco pellets con-ducted in a commer-cial pellet boilerinstalled in the Me-chanic Falls TownOffice building byNorthline Energyshowed the pelletshad improved COlevels. In addition,the higher BTU fuelper pound will savethe town in fuel costsand transportation."We hope that our re-liance on foreign oilwill be significantlyless in future years,"John Hawley, Me-chanic Falls townmanager, comment-ed. FMI on convert-ing biomass pelletheating or Pelletco,contact ElizabethFossett atefossett@thepelletco.com or visitwww.pelletco.com

The MaineDairy Princess Pag-eant Committee andthe Clinton LionsClub are looking forentrants in the 2012Scholarship Pageant.This contest includes aJunior Princess, girlsage 10-13 with a cashaward, a Senior MaineDairy Princess, girls14-18 and new for 2012a Collegiate Scholar-ship award for girlsages 18-23. All of ourinformation can befound atwww.clintonlionsfair.com In the past 6 yearsthe Maine Dairy Prin-cess has grown to bean ambassador for theMaine Dairy Industry. They have helpedThe Maine Dairy In-dustry Associationand the Dairy Nutri-tion Council at differ-ent events in Maineand in Massachusetts.The Princesses havealso been recognizedby the Maine StateLegislature and theMaine State Senateand have met Gover-nor Paul LePage. Ap-plications can beobtained by callingBelinda Stoughton at426-8586. Leave a mes-sage including yourname, age and a callback number. Dead-line for applications isJuly 15, 2012.

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8 Agriculture/Industry Spring Issue Mainely Agriculture 2012

Artist’s salvage far greater than prices at recycle yards Norman Tin-

ker will turn 80 in Octoberand will host a one man artshow at Belfast Framers.He and his wife Evie lookforward to this artistic com-ing out locally althoughmany homes in the areaboast his sculptures withworks on various lawns al-ready. We first saw one ofhis sculptures at a house inHampden. Tinker comes toart in a round about wayhaving served in the Armyduring the war, he com-bines formal education withtrades he picked up fromother students and faculty ata number of schools. Whenfirst out of the Army andhanging around with theArt Students League inNYC he began a lifetime ofworking with art that start-ed watching his mother do drawing and painting as a child. Norman entered School at the

Cleveland Institute for Art and started working with steel and steelencased in concrete. Furthering his range of art, he took an MFAat Tulane University and began teaching art, sculpture and art

Norman and yard art, Belfast

history and design to other students. He leftteaching some 5 years later to do ornamen-tal iron work as it was more lucrative in thearea of Connecticut he ended up living in.He stayed with that trade from 1970-1996when he was invited to visit a former stu-dent on Little Deer Isle not far from Belfast.He loved the Maine coast and it wasn’t longbegan to make plans to retire here.

Doing ornamental work broughthim into blacksmith iron shaping that hehad picked up earlier in life and helped himmake elaborate gates, fireplace equipment,doors, etc. Years back he had joined a NewEngland group of blacksmiths who gavedemonstrations at fairs with the forge andhe thereby forged his craft with that goodinstruction getting quite good at certaintechniques that later became part of his art-work and bread and butter to customer’sneeds. Some of his customers included no-tables such as a former mayor of MexicoCity with a summer place in Connecticut, aprincess from Saudia Arabia, a cell phoneinventor and many estate jobs for new mon-ey people living close to New York City.

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The location of Norman Tin-kers welding shop was inRidgefield, CT. An areaknown for new money, manyin stocks and bonds or newtechnologies. This did not di-minish the value of his jobs hetook in, quite the contrary, hadhe been living elsewhere, helikely would not have seen thekind of prices he used to getwhile living there, howeverliving there soon became aproblem for ordinary

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Two of 5 sculptures at aHouse in Hampden

Among the objectsfor estate work that he becameknown for were spiral stair-cases of metal and balconywork. Many were elaborateand one, he mentioned wasmade for a young couple witha toddler. He got a call soon

after completing the main job to come back and make special gates so the childwould not fall down the elaborate stairs and off the balcony. By comparison, the3 gates cost the customer an additional $2500 and were a tiny price compared tothe bill for the job already paid. But they wanted the gates to protect the childand to look like a part of the original planning of the initial project, a vacationhome for the wealthy young family.

