Dairy Farmers of Canada

ProAction: Proof of Happy Cows and Quality Milk

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Farmers farm because they love animals. We are no different: yes, our cows provide us with our income, but we also immensely enjoy working with them, caring for them, and meeting their every need. Because we love our animals, we are also intensely interested in ensuring that we are doing our job properly – we want to be absolutely certain that our animals thrive and are in optimal condition. That’s why we’re always eager to hear what experts think of our herd, be it our veterinarian, nutritionist, or a cattle classifier.

Yesterday, we hosted Holstein Canada classifier Morgan on the farm for a socially-distanced animal welfare assessment. This assessment is part of the ProAction Initiative, a mandatory program for Canadian dairy farms that requires compliance in a number of important categories: food safety, milk quality, animal welfare, biosecurity, traceability, and environmental sustainability. As Canadian dairy farmers, we’re immensely proud of this program that demonstrates to consumers and other interested parties that our farmers are regularly inspected and required to adhere to strict standards of quality, safety, and animal welfare. It shows that we don’t just talk the talk, we also walk the walk when it comes to how we care for our land and animals. ProAction is tangible proof that Canadian dairy farmers are held to some very stringent requirements and that our farms are happy, safe, and comfortable homes for our cows.

Morgan closely examined our herd for hock, knee and neck injuries, body condition, and lameness. The cows really seemed to enjoy the attention and crowded around Morgan, watching her every move very curiously. They behaved so nicely for her, making her job quite easy, and we’re proud to report that our herd scored very well – well above the benchmarks in all categories. This was not unexpected but it’s always nice to have third party recognition of the quality of care we provide to our cows.

No matter which brand of milk you purchase in your local grocery store, it will come from a farm that has been audited by a third party to ensure animal welfare benchmarks are met. All Canadian dairy cows are inspected for signs of neglect or abuse under our ProAction program, and you can be absolutely confident that the milk and other dairy products you purchase for your family are produced by happy, healthy, well cared for cows. Isn’t that a great feeling? Dairy farmers are consumers too, and I love knowing that the ice cream, cheese, butter, and cream that I purchase to feed my family is produced on farms that have met some of the most stringent safety, quality, and animal welfare standards in the world. That’s Canadian dairy, and we’re so proud of our products! ❤️ 🇨🇦 🥛

Dairy Dilemma

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Uncertainty. Instability. A constantly changing environment. In this pandemic this is true for many sectors of the economy and of course for most of our readers in their personal lives too. The dairy industry and your local dairy farmers are no exception to this. Although farming has rightfully been deemed an essential service, this does not insulate nor protect us from a rapidly evolving market and changes in consumer habits.

When social and physical distancing measures came into place a few weeks ago, demand for dairy products surged as our consumers tried to anticipate and plan for the unknown. Was a total lockdown imminent? This led to millions of consumers stocking up on essentials, including milk. Grocery stores struggled to keep milk on the shelves and soon limited the amount of dairy products each consumer could purchase. Farmers were asked to produce more milk to meet this increased demand.

But at the same time, different aspects of the marketplace were also in flux. Restaurants and coffee shops either closed or began operating at reduced capacity. This has led to a reduction in demand for dairy products packaged in ways that are not usually available in your grocery stores: think of butter in tiny containers, bulk shredded cheese for pizza companies, 250mL milk cartons for schools, etc, etc. It’s no easy task for processing companies to switch to retail ready packaging and involves so many logistical layers, such as a bigger supply of bottles, containers, and labels, different packing lines, and so on. Our provincial dairy boards and dairy processors have been scrambling to keep up with this rapidly evolving situation. Obviously this is something that our boards and processors have never before experienced nor is it something they could have planned for.

Dairy farmers and their boards and committees have donated excess milk to food banks. We’ve donated funds to charities and non-profits to help them purchase dairy products for the needy in our communities. Our boards have done their utmost to try to avoid wasting milk but some farms have now been asked to dispose of the milk in their bulk tanks to eliminate the excess supply.

It’s devastating watching perfectly good, nutritious milk not end up where it was meant to be: in your fridge and on your table.

