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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday April 21, 2007 - 3 Award winning farmer lives across the street Lance Pocock honoured for educating people about pigs, although he doesn't raise them on his farm anymore By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF An Oakville farmer has been awarded for his efforts in spreading the knowledge of the farm to the children of the city. Lance Pocock, 70, of Lazy Pat Farms received the 2007 Friend of the Ontario Farm Animal Council Award during an annual meeting Tuesday, April. 3. The award was presented to Pocock in recognition of the 12 years he has spent educating people about pigs at fall fairs and in children's classrooms. "We tell the kids what they eat. We tell them that they're the cleanest animals on the farm, believe it or not. They mess in one corner and sleep in another," said Pocock. "We sort of stay away from the meat angle when we're dealing with five to eight-yearolds." Through Pocock the barnyard comes to the schoolyard, as he wins young children over by sometimes bringing a piglet to the schools when he visits. With farms located in urban settings becoming fewer and fewer, Pocock says it's important to educate children about animals they might otherwise never have any contact with. "There are so many now that don't come from the farm. There was a time when there were a lot of people who would go to their grandfather's farm, but there are so few farmers left now." When it comes to learning about pigs the children of the Halton region could not have a better teacher. From the moment you set foot on Lazy Pat Farms in north Oakville it becomes as clear as crystal that the man who manages it is wild about pigs. A great ceramic pig greets visitors as they approach the farmhouse; another blue stone pig rests in the garden just below a pig theme barometer. "My kids are always getting me stuff with pigs on them," said Pocock. Although real pigs can no longer be found on the farm, except for a few in the fall, there was a time when the animals filled Lazy Pat Farms' seven barns and consumed nearly every waking moment of Pocock's life. "At one time I had 1,800 (pigs) here and I LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER URBAN FARMER: Lance Pocock proudly displays his 2007 Friend of the Ontario Farm Animal Council Award at the kitchen table of his home at Lazy Pat Farms situated between Dundas Street West and Highway 407. would have as many as 140 born in one day," he said. "It's better that way because they usually have their babies at night and so you would only have to stay up one night instead of every night of the week." The son of a beef farmer, Pocock began his agricultural career at the age of 17 picking strawberries and raspberries. Eventually Pocock moved on to milking cows as a hired hand at the very same farm he would later come to manage. With 53 years of farming under his belt Pocock has accumulated a lifetime of amazing memories including the birth of a twoheaded piglet back in 1989. "The mother pig had 22 babies, the average is 10, and when I went there, there were 23 heads," he said. "The two heads would suckle off the mother and as soon as it finished it would lay down, but it was top heavy so it couldn't get up so I would have to help it up." Pocock experienced 15 minutes of fame as several newspapers descended on his farm to get a glimpse of the extraordinary piglet. "It would have been a money maker if I "At one time I had 1,800 (pigs) here and I would have as many as 140 born in one day." Oakville farmer Lance Pocock could have taken it from fair to fair, but it never happened." Pocock says the two-headed piglet can now be found at the University of Guelph. Unfortunately not all of Pocock's memories were pleasant ones. Lethal diseases like Transmissible Gastro Enteritis are a constant threat pig farmers must guard against, and Pocock was no exception requiring anyone entering his barns to wear rubber boots which he provided. "What happens is somebody might have been to a barn where there was a disease and they'd bring it in on their shoes." Despite this precaution, a day came when TGE was successful in penetrating Pocock's farm with devastating results for his pigs. "One day I went in and there were 100 dead, the next day another 100," said Pocock. TGE is highly contagious causing profuse diarrhea and vomiting, hitting piglets the hardest. By the time the outbreak was over Pocock had lost around 400 pigs. "That was something that really nearly killed me," said Pocock. "I hadn't had it before and losing about 400 pigs was something that I didn't think I'd ever survive because it nearly knocks you out." As terrible as the disease had been the treatment for the remaining pigs was no picnic either. With no medicine available to fight the disease back then, Pocock had to cut up the dead piglets and feed them to their mothers. The TGE inside the piglets acted like a vaccine allowing the mother to fight off the disease thereby saving future piglets. Disease was not the only problem Pocock has had to face during his years farming. With Lazy Pat Farm situated between Dundas Street West and Highway 407, the farm's urban location has also presented Pocock with a fair number of challenges. See Farmers page 5 · Wood & Vinyl Shutters, Supplied & Installed · High Quality at Affordable Prices · Customer Satisfaction Guaranteed · Serving Oakville with Shop at Home Service Authorized Vinylbilt Dealer www.shuttersetc.ca Shop at Home Service FREE