Exterior wall hanging, aboveand interior wall art, left

income people for cost of living, taxa-tion rates, and he began to think of histime spent in Maine for weeks in sum-mer and knew this would be where torelocate. When a local real estate bro-ker presented the house he now livesin, he eagerly took it and has been hereever since. He loves living here andcontinues to shape cast off metal intoobjects people love and buy for eitherlawns or inside objects of art to showguests.

Norman Tinker at 79

Farm Fact # 9 Etch: to cut, engrave furrow designs on media for making pictures

Proponents of large - and small- scale meat produc-tion have differing realities that drive their definitions ofdoing business sus-tainably. Thoserepresenting both ata recent national“Protein Innova-tion Summit”agreed, however,that if that defini-tion means usingproduction meth-ods that are argu-ably moreenvironmentallyfriendly and morecostly, then the in-dustry will have tofigure out how toovercome the chal-lenge of keepingcosts down for con-sumers to gleantrue sustainabilityand added buyerconsumers.

Convened to tackle the converging and conflicting agendasinvolved in applying sustainability farm to fork the panelistsagreed that companies large and small have to define what itmeans for them to do the right thing, but doing the right thingpresents challenges. Three top challenges discussed includ-ed:

the ability of farmer producers to define sustain-ability for themselves, rather than allowing "theoutside world" to do so;

Reducing or standardizing portion sizes of meatand convincing consumers to pay more for smallerportions; and /or

transparency about production practices. Socialmedia provides a great opportunity for farmers andranchers to show consumers who they are and thework involved in food production, day by day.

The panelists could not quite put a definitive finger on howto make 'sustainable' products more affordable for consum-ers, but they agreed that it would take partnerships betweenindustrial agriculture and smaller-scale producers to figure itout, as one to the other are on the same page when it comes toproduction of food stuffs.

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As a professional home and office organizer I helppeople gain control over their environment and work spacewith greater efficiency. Barns are no exception to the realm oforganization. Has yours become a repository for everythingfrom antique farm equipment to unsold yard sale items? Are

there crittersliving in spac-es you can't getto? Perhapsyou'd like tomake the spaceyou own, earnmoney in thiseconomy bycreating a stu-dio or work-shop. Maybeyou would liketo be able to do

projects easier without having to dig for needed tools. You don't needexpensive bins, totes and boxes, though the organizing industry wouldhave you believe otherwise, usually my clients already own all thestorage containers needed. When organizing any space you mustadhere to a chronological process of "sort, purge, contain and main-tain". If these basics are not observed your attempt at organizing canquickly become overwhelming making your mind wander to Gif-ford's Ice Cream stand instead. To "sort" you put "like" things togetherto create a "category", hammers for example. What qualifies "like" isdefined by how you will use it. You may decide to throw away some-thing while you are sorting but you should pay attention not to getdistracted by unconsciously shifting to looking for things of a another"category". You should try to do one category at a time, unless youfeel you can juggle ok. Next you "purge" the category. Look at all the hammers anddecide which to keep, give away and toss. Next you "contain" thecategory, in an old wood box for example. The final step is to "main-tain" which is to keep that category separate from others at all times.You cannot place anything in another category in the box or else itmay become the infamous "junk drawer". It needs to be super easy foryou to ID what's in the box without having to dig. People end upbuying seconds and thirds of tools they have because they can't findthe firsts. I used old wheel barrows that we no longer used to holdsummer recreation things, tarps and heavy extension cords. I wasfinally able to access needed painting supplies by spacing out thechemicals in the cupboard so they were easy to read. This also keptthem out of reach of visiting children. I used old seedling planters todivide the utility items such as old door knobs, curtain brackets, drillbits, hammers, electrical supplies, etc. so there was no need to spendmore than my time on the project. This is a glimpse into what your cluttered barn could yieldwith some investment of time. Whether your barn be a part of aworking farm or not, an orderly one brings satisfaction and addedvalue to your home.