While we are very aware that we are so fortunate to still have a job to go to every single day, seeing the product of our hard work go down the drain just hurts. I won’t sugar coat that. The farmers who will be asked to dispose of their milk will be compensated; it’s a loss that will be shared across provincial milk pools. All dairy farmers will share this burden of lost income equally. We all are hopeful this will be a very temporary measure and that stability will soon return to the market, allowing our boards to more easily anticipate and plan for a balance in supply and demand. That’s the whole goal of our Canadian supply managed dairy system: we balance the needs of our consumers with the supply of milk from our family farms. But cows don’t have a tap that we can turn on and off. If a cow produces 30L of milk today, she will do that tomorrow too, and the next day, and the next, and the next. It is thus very difficult to react quickly to sudden market fluctuations.

How can you help? Buy milk. Purchase some cheese or ice cream to enjoy with your family. Enjoy real cream (dare I mention whipping cream?) in your home brewed coffee. The milk is here, it’s available, it’s ready to be processed, shipped to the retailers, then purchased by you to feed your families. Please be patient with us. We ask for your understanding as our industry tries to adjust to this new, strange environment. We pray that extreme measures like disposing of milk will be short lived and that solutions will be quickly found to find a way for this milk to end up on your table.

Rest assured that your farmers are still working hard to provide you and your families with top quality, ethically produced, nutritious dairy. This is a tough time for our industry (as it is for so many sectors) but our commitment to our animals and to you our consumers has not wavered. We’re here for you. Be safe. Be well. Much love to you all.

Myths and Fear: a farmer’s thoughts on promoting Canadian milk

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Remember when Subway announced they were going to start sourcing antibiotic free meat? I was scrolling through my old blog posts the other day and came across a piece I had written then. I had been feeling so discouraged at the animosity that move brought out – between farmers!

Unfortunately, this feeling of competition and rivalry has not abated. In fact, the new trade agreement has seemed to acerbate the divide between farmers – especially between American and Canadian dairy farmers. This is why:

Canadian farmers and consumers’ claims of American cows pumped full of hormones and antibiotics are not accurate. Yes, some American farmers use artificial growth hormones on their dairy cattle to stimulate milk production. However, only a small percentage do — and these accusations that American milk is full of hormones are rather baseless. Additionally, American farms face the same penalties we do should antibiotic residues be found in their milk. We’ve interacted with so many American farmers over the years, farmers who farm because they love their cows, their land, their way of life. Family farmers just like us. We are more alike than we are different; this love for dairy farming should be what pulls us together, not what drives us apart. Yes, a share of our Canadian market has once again been given up to foreign imports by this trade agreement. This trade agreement will do

very little to ease the woes for our neighbours to the south but it WILL have a very real, very negative effect on our Canadian dairy industry. It scares us too! Still, I’ve seen just a few too many posts claiming that American milk is garbage. It’s just not fair to our neighbours to the south who work so hard for so little. I hope we can share our concerns about the impact of this trade deal without resorting to fear mongering about the milk produced by farmers just like us.

Instead, why don’t we encourage Canadian consumers to continue to buy Canadian by sharing the benefits of buying local milk? It benefits our Canadian economy, first of all. It’s produced by Canadians, for Canadians. That’s awesome! Additionally, we are so proud of our national quality, safety, traceability, and animal welfare standard – the ProAction Initiative. This program is extremely comprehensive and ensures that the milk our consumers purchase is top quality and is produced by happy, well cared for cows. That’s definitely something to celebrate!

Let’s put a face on Canadian dairy farming. Instead of sharing articles or social media posts that promote fear based marketing, maybe share a photo of your cows or your farm, and explain how you are so proud to produce food for your fellow citizens. Remember that our neighbours to the south are farmers just like us. They too face the same fears and hardships that we do, probably more so given the dismal milk prices there the past several years. Denigrating the work they do is not the answer here. Will you join us in attempting to stop the spread of fear simply by sharing your love for your farm, your cows, and your work doing what you love best? I think that if this were to happen, we’d all win – farmers (yes, both Canadian and American!) and consumers alike.

