MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

May, 2013 NEW ITEMS THIS MONTH

Full Bloom Finally Here!

Full Bloom Finally Here! Crop Updates Tire Stewardship Fees Reduced Federal Reforms tread lightly on SAWP Advance Payment Program Worker Safety CAAP- Summary of Results 2012-2013 Growing Forward 2 Information Sessions Fruit Tracker Events & Notices

After many weeks of anticipation, full bloom has finally occurred. Red Haven at NOTL Parkway reached full bloom on April 30th and on Golden Plums April 26th. Based on historical data, we anticipate normal timing for commercial harvest on peaches (approximately July 20th) with small volumes a few days prior. A more accurate projection of timing and crop size will be communicated in the June newsletter.

Crop Updates
The 2013 peach crop is shaping up to be one of the largest ones on recent record and the importance of growing larger sized fruit cannot be stressed enough. Although not set yet, additional size increases mid season may be established by the board to help ensure orderly marketing. Please adjust your management practices accordingly. All other tender fruit commodities are indicating full crop potential so high quality, mature fruit will be essential to encourage consumers to make return purchases. With the use of retail incentive programs, the retail display bins, social media and partnerships with organizations such as Foodland Ontario, the board and dealers will be intensely promoting your product across Canada.

Tire Stewardship Fees Reduced

On April 1, 2013 a sharp increase in stewardship fees was introduced by Ontario Tire Stewardship. These fees were intended to fully cover the costs of recycling tires, including costs of collections and transportation to a recycling facility. Some farm businesses would have seen increases of up to 400 per cent on tire stewardship fees. Page 1

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) responded to the concerns of members and lobbied the provincial government because this drastic rate increase would unfairly penalize farm businesses, costing them thousands of additional dollars in extra fees each year. As a result of OFAs lobby efforts, as well as working together with Ontario Tire Stewardship and industry stakeholders, a reclassification of agricultural tires was proposed that would see short-term relief for the estimated 75 per cent of agricultural tires that weigh less than 250 kilograms. On April 18, the provincial government approved the reclassification. Retroactive to April 1, 2013, Class 6 and 7 agricultural tires (70 to 250 kilograms) carry a $47.04 stewardship fee per tire and Class 8 and higher agricultural tires (anything over 250 kilograms) have a $182.28 stewardship fee per tire. View the complete reclassification of agricultural tires here.

Federal Reforms Tread lightly on Seasonal Ag Workers Program

Canadas seasonal agriculture worker program escapes nearly unscathed from federal reforms intended to clamp down on the use of temporary foreign workers. Long anticipated federal reforms of Canadas temporary foreign worker progarm will also give the federal government greater authority to suspend and revoke work permits if theyre being misused in the agricultural program, two cabinet ministers announced Monday. But, otherwise, the seasonal agricultural worker progarm, a subsection of the Canadas temporary foreign worker program, will be little affected by the package of changes announced Monday in Ottawa by Human Resources Minister Diane Finley and Citizenship and Immigration Ministry Jason Kenney. The governments April 29 press release explains that there are proven acute labour shortages in agriculture and the unfilled jobs are truly temporary. Ken Forth, president of the Foreign Agriculture Resource Management Services, which administers the seasonal agricultural worker program, says when the government announced last year it would reform the temporary foreign worker program, officials assured the seasonal agricultural worker program wouldnt change. The government has kept its word, he says. To read the full story, click here.

Advance Payment Program- Increase in Tender Fruit Advance Rate

At the request of the Ontario Tender Fruit Producers Marketing Board, Agricultural Credit Corporation (ACC) has received immediate approval to increase the advance payment rates as noted below. For producers who have already received their advance payment at the lower rates, you may request an additional advance from ACC to bring the advance up the higher rate levels by contacting ACC at 1-888-278-8807 or 1-519-766-0544 and asking to speak to one of ACCs Lenders. Producers who have not yet applied may also do so at the higher advance rates. Advance rates are based on an approximation of 50 % of market price. 1. Fresh market grapes increased from 20 to 32 cents per pound. 2. Nectarines increased from 13 to 40 cents per pound.

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3. Fresh market peaches increased from 23 to 35 cents per pound. 4. Processing peaches increased from 11 to 12 cents per pound. 5. Pears increased from 13 to 29 cents per pound. 6. Plums increased from 37 to 42 cents per pound. 7. Sour cherries increased from 12 to 22 cents per pound. 8. Fresh market sweet cherries increased from 15 to 45 cents per pound. For more information on the advance payment programs, click here.