Contributed author’s photo

10 Agriculture/Industry Spring Issue Mainely Agriculture 2012

MAg pixFreedom General Store horse tie up

Recyclers around Maine are still payinghigh prices for batteries, aluminium, steel, galvanized, ironand such brought into the many facilities that dot the land-scape throughout the state. Two years ago prices were be-tween $170-210 ton and now near $270 ton at most facilities.Junk cars bring anywhere from $300-500 depending upon theweight of the junk and the extent to which the haulers haveprepared it for sale. Not all farmers are happy with this asthefts continue.

International & specialty diet foods

MAg pix

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2012 Mainely Agriculture Agriculture / Industry Spring Issue 11

May 18, 19, 20

Farm Fact # 11 Brown Eggs: Predominant New England eggs, same prices in stores as white eggs, so grow your own.

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The recent legislativeshort term note of $300,000 to be spentfor an independent road grade study ofthe proposed new east west highwayhas a few detractors. They showed upat the recent Canadian-AmericanCross Border Conference held at theUniversity of Maine in late April.Also showing up was Cianbro Com-pany CEO Peter Vigue, a long stand-ing proponent of the concept to builda road 220 miles from the new bridgein Calais across the old Stud MillRoad, across to LaGrange, below Mi-lo, Dover, Monson, Shirley and theForks across the old Shirley Bog roadto Coburn Gore up Rte 27, just 60 milesfrom a proposed new connection tothe Trans-Canada highway at Sher-brooke and midwest markets like Buf-falo and Detroit . Canadians at thecross border conference were interest-ed in the potential economic benefitsto both the US and Canada, shouldsuch a road be built.

Among the interesting de-tails listed on the website for the con-ference outlined that Maine has:

• Fifty-five percent foreign-owned companies that are Canadian.

• There are more than 37,000jobs in the Pine Tree State that aredependent on trade with Canada.

• Canada is the UnitedStates’ largest foreign supplier of oil,nuclear fuel, natural gas and hydro-electricity.

• More than $1.4 billionworth of goods crosses the U.S.-Cana-da border each day, which is moretraffic than any other border on earth.

• Each day, an average of300,000 people cross the border.

• Maine sells more goods toCanada than any other nation — send-ing about one-third of all its exports tothe Canadian provinces in 2011.

Advancing economic inte-gration with Quebec and New Bruns-wick seems already a given before andif an east west road is ever built fromthese facts just released.

Exactly how the road will bebuilt has some design factors alreadyconsidered by Cianbro and otherstakeholders pushing the concept.Some of the road will use existing im-proved routes like Rte. 6, therebyshortening the miles of potential tollstretches with upgrades and new lanes.

Adding fuel to this fire offavor for the highway would be Lin-coln Pulp and Paper Company trans-portation spokesman Tony Stewartwho has said savings for this companywould amount to between $500,000 and$750,000 annually as many of its cus-tomers - as the crow flies - are closerto Lincoln east west than south andwest as the company sends truckspresently and adding to this, raw ma-terials incoming east west would like-wise cut costs. He added that portslike Eastport could be used for Euro-pean imports headed to the same re-gions of the US and Canada andoffloaded for the new east west roadnetwork and thereby a faster econo-my than sending the same shipsaround New Brunswick to Montrealby sea. This adds traffic to such afuture road not available presently.

Peter Vigue toldin 2008 that the beauty of

this road is the partnership betweenprivate interests and public interest.s.Such a road would actually lead tomore tourism to places like Mooseh-ead Lake, the Katahdin Region, Lin-coln Lakes and more due to theproximity and the beauty of the same.Not only would road building take ad-vantage of existing corridors such asthe Stud Mill Road, the Shirley Bog

Road, etc., feeder roads already im-proved by the state would become partof the east west planning. This willmean some redesign and further up-grading of existing road beds to meetweight limits of 137,500 pounds cur-rently the norm in Canada and what isproposed for the toll portion - if notthe public portion - of the east westdesign. DOT spokesman Ted Talbotsays the study will look at potentialtoll fees, traffic potentials, routes andthe relationship between the publicand private sector of the whole proj-ect. While Vigue may use the exam-ple of the Maine Turnpike low tollsand repayment example for a futureroad, the costs of maintaining thesame must be born by the stakeholdersoperating the road for the life of thecorridor. The state has to look at theoverall economic and environmentalfabric of the project to weigh in on thesame. It will be necessary for the fed-eral governments of the US and Cana-da to build an acceptable crossingfacility at Coburn Gore and Canadahas to build a 61 mile new road to theTrans-Canada to make the conceptfeasible from Sherbrooke and pointswest. The recent construction of anew bridge at Calais with customsbooths solves that matter on that endof the proposed road.