If you’d like to read more of our thoughts on farmer rivalry and fear marketing, check out this link:

The Subway Saga: My Thoughts on Marketing and Farmer Rivalry

A Canadian Dairy Farmer’s First Impressions of #USMCA

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Disappointment and worry. That’s what dairy farmers across Canada are feeling this morning.

In case you missed it, a new NAFTA agreement was signed last night. Now called USMCA – The US Mexico Canada Agreement – this new trade deal has given away more access to our dairy market to our foreign trading partners: 3.59% of our market and forcing changes to the way we price certain classes of milk. This access and changes are more significant than what was given away in the last trade agreement – the CPTPP – and therein lies much of the sting.

Our prime minister and negotiators had promised our dairy farmers that they would defend supply management. But this doesn’t look or feel like a defence of our industry, this is another erosion of the stability of our industry and it’s a kick in the teeth to our nation’s dairy farmers. This feels like a death by a thousand cuts. Recent years have seen significant erosion of our market, with domestic milk giving place to foreign imports on our local store shelves. Both CETA and the CPTPP carved out significant chunks of our market. Under the original TPP, the US also had been given additional access to our markets (3.25%) but when Trump pulled the USA out, that access was lost. But rather than standing firm and perhaps offering a smaller percentage based on that fact, our government caved and offered up more to one country than it had given to a collection of foreign interests in both the CETA and CPTPP agreements.

It’s very frustrating. This access will not significantly help American dairy producers who have been overproducing such huge amounts of milk – 3 states alone produce enough excess milk every day to supply all Ontario consumers – that this access to our market will literally be just a drop in the bucket to them and won’t significantly ease their dairy woes. On the other hand, it’s a heavy blow to our Canadian farmers and our industry. Each foreign dairy product on store shelves displaces dairy produced here in Canada, by Canadian farmers for Canadian consumers. This affects Canadian jobs and the livelihood of our farmers and their families. Our farmers have paid for the ability to produce that milk and now another portion of that has just been given away, and for what? To appease Trump and help his re-election chances now that he can claim a win for dairy producing states?

I know that our industry and our farmers will be spending the coming days and weeks determining the impact to our sector. The impact at the farm level remains to be seen but we will be forced to tighten our belts still further, that much is sure.

In the meantime (and I know that this question will be asked frequently in the coming time) our loyal Canadian consumers can continue to support their Canadian farmers by purchasing dairy products labeled with the little blue cow. Your support is always most appreciated, and now will be more important than ever.

Supply Management IV: will new NAFTA be our nemesis? 

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Some of you have been asking for our thoughts on the latest news coming out of the NAFTA negotiations. And honestly? I’ve been too disheartened to even write about it. We’re scared. Scared about our futures, scared about our children’s futures. As relatively new additions to the dairy industry – we’ve been dairying for less than 15 years, only 6.5 years on our own – we carry a massive debt load. That’s all fine and dandy under the stability of our supply management system, and it should be paid off before our children would potentially take over the reins of the family farm. However, should that stability vanish, as the latest US demands for the abolishment of our entire system would entail, our farm would very possibly cease to exist. 

And why? Our system ensures a stable, fair price for farmers. It also has meant that consumers – and we’re consumers too! – have paid a competitive, fair price for dairy products in the grocery stores. It has allowed Canadian farmers to develop a top notch program that ensures that our dairy farms are held to the highest milk quality, food safety, and animal welfare standards in the world. Our system has helped hundreds of young and not-so-young dairymen and women get a leg up into the industry through various provincial new entrant programs. There are so many benefits to our system! Is it perfect? No! But it’s always changing and adapting to new situations. And quite frankly, it’s the best system out there. Around the world, dairy farmers are struggling to make ends meet. In New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Europe, and the USA dairy farmers are exiting the industry in droves, no longer able to keep their farms afloat after sustained low global milk prices. 

