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
Young farmers getting a head start
Among supply management’s successes are its programs to help young farmers get established
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
The first-generation farmers of Hillside Dreams Goat Dairy
Like other new farmers across Canada, Barrie and Merel Voth may not produce the commodities you’d expect, or farm at the scale you’d like, but they’re committed, brave, and very, very smart
Reading Time: 6 minutes How serious are Barrie and Merel Voth about their start-up goat dairy venture? Serious enough that they wrote exactly two exit options into their farm lease agreement. Bankruptcy. Or death. “Oh, but don’t write that!” says Merel. In April last year, when they signed on the dotted line for their five-year lease agreement at Silver […] Read more
Dairy support price trimmed starting March 1
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canada’s dairy producers can expect their overall revenue from sales of industrial milk to slip nearly two per cent starting in March. The Canadian Dairy Commission on Thursday announced it will snip the support price it sets for skim milk powder effective March 1 to $6.3109 per kilogram — down from the current $6.4754 — […] Read more
China’s small dairy farmers dump milk as sector enters downturn
Reading Time: 2 minutes Beijing | Reuters –– Small dairy farmers in China are dumping milk and selling cows as demand from processors slows in a sharp turnaround from last year, when a scramble for supplies prompted a huge surge in milk powder imports. Slower growth in milk product consumption, higher yields from modern dairy farms and the excess […] Read more
A new cow farm in Japan
Farmers like Yoshiaki Shimazaki are modernizing Japanese agriculture, but he knows they have a long way to go
Reading Time: 5 minutes In a country where agricultural self-sufficiency is low, and where the farming population is old, with few young people seeing a future for themselves on the farm, Yoshiaki Shimazaki decided that agriculture could actually be a great and rewarding opportunity. From a family operation of 80 dairy cows, 70 calves and 300 beef cows in […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