The sponsor of the legisla-tion to fund the study, Senator DougThomas, R-Ripley, told Dover-Fox-croft selectmen the proposed high-way crosses the Interstate just north ofOld Town, might go through north ofCharleston, south of Sebec, south ofMilo and north of Dover. But thisisn’t set in concrete. Someone’s got toplow that road, it’s going to need of-fices, and centrally located, and it’sgoing to need roughly 300 employees,relating some of the possible econom-ic benefits of the highway.

There would be $1.2 billion ofconstruction money going intothis central Maine area and localpeople would work the project asit is seen in the concept stage andit remains to be seen if it’s evenfeasible and the study could takesix to 12 months to complete saidSen. Thomas to local selectmenthis spring.

If road proponents and opponentsagree, Maine businesses arehandicapped by circuitous, slowtruck connections presently withsuch a north south reality- busi-nesses can't compete because oftrucking costs with local commu-nities plagued by heavy trucktraffic on local roads because of afreeze on weight limits on I-95until recently also have this incommon. Maine needn't be theend of the road as Geography hasplaced it as a potential crossroadsif only it can get a quality east-west connectivity. Squarely be-tween Canada's maritime prov-inces to the east and Quebec andOntario to the west. Maine's di-rect route to Detroit and Chicagolies through Montreal and Toron-to, not way south through NewHampshire and Massachusettsand New York state divertingaround the southern side of LakeErie. Vigue says staple traffic forthis toll road will be Canadianpass-through trucks. He talks atlength about virtual border con-trol that will check on trucks be-fore they reach the border,maintain electronic seals on theircargoes, eliminating the delaysnormally associated with bordercrossings. He proposes this roadwill also attract holiday and tour-ist trips to the Maine coast fromMontreal, Toronto, Detroit andChicago, he says, as well as im-proving Maine's connections tothe major metropolitan centers ofCanada and the Mid-West. Abouttwo-thirds of the route beinglooked at can take advantage oflarge tracks over private forestland. For long distances betweenI-95 and Calais on the eastern bor-der of New Brunswick , the gravel

roadbed established for truckingof logs and some of that also westof I-95 heading off somewhatnorth of westerly completes thepicture. Stud Mill, Enchanted,Shirley Mills. Normal roadmapsdon't show such haulroads be-cause it's on private property, butGoogle's satellite shows it clearly

north of State Route 9, the “Air-line” main road between Bangorat I-95 and the border at Calais,way shorter as the crow flies.

"This proposal is goodfor the environment. We canavoid communities. We don'tneed to go near any state parks."Vigue told a trucking magazine afew years ago. The road willhave to cross two substantial riv-ers - the Penobscot and the Ken-nebec. And there will be othersmall rivers and wetlands withsome hilly portions and Vigue ex-pects the project will have to gothrough a full environmental re-view process including publicoutreach and consideration of al-ternatives.

Stakeholders hope thehighway will be designed to full2+2 lanes expressway standardsas Canadians are very keen onthis for safety and have said so.

Tolling will be all elec-tronic at highway speed with acorridor for utilities and roadsidebusinesses as well, and that inter-modal arrangements will be im-portant at several points along thecorridor such as Costigan andBrownville - fixtures already oneither side of the proposed routeand thereby short distances to of-fload north south rail connectionswith east-west rail supplementalopportunity.

Construction would takethree years, estimates Vigue.

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12 Agriculture/Industry Spring Issue Mainely Agriculture 2012

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the forest industry, ouragricultural industry, nowwith Maine Northern Rail-way they’re investing in ourtransportation and they’relooking to see what theymight be able to do in min-ing. This family has consis-tently chosen to invest inus.” On hand for theceremony, Cavendish Com-pany President Robert Ir-ving commented, “Thisinvestment underscores ourcommitment to grow alongwith our customers in Maineand New Brunswick and tomeet their ever-changingneeds for high-yielding,high-quality crops.”

Describing thenew system, ManagerBlaine McPherson called thebelt driven system unique inthe industry for the numberof layers of product a farmercan have loaded per truck &how this impacts farm use.