So why attack our industry? It doesn’t make sense to me. The world is awash in a glut of milk. Farmers around the world have been producing more and more milk, all just trying to make ends meet. But now there’s a huge over-supply. Canada’s market look mighty attractive; a good place to dump that excess. But that won’t solve the problem! With only 30 million consumers, 10x LESS than the US, our market would quickly be saturated with this foreign milk, and the problem would still be there. Except now, our small Canadian family farms would be forced out of business, unable to compete with the glut of milk pouring over the border at abnormally low prices. Our complete rural fabric would be torn apart. It’s not just the farmers who would suffer; it would be the feed companies, the veterinarians, the dairy supply companies. In short, it would mean large scale devastation of many rural communities. Instead, these governments eyeing up and demanding the end of our system should fix their problems at home. Manage your supply. There’s no need to over-produce; it’s just plain wasteful and it’s detrimental to the global dairy industry. When supply and demand are balanced, we all win: farmers, consumers, governments, and national economies. 

We’ll be watching the next NAFTA negotiation rounds with bated breath. We are most definitely thankful that so far our government has been vocal about their determination to protect supply management, and we hope and pray that these words will be reflected in their actions at the negotiating table. To our supporters: thank you. Thank you for your moral support. And thank you for continuing to support your local dairy farms with your purchasing habits. We wouldn’t be farming and living this dairy life, caring for our cows with dedication without you behind us! 

For now, we continue on. Our kids still follow us around the barns, helping out when they so wish, learning to do by doing. Will this knowledge and these skills ever be put to use one day? Will they ever follow their dreams to be just like mom and dad? I don’t know. Time will tell. 

Supply Management: Good for farmers, good for consumers, good for Canada. Hands off, Bernier!

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Okay friends, we’re coming down to the wire here in the Conservative leadership race. With all of the uproar in the last week with President Trump taking aim at our Canadian dairy industry, we can’t forget that we also have domestic challenges facing our industry. Just this morning, Canadian businessman and Conservative leadership candidate Kevin O’ Leary, one of the polling front-runners in the leadership race, pulled his name from the race and threw his support behind Maxime Bernier. As you know from our previous posts, Maxime Bernier has pledged to end supply management if he is elected leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, and Mr. O’ Leary had admitted that he would use supply management as a bargaining tool in future trade negotiations. Both he and Mr. O’ Leary are leading in the polls, so as you can understand, this bolstering of Bernier’s campaign is rather unsettling.

Supply management keeps Canadian dairy, poultry and egg farms vibrant, viable, and an integral part of our national fabric, from both a social and economic perspective. Without supply management and our border tarriffs, our family farms would have a very hard time competing with the glut of excess milk currently flooding the world dairy market. We know that our system that ensures a fair return for farmers is the envy of dairy farmers around the world, and we personally have received many messages from farmers south of the Canadian – US border who long for a system like ours that would allow their farms to remain viable in this turbulent time for the dairy market.

So the benefits for farmers are obvious, but what about for our consumers? Mr. Bernier alleges that if supply management were scrapped, consumers would pay much less for their dairy; he’s even claimed that Canadian consumers pay twice the amount they should pay for their dairy products. Unfortunately, Mr. Bernier does not have his facts straight. Check out the photos I’ve posted below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both research from an accredited research firm and very current anecdotal evidence from a fellow dairy farmer doing her own research prove that Canadians pay a very competitive price for their eggs and dairy. In fact, if we compare apples to apples, Canadian pay LESS for dairy compared to the same dairy products in the US (all Canadian milk is produced without the use of artificial growth hormones). Now, Mr. Bernier, either you’ve been misinformed, or you’re deliberately trying to garner support from unsuspecting Canadians by quoting “alternative facts”.  Judging by the number of times dairy farmers and industry representatives have presented the correct information to you, I’m leaning towards the latter assumption. That doesn’t say much for your integrity, and, in my opinion, throws your entire campaign and character into question. Definitely not the type of individual I want to see at the helm of the Conservative party or – if the Conservatives are re-elected in 2019 – leading our country.

Friends, let’s get the word out! We’re not only facing threats to our family farms from south of the border, we have a very real challenge right here at home too. If you want to enjoy the stable, competitive dairy prices that are the current reality, produced right here in Canada according to the highest safety, quality and animal welfare standards in the world — all the while benefitting family farms and rural economies across our country, speak up! Canadians need to understand that a vote for Bernier is a vote against food sovereignty, against family farms, and against the very fabric of our rural communities. Your help in sharing this message is appreciated.

