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| | | ] ~ working for See Page6 . Graham By Stephen Leahy Special to Farm and Country Life One day the beef cattle on the Graham farm in Purple Hill will have their entire life history record- ed in a microchip in their ear. That's just one, albeit futuristic, aspect of the Heifer Development Program the Grahams started two years ago. Harvey Graham and son Mark represent two of the three generations who have farmed the 700 acres of rolling hills east of Lake Scugog along Regional Road 19. Long time dairy farmers, the Grahams went into beef 12 years ago. EA i 4 Ph ai i Mark Graham of Breezy Acres Farm says this was the year fo Mark handles the daily operations at the farm while his father is kept very busy as the current president of the Ontario Cattleman's Association. "We thought the financial return would be better and we were looking for a new challenge," he says. The big challenge in the beef industry in the last few years has been how to survive in a market where consumers were eating less beef. Mark says keeping inputs low is crucial. They rent an additional 2000 acres so they can grow all of their own feed -- 400 acres in corn and another 800 acres in hay. Most of the rest is pasture for their 800 cattle. Efficiency is also vital he says. And that is what r twins at the families cow-calf operation near Purple Hill. raise beef cattle aided Vv microchips and computers the Heifer Development Program (HDP) is all about. This program was developed by the Beef Improvement Organization (BIO) in conjunction with the provincial agriculture department and cattle- men's association. The programs purpose is to help farmers produce the best quality beef in the most efficient manner. BIO offers intensive courses on cattle management and provides computer programs and other measure- ment tools to participants. The Grahams have about 280 animals in the cow-calf operation and the 90 best are in the program. (Please Turn to page 4) vei a Ar NG ire RL --