Livestock Opportunity - Indian Agricultural Program of Ontario

Naokwegijig Farm
Joe Naokwegijig Wikwemikong , Manitoulin Island, Ontario.
Table of Contents
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About Me
History
Background
Cattle Placement
Harvesting Practices
Cattle Health
Farm Opportunities
About me
y A single father y Employed full‐time at the Wikwemikong Water and Wastewater Department
y Volunteer Firefighter for the Wikwemikong Fire Department
y On the Board of Directors for the Manitoulin Cattlemen's Association, Manitoulin Soil and Crop Association and on the LaCloche Manitoulin Abattoir Steering Committee
y Completed Environmental Farm Plan
History
y Started in 1940s with my father’s parents farming in Wiky at the y
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homestead. Livestock consisted of cows, sheep, chickens, pigs and one goat to cut the grass.
In 1973, my favourite uncle Jimmy started farming with 7 cows In 1979 my mother’s grandfather gave my father a calf on their wedding day – that is when our Cow‐Calf operation started That fall, my father purchased 5 cows an increase to 6 head In 2000, with help from Wikwemikong Development Commission (WDC), a program in Wiky was developed increasing the cowherds This program allowed us to add 16 more cows.
Background
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Currently we have 59 Cows (majority Hereford cross)
Two Black Angus Bulls
One 784 IH Tractor
One JX1085C CIH 4wd Tractor
8340 IH Mower Conditioner
450 IH small Square Baler
RBX 451 Round Baler
9000 Anderson Silage Wrapper
20ft. Aluminum Cattle Trailer
3 Furrow Overrun Semi‐Mount Plow
Cattle Placement
y Wiky has 3 Community Pastures. With limited space at home, we divide our cows in half placing them in both pastures in the summer.
y In the fall we pick up the calves at the pasture. We wean, vaccinate and start them on grain about a month before the annual fall auction
y In the winter we place our herd in three groups. The cows are divided in half, the third group is open replacement heifers and young steers for the spring sale.
y We separate our bulls by February and place them with the cows in June. This allows us to start our calving season by the end of March –
April. Harvesting Practices
y We harvest about 140 Acres , mostly timothy, trefoil red/ white cover, some have a mix of alfalfa. y For tillage we reseed about 10‐ 20 acres a year with barley/oats as a cover crop. We either harvest the cover crop for hay silage or combine for winter feed.
y For winter feed we put away 750 five foot round bales, 200 four foot round silage bales and 1000 small square bales.
y We also do some custom farming for other farmers in Wikwemikong.
Cattle Health
y In the spring of 2008 we started vaccinating our cows with Pfizer Gold
y With the help of IAPO in 2003 , we have been vaccinating our calves, IAPO would help set a date for a vaccinated sale to market our calves.
y In spring and fall cattle are treated with Dectomax to control parasites
y We do vaccinations ourselves ‐ gives us more flexibility time wise.
y Also my father and uncle got together and purchased a calf puller to save on calling the vet.
Cattle Sale
This is a picture of farmers from Wikwemikong sending our cattle to a vaccinated calf sale at Brussels
(left to right‐ Jim Naokwegijig, Kenneth Enosse, Ronnie Rivers, Joe Naokwegijig, Trucker, Victor Mishibinijima, Gerrald Bebamikawe, Albert Mishibinijima, Dean Milsap, and Louis Naokwegijig.)
Farm Opportunities y I believe that the beef industry will always be here and there is always room to grow. y In Wikwemikong there are many acres of workable farm land not being utilized. y With a little bit of work someone can start with a small herd and grow from there.