Devastating News for our Friends to the South — and our response.

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I’m a proud Canadian. I’m also a dairy farmer. I farm with my family, and our kids dream of farming themselves one day. I have dairy farming friends all around the world, many in the USA. Borders do not seem to matter to friendships; we’ve shared experiences and information, and celebrated successes and achievements with each other, irrespective of which side of the 49th parallel our farms are located. It’s understandable, then, that we hate to see our farming friends hurting and scared. You see, there’s been some very scary developments in the US dairy industry, specifically in Wisconsin. We’ve read with shock and dismay of the 75 farms that were dropped by their processor with just one month’s notice to find a new home for the milk that their cows produce. These are farmers with families, with bills to pay, with dreams and hopes for the future – just like their dairy farming compatriots across America and also up here in Canada. They also dream of seeing their children take up dairy farming in the future, but they now face the very real prospect of those dreams never becoming a reality. Their hurt is our hurt because we can understand just how painful this experience must be.

Farming is not just a job, it’s a lifestyle. It’s a lifestyle that we pour our whole selves into; our farms and our cows and our land are our life, our heartbeat, our hope for the future.

Seeing these dreams dashed and hopes destroyed is devastating, regardless of your nationality.

 

Allow me to briefly explain this issues at hand that have resulted in this situation. For years, several processors in the USA have exploited a loop hole in the trade regulations that control dairy imports into Canada. They’ve shipped a product called ultra- or dia-filtered milk north to Canadian cheese plants. Classified as an ingredient at the border, this product was able to pass our border controls tariff-free. However, once the product arrived at the processing plant, the classification was changed to dairy in order to be permitted for use under the Canadian cheese standards, which regulate which percentage of cheese ingredients must come from milk. This situation was causing our Canadian processors to forego using Canadian milk for their cheese, and sourcing the cheaper US diafiltered milk, reconstituting it, and using it in the cheese and other dairy products. As you can understand, this resulted in a loss to Canadian dairy farmers as our milk was no longer being used in this cheese – and it was no small sum either, some pin it at over $230 million annually! Over the past few years, our provincial and federal milk boards and committees have worked hard to create a way to encourage our processors to resume using Canadian milk. We’ve created a new class of milk that is priced at the world milk price. Now that our milk is financially competitive, several processors have dropped the American product and are sourcing all Canadian milk. We have not, as some sources claim, added import tariffs to the American ultra-filtered milk, we’ve simply made our milk the same price. Again, to repeat, no new tariffs have been created that would restrict USA access to the Canadian market. Canadian businesses have the right to choose their suppliers, just like American companies do. Business decisions may also be influenced by the fact that the American dollar, when it is high like it is now, makes it more expensive for Canadian businesses to buy American. This new pricing mechanism was adopted in Ontario last year, with the rest of Canada following suit several months later. US processors knew of our plans. It was no secret; there were several news sources on both sides of the border reporting on our efforts. Now that Canadian processors have resumed sourcing Canadian milk products for cheese, these American processors are left with unwanted filtered milk, and that has resulted in this terrible situation for those farmers. As many American farmers have accurately pointed out, the problem is not Canada’s dairy industry; the problem is the excess milk on the world market. The US needs to manage their excess dairy production more efficiently to prevent surpluses and this type of waste.

 

At this time, I’m incredibly grateful for our supply management system. With our system, if demand for milk falls, all producer quotas are reduced; individual farms are not dropped by processors. In my opinion, it’s a fair system that offers stability to farmers; stability that is necessary for innovation, growth, and the sustainability of the industry. I’ve read various comments from American farmers lamenting that fact that there is no such system in the US.