Fertilizer plant opens at Ft. Fairfield with latest technology & building designFrom a distance, thedesign of the buildingis not unlike most innorthern Maine but upclose, this is a metaland cloth structure de-signed to be as water-tight and efficient formany years. Caven-dish Agri Services - asubsidiary of IrvingCompany - has built a$5.7 milliondollar building toserve the county andNew Brunswickgrowers with a sys-tem of mixing to rivalthe past. What used totake about a half hourto fill a 16-ton trucknow takes less than 5minutes with a pro-cess called DecliningWeight Blend Sys-tems. The accuracyand blending time iscomputer controlled.From the arrival bythe Northern MaineRailway rail cars spur(shown in photo) tothe loading of privatefarm trucks with the

products offeredwaiting in bins to feedthe need of the buyersby crop and soil re-quirements. The fa-cility stores 20,000tons of materials fromsuppliers throughoutAmerica and Canada.The building’s foot-print is 46,500 squarefeet and can get prod-uct by either rail orhighway. CavendishAgri Services is a pri-vately owned AtlanticCanadian businessand its investment lo-cally is aimed at salesof fertilizer and cropprotectants to the ag-

ricultural sector in At-lantic Canada andMaine. They also car-ry products specifi-cally for golf courses,lawn & garden, de-ic-ing, waste treatment,forestry and exportmarkets. Started in1989, Cavendish oper-ates 13 branches in-cluding Presque Isle,Houlton and Ft Fair-field in Maine andoutside the state. Thiscompany is the 4thlargest processor offrozen potato prod-ucts in North Americaand the produce divi-sion, specializing in

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in North America andthe produce division,specializing in pota-toes for the retail andfood service marketsis lucrative. Over 300 in-vited guests, farmersand local businessesfrom Maine and NewBrunswick were in-vited to the openhouse April 20, amongthem, Maine’s Gover-nor Paul LePage andthe Agricultural Com-missioner WalterWhitcomb. Whitcombcalled the Cavendishinvestment locally,“...keys to (Maine’s)survival in today’sglobal markets.” “We arepleased to see the con-tinuation of the long-standing partnershipbetween growers andthe Cavendish Agriteam. This partner-ship will enhancecompetition enhance

the competition ofgrowers of this re-gion.”

re-ported that Dan Fos-ter, town manager ofthis community,praised the invest-ment by Irving as fol-lows: “In order forthis community, thisregion, this state tohave an economicallysustainable environ-ment we need invest-ment. That means weneed to have some-body out there who’sgoing to take theirhard-earned moneyand invest it in us.Now there are lots ofplaces where those re-sources can go;there’s a world outthere where peoplecan invest their mon-ey. Over the past six-ty years, the Irvingfamily has invested inour forest industry,

MAg pix

facing the loss of their barn, horses, sheep, pigs, calves, ducks andchickens. The Thayers tried to rescue their animals but were drivenback by the intense heat of the fire, which may have been sparked bya heat lamp to protect lambs. Concerned friends and neighbors haveset up a disaster relief fund at the Bar Harbor Bank and Trust inWinter Harbor. Anyone wishing to contribute to this fund may senddonations to: Darthia Farm Phoenix Fund, Bar Harbor Bank andTrust, PO Box 159 Winter Harbor 04693. The picture above is theGouldsboro barn lost to the fire.

Another fire affected craftsman farmerwho lost his workshop for Baldwin Apple Ladders. No one wasinjured in the fire. However, Peter lost his tools, equipment and

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stacks of wood formaking apple lad-ders. A relief fundis set up at CamdenNational Bank.Anyone wishing tomake a contributionto the fund maysend a donation to:

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Fires affect farming

Farm Fact # 12 Folicle: dry one celled seed vessel of single carpel ie: larkspur pod

News of farming, fishing, forestry and minerals. The true wealth of Maine

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– USDA Farm Ser-vice Agency CountyExecutive DirectorValerie Porter, hasannounced that or-chardists and nurserytree growers state-wide who experi-enced losses fromnatural disasters thatoccurred from Janu-ary 1, 2008, throughSeptember 30, 2011,could still be eligiblefor the Tree Assis-tance Program(TAP).