Worker Safety
Getting Started: Your Roadmap to Health & Safety Program Complying with your legal responsibilities as outlined under Ontarios Occupational Health & Safety Act (OHSA) is critical, and involves not only acting in a healthy and safe manner, but formalizing your program in writing. Whether youre a new business looking for a way to start, or just want to verify that your existing program would pass muster in a Ministry of Labour inspection, youll find these four steps to an effective program straightforward, manageable and possible to implement in just minutes a day. Step 1: Start with a Self- assessment Complete a confidential 30-question self-assessment to determine your current status. Your answers will help you find out what your key responsibilities are, how well youre doing, and where you need to focus your efforts to ensure youre in compliance. Very likely, youll discover that youre already doing many of the right things; perhaps all you need to do to be compliant is write them down. Step 2: Develop your health and safety policy statement Developing a policy statement is easy. Think about why health and safety is important to your business as you answer these three questions: a) b) c) What is my health and safety promise? How will we do it? Who will do it?

Step 3: Put your health and safety program in action Put the right stuff in motion to ensure compliance. a) Post mandatory items on your health and safety bulletin board; for example, your policy statement; Ministry of Labour posters summarizing the health and safety rights and responsibilities of workers, supervisors and employers; a copy of the OHSA; and more. b) Meet the requirements for first aid supplies, fire protection equipment, and personal protective equipment. c) To identify all potential hazards, inspect every job, task and piece of equipment in your workplace, and review hazards common to your industry. Put policies and practices in place to protect your workers. Hazards common to most workplaces include musculoskeletal disorders; slips, trips and falls; contact with equipment or tools; hazardous materials/chemicals; and motor vehicles. Page 3

d) Inform and train workers on your workplace hazards and related safe practices, and what to do in the event of an incident or emergency. This is especially important for new workers. Step 4: Make sure everyone understands their different roles Under the OHSA, workers and employers must work together to identify health and safety problems and develop solutions. This concept of internal responsibility assigns specific roles to employers, supervisors and workers, encompassing compliance, reporting hazards, training, and more. Make sure everyone embraces and acts on their various responsibilities. (Note that the OHSA requires businesses with more than five staff to have a Health and Safety Representative.) Finally, assemble all the elements of your health and safety program into one easily accessible document: online, in a binder, or whatever format best suits your business. For more information Look for simple, easy-to-use resources that will walk you through all four steps, provided at no cost by our trusted health and safety advisor, Workplace Safety & Prevention Services (WSPS), at www. wsps.ca. Search on small business. Look for Closing the Loop resources under Downloads. Protect your business by keeping your vulnerable workers safe

Every year in Ontario, inexperience injures or kills hundreds of people in workplace incidents preventable tragedies that inflict enormous emotional and financial costs on families, businesses and communities. Vulnerable groups most at risk: young workers age 14 to 24 workers of any age newly hired to the job or recently reassigned seasonal and temporary workers; e.g. students and migrant workers Given the statisticsnew and young workers in Ontario are four times more likely to be injured during their first month of employment than at any other timeits no wonder that the Ministry of Labour (MOL) has once again set its sights on vulnerable workers as part of its workplace inspection blitz program this spring and summer. New and young workers are a vital part of Ontarios economy. Employers have within their power several easy-to-execute means of reducing risk, improving productivity, and sending workers home from their shift as healthy as they were when they started it. Focus on inexperience, not age Its a myth that youth is the reason why so many new workers are vulnerable to injury or death. In fact, it has nothing to do with being young and everything to do with inexperience. Reframing your understanding of risk around this reality will help you widen your prevention net as you design your safety measures. Learn from MOL insection blitezes Last year, inspectors made 3,255 visits to 2,645 workplaces, many in the service, agricultural and industrial sectors, and issued an average of three orders per visit.

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To make sure you pass the test, make the MOLs priorities the cornerstones of your health and safety program; for example: orientation, training and supervision your internal responsibility system, including the Joint Health and Safety Committee or, for smaller organizations, the health and safety representative Put the emphasis on orientation Strengthen your orientation and training programoften the weak link in an organizations health and safety performance.

Before hiring: assess the job and its hazards. What scenarios will present risks? What tasks should be assigned to experienced workers? What language barriers will you need to address? After hiring, and before the person starts work on the job: provide orientation and training that address workers three basic rights: to know about hazards, to participate in your organizations health and safety efforts, and to refuse dangerous work. Accommodate different learning styles by delivering training in a variety of ways: in the classroom, in a simulated environment, and on the job. Hand out checklists. Assign experienced workers to engage in a buddy system. Each hour you invest in training will help you build morale and avoid unintended consequences. Every subsequent day: be visible, especially during orientation and training. Observe workers as they perform tasks. Overcome their reluctance to ask questions by asking some yourself: Can you show me that again? Why is this control necessary? Be patient, repeat instructions, coach, retrain, and offer praiseespecially when workers ask questions about safety.
Invest in your supervisors Make sure supervisors know the laws, regulations and hazards, and have the training and experience to confidently, persistently, help workers adhere to safe work procedures. For your information Look for simple, easy-to-use resources to help you keep your vulnerable workers safe, provided at no cost by our trusted health and safety advisor, Workplace Safety & Prevention Services (WSPS). Search on new and young workers or orientation at www.wsps.ca, and click on each tab for a full spectrum of support. In par ticular, look under the webinar tab for an information session delivered via the web, called Are You Ready for the MOL Blitz on New/Young Workers? For additional insight on MOL blitz results, visit New and Young Worker Blitz under Safe at Work Ontario on the MOL website: www.labour.gov.on.ca.

