Nova Scotia farm life

After my time in Halifax, I spent a week on the Bruce Family Farm in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia. Located in the Annapolis Valley near the Bay of Fundy (largest tides in the world!), the Bruces raise organic beef, chicken, and lamb. They are the sixth generation on their land, and are leading the way in their area in organic production. A really fantastic family who were generous in sharing their home and knowledge.

The Annapolis Valley was formerly the bread basket of Atlantic Canada, but has suffered in the last decades due to imported agricultural products from the west coast. The result is fewer and fewer farms being put to use, and the economy has struggled as young people leave for better paying jobs in oil-boom Alberta.

But agriculture still has a strong presence in the area, which was evident at the Annapolis Valley Exhibition. The Bruces are active in 4H and organic agriculture organizations, so we ended up spending pretty much every evening at the fairgrounds. There was livestock, giant pumpkins, and quilts. Very much akin to a Midwestern county fair, except more people speaking French while munching their mini-donuts or poutine.

Most fascinating to me was the draft horse pull (I apologize for the 2002-era video quality!):


If you notice the horses put their whole weight and strength into their pull, jumping off the start in order to move that big sled. This may get the most torque and movement, but makes these horses not much use for practical farm work. It wouldn't do to have a team pull your plow clean out of the ground!

Nonetheless, it is in incredible to see how much these horses can pull. The winning team pulled over 11,000 lbs of dead weight! Who needs a tractor, right? Many folks in the area still use teams of horses or oxen during the winter to pull logs out of the woods. They can get into tighter places than tractors, and can obviously do the job that needs to be done. And animal traction is becoming more and more attractive to small farmers and loggers as the price of fuel goes through the roof.

Maybe the Amish are on to something.