Ahead of the Heard

By Jack Chaffe, BFO President info@ontariobeef.com • www.ontariobeef.com

Cross Country Adventures

I have no idea where the months of August and September went, and here we are at the beginning of October wrapping up corn silage, harvesting beans, planting wheat, attending fall stocker sales, getting cattle off grass and prepping for corn harvest and fall tillage before the snow flies. Sadly, for some of us, it sounds like that may come as early as this weekend for folks in northern Ontario. I am looking forward to a slightly slower pace as we head into the winter months, although the sign of snow always signals “meeting season” for many of us.

Let’s go back to mid-August. I, along with a number of BFO Directors, attended the Canadian Beef Industry Conference, which visited Penticton in beautiful British Columbia this summer (and my first time visiting B.C.). Upon arrival, I attended the B.C. Farm Tour, which is always a great way to become acquainted with the area and landscape prior to spending a week in the region. Those of us from Ontario, found it interesting to hear about the connections between farm operations and local land trust and conservancy groups from the local ranchers, which has sparked some investigation by our staff to see if there might be similar opportunities in Ontario to help protect grazing land. As a board member of the Canadian Beef Cattle Check-off Agency, our AGM took place early in the week. Within my role on this board, I’m one of two Canadian producers who sit on the Canada Beef Marketing Committee, which is responsible for planning and establishing Canada Beef’s strategic, business and operational goals and objectives, and for the overall management and operation of the business and affairs. Coming out of the AGM, I was fortunate to be elected as finance chair of the committee for the year ahead.

Throughout the rest of the week, I attended a number of CCA committee meetings, as well as participated in discussions with representatives from the U.S. and Mexico. The most significant action item materializing from the week was the desire for greater emergency preparedness surrounding the potential threat of food and mouth disease (FMD) and the need for a dedicated vaccine bank to help protect Canada’s beef sector should we ever be faced with a case of FMD in the country.

After returning from Penticton, we headed to Kanata, Ontario for our BFO Summer Meeting, which returned to an in-person meeting. It was great to catch up with everyone and provide some timely updates for advisory councillors on BFO activities. Special thanks to Corad Farms, owned by Chad and Sarah Hunt and family for hosting the farm tour portion of our meeting. Despite the rain and drizzle, it was nice to have a return to “normal”.

Speaking of a return to normal, on September 7th we made our debut return to the Ontario Legislature and hosted our 15th Annual Beef Barbecue on the lawn of Queen’s Park for MPPs and legislative staff. We had a terrific day and positive reception from MPPs both at the barbecue and during our individual meetings throughout the day. We sincerely appreciated the support of Minister Lisa Thompson who helped us convene the event, as well as the opportunity to meet at length with Premier Ford to talk about Ontario’s Risk Management Program, the review of the PAWS Act and Canada’s investment in a FMD vaccine bank.

As highlighted in this issue’s edition of Beef Beat, our number one priority with the Ontario government remains as a request to increase investment in the Risk Management Program to provide financial stability for our farmers who are being faced with so much volatility both in the raising and production of beef, but also in the marketplace. To further articulate this needed investment, BFO with our partners in the Ontario Agriculture Sustainability Coalition (beef, grains, horticulture, pork, sheep and veal) invested our own resources and worked with a third-party economist to conduct a study on the economic value and impact of RMP in Ontario. The positive results from this study, which will likely be shared publicly by the time you are reading this, will be used as we lobby for further government investment leading up to the release of the fall economic statement in November.

On September 27-28, I along with Craig McLaughlin, travelled to Ottawa for a CCA Directors’ Meeting where we received updates on traceability, BSE files and transport regulations, to name a few. As MPs are back in Ottawa for their fall session, CCA hosted their “BBQ on The Hill” event which celebrated the front-of-package label victory by serving up double cheeseburgers to the MPs. This event gave CCA Directors a great opportunity to touch base with MPs again.

We now have our sights set on planning our Fall Meeting for our advisory council and committee members in late November in Guelph, and planning is underway for our annual general meeting, which will also return to in-person in Toronto from February 22-23, 2023. Mark your calendar and hope to see you there. OB