Caap- Assessing Bud Hardiness and Winter Survival Of Tender Fruit of Ontario- Summary of Results 2012/2013
In the summer of 2012, the OTFPMB was successful in obtaining funding to undertake a one year investigative project to develop procedures to assess bud hardiness (using differential thermal analysis) and winter survival of tender fruit in Niagara area orchards. KCMS (Dr. Kevin Ker, Ryan Brewster and staff) were retained to undertake the development of methodologies and data collection for this project. With the help of Ken Slingerland, we were able to enlist the cooperation of several Niagara area growers to obtain sample material throughout the dormant season. Page 5

Brock University (CCOVI and the Electronics Specialists) provided technical support in the development an construction of the freezer unit and ongoing support for this work. SAMPLING LOCATIONS Within Niagara, 7 separate orchards were examined. Five (5) of these orchards were located in the Niagara-on-the-Lake area, one orchard was located west of St. Catharines and one orchard was located in the Fenwick area. Table 1 outlines each of the sampling locations and what commodities/ cultivars were sampled from each orchard. Table 1. Geographic area, commodities and cultivars sampled from each sample orchard. Sample Orchard A B C Area NOTL- Lakeshore NOTL- Virgil NOTL- Parkway Commodities Sampled Peach Nectarine Pear Plum Peach Nectarine Peach Nectarine Plum Pear Peach Nectarine Pear Peach Plum Sour Cherry Pear Cultivars Sampled Vivid Fantasia Bosc Shiro Red Haven Vivid Springcrest Fantasia Red Haven Fantasia Shiro Bosc Vivid Flavortop Bosc Red Haven Blue Plum Montmorency Sundown

D E F G

NOTL Parkway NOTL St. Davids W. St. Catherines Pelham/ Fenwick

These samples were collected over 8 sampling events throughout the dormant period commencing the week of December 3, 2012 and concluding the week of April 8, 2013. Prior to commencing routine testing, grower co-operators were secured, GPS field maps were generated and many preliminary samples were analysed to validate the accuracy of the equipment and to evaluate different sample preparation methods. Once all sample orchards were secured, and the equipment/ methodology was validated, routine sampling began. It was our original intent to include pear buds into this assessment however during our preliminary literature search; according to Quamme, H.A. (1991), many deciduous fruit crops exhibit deep supercooling (including pears) however this supercooling is exhibited only in xylem tissues and not in the flower buds of pears or apples. Therefore, the use of thermal analysis is not appropriate for measuring bud hardiness of pear flower buds as they do not exhibit a low temperature exotherm.

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LTE50 Represents the temperature where 50% of the buds are expected

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LTE50 Represents the temperature where 50% of the buds are expected SOUR CHERRY

PLUM Plum buds are much smaller in size which has an influence on the ability to measure the LT50 (strength of the signal being generated) during the freeze event. Using cv. Early Golden, no definable freeze events were able to be identified due to noise generated in the output by the machine. The noise refers to the electrical interference generated around each of the data collecting elements where the sample buds are placed. These signals are weak and it was difficult to distinguish freeze injury peaks from the peaks generated by the noise. For this reason we switched to using plum cultivars that have slightly larger buds, like cv. Shiro and cv. Valor, as we were able to more accurately identify freeze events.

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LTE50 Represents the temperature where 50% of the buds are expected to die.

Growing Forward 2 Information Sessions

Dont forget to sign up for Growing Forward 2 Information session, and to register your organization for the upcoming funding program. Click here! An information session in the Harrow area (June 12th) and the Niagara area (June 14th) will be added shortly.

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Fruit Tracker

Photo by: Denis Cahill

More than three-quarters of Ontarios 10,000 tender fruit acres will be mapped this spring with a Fruit Tracker management program. From spray tracking to inventory control to CanadaGAP report filing, this time saving management software is widely accepted... Click here to continue reading, Karen Davidsons article from the May Issue of The Grower.

Notices/ Coming Events Reminder

2013 AgriFood Golf Tournament June 20th, 2013, Click here for more details!

Click here for more information!

International Fruit Tree association Study Tour July 16-17, 2013, Gettysburg, PA Website: www.ifruittree.org

NPF & VGA Scholarship Awards Contact: Glenna Cairnie Email: glennacairnie@sympatico.ca

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