"Producerswho experienced aloss from a natural di-saster that occurredbefore September 30,2011, must report theloss within 90 calen-dar days of when theloss was first appar-ent," said CED Porter."The applicant mustprovide evidence toFSA of when the lossis first apparent. Thelocal county commit-tee will determine ifthe evidence supportsthat the loss occurredfrom

an eligible disasterand was reportedtimely," she said. Toqualify, Maine or-chardists must suffera qualifying tree, bushor vine loss in excessof 15 percent mortali-ty from an eligiblenatural disaster. Eligi-ble trees, bushes orvines must have beenowned when the natu-ral disaster occurred;however, eligiblegrowers are not re-quired to own the landon which the eligibletrees, bushes andvines were planted.

If a TAP ap-plication is approved,eligible trees, bushesand vines must be re-placed within 12months from the dateof application.

FMI aboutTAP, please contactthe Penobscot / Han-cock County FSA of-fice at 207-947-3555or visit the web at:www.fsa.usda.gov/tx.

USDA reminds orchardists ofTree Assistance eligibility

NiceApril Catchof Herringat CoreaFishermen’sCoOp. Cleaned &ready for marketon the day of our visit.

MAg pixMAINE COAST - Trending the Maine Coastis a step in time, rear leaning. Along Rte. 1are small villages virtually unchanged for wellover 100 years. Places the locals call heavenfor the sounds, smells, sights of a very quietway of seaside life. Corea is one such villagenot far from Gouldsboro. Like many alongthe coast and deep within our woods the wag-es of those upon the shore pale against thevalue of real estate nearby but this is not aproper measure of fishing / farming that

2012 Mainely Agriculture Agriculture / Industry Spring Issue 13

PISCATAQUIS, PENOB-SCOT - USDA Farm ServiceAgency (FSA) Farm LoanManager Jennifer C. Ranke,announced recently thatequine operations that breed,raise and sell certain types ofhorses are now eligible forloan assistance under FSA’semergency loan program.Such loans are available else-where in Maine, if:

“Equine operations whoseprimary enterprise is tobreed, raise and sell horsesare eligible for emergencyloan assistance now availableto livestock and row cropproducers,” said Ranke.“Emergency loans are part ofthe farm safety net that willassist eligible producers whosuffer losses due to

drought,flooding, quarantineor other natural disasters,”she said.

Emergency loan funds maybe used to:

Restore orreplace essentialproperty; Pay all orpart of productioncosts associatedwith the disasteryear (the calendaryear in which suchdisaster occurred); Reorga-nize the familyfarming operation;and Refinancecertain debts.

Emergency loans can bemade to farmers and rancherswho own and operate lands ina county or contiguous coun-ty declared by the Presidentor designated by the Secre-tary of Agriculture as a disas-ter area. Producers canborrow up to 100 percent ofactual production or physicallosses up to a maximum of$500,000. Terms of the loansinclude an interest rate of 3.75percent and repayment over aperiod of one to 40 years de-pending on the nature of theloss and the collateral avail-able to secure the loan.

For additional informationon FSA’s emergency loanprogram, contact the Penob-scot County FSA office at(207) 947-3555, ext 2

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Tree Growth is a current-uselaw. Not unlike Maine’sOpen Space, Farm Land andWorking Waterfront Laws, itsets asides land for taxationbased upon current use andbest use vs taxation for envi-ronmentral, real estate inter-ests that would define a usebeyond the actual land own-er’s notion of best use or cur-rent use . Such tax programs

basically tax landowners ontheir current use, rather thana most profitable use andreasons that this encouragesowners to manage land fora specific purpose, ratherthan developing it for hous-ing or commercial use orsubdividing it for sale.Within the forest productsindustry, Tree Growth is a

tax incentive to continue tim-ber production. This has dis-couraged owners fromsubdividing and selling parcelsof woodland o the highest bid-der or in the case of familyfarms, selling to people outsidethe family and to potential newgeneration farmers, waiting toenter farming. Tree Growth offers up to a95-percent discount on proper-ty taxes otherwise levied athigher mill rates more suited tohousing or tax generating lev-els.

