Reading Time: 2 minutes A leader in Ontario’s agriculture and rural community is one of Canada’s newest senators. Rob Black, executive director of the Rural Ontario Institute and a former president of 4-H Canada, was named Thursday as one of two new senators from Ontario by Governor General Julie Payette. Why is this significant? It has been a long […] Read more
Rural Ontario leader appointed to Senate
Ontario, U of Guelph renew ag research partnership
Reading Time: 2 minutes Up to $713 million in agriculture research will be funded at the University of Guelph over the next 10 years through a renewal of the university’s agreement with the provincial ag ministry. The new agreement has been updated to manage digital data and is aimed to provide a base from which to leverage more research […] Read more
Ontario, Canada sign $1.5 billion CAP agreement
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Canadian and Ontario governments have signed an agreement that will see $1.5 billion of Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) money available to be spent in the province. Ontario Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal said the five-year program will start April 3, which, he added, will mean a seamless transition between the current federal-provincial agriculture and food […] Read more
Report pegs U.S. dairy support levels
Reading Time: 2 minutes U.S. dairy farmers continue to benefit from broad agriculture supports, a study shows. Dairy Farmers of Canada has had Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates regularly study the effect of U.S. government policy on dairy farms in that country. The latest version of the project was released at the Dairy Farmers of Canada policy conference held […] Read more
Dairy farmers get no assurances on NAFTA
Reading Time: 2 minutes Dairy farmers are seeking assurances there would be no more access to Canada’s dairy market in a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement — but Lawrence MacAulay, Canada’s minister of agriculture and agri-food, would not provide them. “Because of the NAFTA negotiations going on, we have to be careful what we say publicly,” MacAulay said […] Read more
Milk ad awareness beating top brands
Reading Time: 3 minutes Dairy Farmers of Canada is trying harder to track how well its marketing efforts boost milk sales, after Ontario members pulled promotion funding over a lack of information. Dairy Farmers of Canada’s (DFC) policy conference this week in Ottawa included a presentation by Don Mayo, global managing partner for IMI, an organization that measures media […] Read more
Deciding about technology
Why do some farms leap ahead in technology while others wait? The reasons aren’t what you think
Reading Time: 5 minutes Four robots at New Galma Dairy near Ingersoll, Ont., milk the cows while a second automated system finds its way around the barn feeding cows and heifers by itself and a third machine beds the cows without human intervention. Calves can decide when they want milk from a machine that identifies them and gives them […] Read more
Ontario processing vegetable contract compromise reached
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers marketing board believes it has found a compromise to an imposed regulation that would have gutted grower contract protection. Why it matters: Farmers had contract security of two years previously, but new regulations would have taken that down to none — and processors could have dropped growers whenever they wished. […] Read more
Ontario’s processing vegetable growers in new regulatory reality
Reading Time: 3 minutes The only way is forward. That’s what Ontario’s processing vegetable growers heard at their annual meeting from the chair of the group that regulates farm marketing in the province. That doesn’t mean some farmers didn’t still question the province’s move to fire the board of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers (OPVG) and its staff in […] Read more
Hot fall pulls Ontario corn yields above average
Reading Time: 3 minutes Ontario’s corn crop yielded better than expected, at 184 bushels per acre average, while soybeans were closer to their 10-year average at 44 bushels per acre, according to Agricorp. Why it matters: The provincial crop insurance agency has some of the most solid crop production numbers in Ontario, as its members have to report their […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
