Reading Time: 10 minutes The roads here are typical for this part of rural Ontario, running between neighbouring towns. On either side, at the end of long maple-sided lanes are well-kept dairy, beef and crop farms divided into 100-acre parcels, with red and black barns stamped proudly with farm names, usually family names. Occasionally too a lane is overgrown, […] Read more
Generating farm independence
Sometimes, the best solution can be for the next generation to build a farm of their own
California to limit pollutants from diesel exhaust to cow gas
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — California on Monday moved to restrict air pollutants from sources as diverse as diesel trucks and cow flatulence, the latest of several efforts in the most populous U.S. state to reduce emissions leading to climate change. Under a bill signed Monday by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, the state will cut emissions of methane […] Read more
Australia competition watchdog to widen dairy investigation
Reading Time: < 1 minute Sydney | Reuters — Australia’s competition watchdog will launch a broad investigation into the country’s dairy industry, the country’s deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce said on Thursday. The investigation comes after Australia’s largest dairy processor Murray Goulburn and New Zealand’s Fonterra Co-operative Group in April reduced their farm gate prices, or what they pay farmers […] Read more
EU livestock farmers get compensation
Dairy farmers receive funds to offset price slump after scrapping of quotas
Reading Time: 2 minutes Brussels/Paris – Reuters — The European Union will grant an additional 500 million euros (C$721 million) to EU farmers struggling with a long-running crisis linked to low prices, notably in the dairy sector where it aims to reverse a boom in milk output after the scrapping of production quotas. European milk farmers have been struggling with […] Read more
Young farmers getting a head start
Among supply management’s successes are its programs to help young farmers get established
Reading Time: 10 minutes “We’ve got a lot of young people coming in,” says Tim Lambert, CEO of the Egg Farmers of Canada. Like others, he credits board programs that give young farmers preferential access not only to quota, but to training in business leadership, and management. Yet underpinning it all, says Lambert, is income security. “They earn a […] Read more
Their quota of doubt
TPP may not have opened the floodgates, but it will let in enough imports to alter the outlook for Canada’s dairy farmers
Reading Time: 5 minutes It would have taken a lot more than a butter knife to cut the tension on dairy farms across Canada this past year while the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators were talking behind closed doors. So now that the deal is out in the open, and now that it appears — at least on the surface […] Read more
A goat dairy looks to maximum potential
Once they reached the farm size they wanted, Ian and Vicki Mayberry have found ensuring it is sustainable takes skill, and self-awareness
Reading Time: 7 minutes For many farmers, there’s a belief that you have to “Go big or go home.” Yet Ian and Vicki Mayberry take a different approach on their farm near Ingersoll, Ont. They like the size they’re at with 170 milking goats plus offspring, so instead of expanding they are looking to maximize production with their current […] Read more
Taking control of their dairy future
For this young couple, the future means a multi-pronged business strategy, with cost control, diversification and a focus on efficiency
Reading Time: 5 minutes Just as the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement was being signed last fall, Cam and Stephanie Murphy were signing a very different sort of partnership agreement. They were becoming part owners of a 45-cow dairy farm near Hastings, two hours east of Toronto. Together with Stephanie’s parents, Dean and Carol Warner, they took on a seven-figure debt […] Read more
Focusing on efficiency in dairy production
The good old days aren’t coming back, but the Bassas believe success is still possible for farms that focus from top to bottom on efficiency
Reading Time: 5 minutes In 1991, Piet and Ina Bassa sold their dairy farm in Holland, packed up their family and headed to Canada, leaving not only Europe’s high costs but also its tough environmental regulations and manure quotas that made expansion almost impossible. Importantly, their sons, Jan and Kees, were keen to start farming, so the family bought […] Read more
Profitability and sustainability in the dairy business
Kevin MacLean wants consumers and politicians to know how valuable supply management is for Canada
Reading Time: 4 minutes For Kevin MacLean, the cost of quota is just part of being in a business he loves. “I’ve never seen quota as a risk. Just like you need land to crop, you need quota to dairy farm. It’s a long-term investment.” MacLean echoes a sentiment sometimes heard in country circles. There are two things you […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