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Consignment Sales Every Sunday * Estate Sales1 800 254-2214 h-b@uniets.net

207 948-2214 www.houstonbrooks.com

9:00 a.m. to 3:00p.m. atMOFGA'sCommonGround Ed-ucationCenter InUnity. Pre-sentationson: raising chickens;medicinal and culi-nary herbs; scything;gardening; buildingbeehives, goat milk-ing stands, and pig

tractors; blacksmith-ing; and more. Nocharge but donations

to helpvolun-teer pre-senterspay forsupplieswill begreatly

appreciated. Someworkshops will havea materials fee if theparticipant gets totake home the itemmade.

Open year’roundSaturdays 8:30-12:30pm

@

and Gabrielle Gosse-lin of Six River Farm,along with Paul Car-michael of NRCS,will lead a farm tourof on-farm conserva-tion practices. Wewill see practices thatprotect natural re-sources and benefitfarmers as well aslearn about programsto help implement thepractices. RSVP withyour name, phonenumber, email and"Conservation FarmTour" as the subjectline.

Join Bruce Hoskins(Maine Soil TestingService), John Jemi-son and Kate Garland( UMaine Coopera-tive Extension) tolearn about improv-ing your soil - thevery foundation ofyour landscape. Thisfree program will beheld in the garden at

Rogers Farm (914Bennoch Road, OldTown). If the weatheris poor, we will meetin the big red barn atthe farm. For more in-formation, call Kate -942-7396. No registra-tion required.

Maine High-lands Farmers Meet-ing Donna Coffin willlead a Weed IDWalkat the Stutz-man's Farm on DoutyHill Rd., in Sanger-ville. 2 hours of pesti-cide recertificationcredits have been ap-plied for. Walk startsat 7 pm a short MaineHighlands FarmersMeeting will follow.All interested farmersare welcome to attendthis free meeting.www.mainehighlandsfarmers.com

(rain date: Fri-day, July 13th, 3pm)

(914Bennoch Road, OldTown) Free publicprogram featuringmusic, dancing, culi-nary arts, and muchmore! Artwork willbe available for sale -

all proceeds to benefitthe demonstrationgarden at RogersFarm. For more infor-mation, call Kate -942-7396. No registra-tion required.

152 Rockland Rd., Washington845-2480

Bring rakes,shovels, and any oth-er favorite tools youmight have. We'll beraking, mulching,edging gardens andplanting some seed-lings. For more infor-mation, contactLaurie Cronin atlcronin77@yahoo.com orcall 852-1410.

. JoinMOFGA and US-DA's Natural Re-sources ConservationService at Six RiverFarm in Bowdoin-ham for a Conserva-tion Farm Tour. 4:30p.m. Nate Drum-

Coming events, news, classifieds, etc.Meet Your Farmer wascommissioned by MaineFarmland Trust to createeight short documentariesabout Maine farms fromYork to Aroostook and alltypes of farms. Cecily Pin-

Meet Your Farmer

gree and Jason Mann put the films together.The shorts can be viewed atwww.meetyourfarmer. org.

Quick look at milk sheep uddersDairy sheep ag Dairy sheep numbers in Maine have grownin recent years with livestock offerings andimportation of stock by new farmers estimat-ed at several hundred animals. Chatter onyahoo groups also reflects the same trendnationwide. Onesuch farmer of-fered these pic-tures of the sameewe before andafter milking toshow udder con-firmation and thegeneral look im-mediately aftermilking. A re-cent flock disper-sal by a Unionfarmer sent ani-mals all overMaine and the re-sult of which willensure futuregrowth of the agriculture as replacement ewesare added to flocks all over the state. A futurecottage industry in sheep cheese manufacturewill likely result from this farm investment.

This Advertsize just $5.in Classifieds

Windmill Lime spreader PTO Row Cultivator 3 pt hitch

Hay Conveyor 24 foot

Hay Wagon extendable

w/o motor

John Welch746-5537

Farm Fact #14: Rachis: Rye grass compound leaf or frond, shaft, axial structures.

