Reading Time: 4 minutes Ontario farmers and rural residents want a place on the advisory board on the creation of a high-speed railway line expected to significantly affect their farms and communities. The province has appointed business, municipal and indigenous groups to the board, but farm organizations, such as the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), are calling for representation […] Read more
Ontario farmers want voice on high-speed rail
Ontario proposal aims to double ethanol blend in fuel
Government move would boost corn market in the province
Reading Time: 3 minutes An Ontario government proposal could dramatically increase the amount of Ontario corn going into ethanol production and help bring consistency to the basis price for corn in the province. The government has posted its proposal to increase ethanol content in the province’s gasoline from five to 10 per cent to the Environmental Bill of Rights […] Read more
Sector growth to occupy Ontario ag minister in 2018
Reading Time: 3 minutes Ontario’s Liberals will have their agriculture standard-bearer back for the 2018 election. Jeff Leal, Ontario’s minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs, is staying in politics, running for his fifth term as a member of the provincial legislature in the Peterborough riding. Leal, who as a resident of Peterborough is about as rural as any […] Read more
Ontario general farm organization fee increasing
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ontario farmers will be paying more for their representation by their general farm organizations in 2018 after the government approved a $30 increase. The annual fee will be $225 plus HST for membership in the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario or National Farmers Union-Ontario. All registered farmers have to pay the […] Read more
Dairy services organizations create partnership
Reading Time: 3 minutes Three major service providers in Canadian dairy farming have formed a partnership that will result in one company supplying herd management and genetic services to Canadian dairy farmers. The partnership, including CanWest DHI, Valacta and the Canadian Dairy Network (CDN), still has to be approved by farmer-members of the organizations. CanWest DHI provides on-farm testing […] Read more
VIDEO: OFA puts more focus on rural economic development
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ontario Federation of Agriculture President Keith Currie talks about why the OFA is putting more emphasis on distributed economic development. Read more: OFA pre-election policy targets broader economic development
OFA pre-election policy targets broader economic development
Reading Time: 3 minutes Stable rural areas and thriving farms can help urbanites with some of their biggest challenges. That’s the message from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture going into next year’s provincial election. The OFA talked about how it is framing its election strategy at its annual meeting, which ran Monday and Tuesday in Toronto. “With the election […] Read more
Farmer-made hay dryer boosts quality
Chinook bale dryer uses spikes to dry bales from the inside out
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chris Martin saw how hay bale dryers were working in Quebec and thought that the concept would work on his farm in Ontario. And he figured he and his brother could make one that worked even better. Three years later, they have their dryer working – but not perfected – and have sold one other […] Read more
Benchmarking, grading, research needed to move lamb sector forward
Reading Time: 4 minutes Like a doctor delivering bad news to a patient, Martin Gooch gave it straight to the Ontario sheep sector: the sheep industry continues to be disjointed and inefficient, with a lack of benchmarks to define a successful farm. Like a good doctor, Gooch also delivered some optimism. “You could double production and have room for […] Read more
Customer focus drives lamb processor partnerships with farmers
Reading Time: 3 minutes Wahab Zamani’s family knows what it wants in a lamb. And family members go to great lengths, partnering with sheep farmers, to get it. The Zamani family runs Simcoe Street Meat Packers and processes lamb in Kawartha Lakes for its retail stores in Toronto. They specialize in “truly halal products” he told the Ontario Sheep […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