238-9209888-396-9994

www.lymansfarmstore.com

Shearing, fiber on sale, spinning& vendors

Paul Cleary PO Box 403Houlton 04730 694-1298

Kathleen Haley Box 548Limington 793-8434

Renee' Fitts PO Box 174North Waterford 04287 890-2169

Sharon Fairfield PO Box 351Gardiner 04345-0351 582-8861

J

Northern Maine FairgroundsPO Box 804 Presque Isle 04769 764-1884

Mike Dyer 100 Dutton Street, Bangor04401 947-5555

Laura Foulke PO Box 327Monmouth 04259 (207) 933-2249

Stacy Paradis PO Box 111Athens 04912 207) 474-8265

Leon Brillant 30 Valhalla Drive Topsham04086 798-0892

PO Box 39 Skowhegan 04976-0039 474-2947

John Crabtree 523 Western RoadWarren 04864 785-3281

Lista Staples 178 Nason RoadShapleigh 04076(207) 324-1250 or 636-2026

Deanne Merrill PO Box 197Dover-Foxcroft 04426 943-2650

Lincoln Orff PO Box 971Jefferson 04349-0971 549-7121

Robert Eaton PO Box 390 Blue Hill04614-0390 374-3701

Kirk Ritchie PO Box 342 Lee 04455738-2888

Mel Chadbourne 177 Chadbourne RoadHarmony 04942 683-5873

Jon Whitten, Sr. 12 McNally RoadClinton 04729 426-8013or Summer 474-8287

Charles Smith 279 Main StLisbon Falls 04252 353-8105

PO Box 193 Norway 04268 743-9594

Wright Pinkham 1480 Long Falls DamRoad, Lexington 04961 628-2916

Neal Yeaton PO Box 652Farmington 04938-0652 778-6083

PO Box 170 Unity 04988 568-4142

140 Bruce Hill Road Cumberland 04021797-2789

June HammondBox 78 Fryeburg 04037 935-3268

Summer fairs, family fun - take in your Maine fair this yearPost this schedule in your barn; listings brought to you by these farm supporting businesses:

Your fair contacts , dates are:

Rte 11A 222 Charleston Rd.Charleston, ME 04422

maplelanefarms@yahoo.comHosting CMTPA events

Slaughter House285-3591

Top Prices * State Certified WeightsCourteous Service * Prompt Payment

All Types of Scrap Metalwww.onesteelusa.comAugusta Oakland Arundel

Bangor Caribou

Hammmond Tract

Located next to

OR

Buy fuel, when you insulate once?QUALITY @ ROCK BOTTOM PRICES

Discount Foam &Insulation Outlet

Commercial FoundationsSlabs Residential Patios

Stamping

Moosehead TrailMotor Lodge &

Bull Mouse LoungeDexter - 924-7286

Sun-Thur 12-10Fri-Sat 12-1 am

2012 Mainely Agriculture Agriculture/Industry Spring Issue 15

M-Sat 8-6,Sun. 9-4

257 Waterville Rd., Skowhegan

M-F 8-5, S 8-1474-2591 800-378-5413

Hardware

and

Lawn & GardenFencing SuppliesAnimal HealthEquine

FAIRFIELDANTIQUES MALL

#382 Rte 201- Fairfield2.5 miles No of 95, Exit 133

453-4100The Largest Antiques

Mall in Maine8:30-5, 7 days a week

Bangor207 217-6515

www.gaftek.com

www.whittemoreandsons.com

Since

1970

Foxcroft Veterinary Services, PA

Union 785-4411 ph 785-4414 fxAll types of steel Sales * Roll offs* Dumpsters * Truck/farm Equip.

* Custom Painting“No job too large or too small”

Fairfield 453-7131Union 785-4464Auburn 782-8921

NUTRINAGRAIN

Globe Printing Co.39 A Main St.

Lincoln794-2973phone & fax

Also: Lincoln office for:Mainely Agriculture

Next issue: Mainely Agriculture see:Complete lists of:

August 22-23 Maine Farm Days ClintonMay 26-Oct 14 Central ME Team Penning - Charleston

Farmers MarketsGreenhousesState FairsHarness Race tracks

Farm Fact # 15 Ragwort: composite herb plant bearing yellow flowers

Agriculture given FREE at allState Fairs by the

Big Hits 99.3

WKTJClearwater Communications121 Broadway -

Trucking Available * Auction all types

207 285-3467 991-4435cAuctioneer Jeffrey T. Tilton Lic. # AR 1163

Tilton’s AuctionShipping Day on Tuesdays