 

In my opinion, it’s not fair to blame Canadian dairy farmers or our supply management system for looking out for our own industry and attempting to regain the share of the market that once was ours.   I’m sure it should be obvious that this is not a time to point fingers or to adopt an “us vs them” mentality. At the same time, while our hearts go out to the farmers affected, we also need to look to our own farms and realize that we too need to make a living and ensure that our Canadian dairy industry remains viable.  I don’t claim to have answers or solutions to this problem. But I know that right now, those farmers dropped by their processors don’t need blame or acrimony, they need support and understanding and sympathy. They need help to find a new home for their milk, and I hope with all my heart that they will find a way to continue shipping milk and caring for their animals, land, and families.

 

Vote! The future of Canada’s dairy farms may depend on your choice!

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Hello friends.

In just over two months, members of the Conservative Party of Canada will choose their new leader. By applying for a Conservative party membership by next Tuesday, March 28, you too can have a say in who becomes the next leader of the Official Opposition. Rona Ambrose has done a great job at the helm as interim leader but now it’s time to vote for the new long term voice and face of the party.

As dairy farmers, we’re watching this leadership competition unfold VERY closely. You see, all of the political parties in Canada have historically been supportive of the dairy and poultry industries’ current method of matching consumer demand with a supply of fresh milk, poultry, and eggs. Our system, called supply management, effectively protects our Canadian dairy sector’s vibrancy, viability, and important contributions to the Canadian economy while providing consumers with top-quality, safe, plentiful, and appropriately priced dairy products.

A few years ago, I shared the following description of our system in my first blog post about supply management: “In the 1960s and early 1970s, the Canadian government and Canadian dairy farmers came to the conclusion that production discipline – balancing supply and demand for milk products – was necessary to avoid extreme market fluctuations. Both the federal and provincial governments worked together with farmers to implement a system that is adjusted to suit the needs of Canadian demand for dairy. The system is administered by the Canadian Dairy Commission, which measures the demand for milk and sets the production limits accordingly. Plain white milk as well as any other dairy product labeled as Canadian is solely produced by Canadian dairy farmers for Canadian consumers. Milk is a local product, supporting local economies across our nation. The share of the market that each farm owns is called quota. Quota grants the farm a right to produce milk. The provincial quota is adjusted according to demand, and is increased or decreased as needed. Overproduction and waste are avoided because production is directly synchronized with consumer demand. Dairy farmers are paid a standard price for the milk they produce. This price is set by the Canadian Dairy Commission and is the result of a yearly national study of the cost of producing milk at the farm. Dairy farmers are paid the cost of producing the milk they ship to the processor.”

But with the prospect of a new leader for the party in official opposition to the governing Liberal Party of Canada, all of this could be in jeopardy. The two front runners in the race to become the new leader of the Conservative Party are no friends of supply management. In fact, one of the candidates, Maxime Bernier, has based nearly his entire platform on the premise that, if elected, he will do his utmost to dismantle this very system of stability, strength, and self-reliance that allows family farms across Canada to prosper. The other front runner, Kevin O’Leary, has oft times allowed his bias against supply management to show. Although he now professes that he supports supply management, he has also said that he will use supply management as a negotiation chip in any future trade deals. You can’t have it both ways, in my opinion!

The most infuriating part of all of this, however, are the half-truths and myths on which these candidates base their opinions. For example, they claim that consumers suffer as a result of supply management, claiming that Canadian consumers pay double the market rate for dairy products. Let’s take a look at that for a moment by comparing the prices in Canadian grocery stores to those south of us in the USA.

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Compiled by Nielson, this graph is a weighted average over one entire year of milk sales in a select number of countries with which Nielson has contracts. It’s a very accurate picture because of the sheer size of the study, taking into account purchasing habits and the length of time studied.

Well, would you look at that!

To compare apples to apples, we must compare the price of “hormone free” milk in the US to Canadian milk, as all milk in Canada is artificial-growth-hormone free. I’m sorry, but do you see what I see? It appears that Canadian consumers pay LESS than our neighbours to the south! Huh! Who would have thought that this would be the case considering the rhetoric spewing from the anti-supply-management camps!

As further evidence to these facts, check out this comment from a friend of mine who recently visited Florida with her children. This is what she had to say:

“US $4 for a gallon of partly skimmed milk (3.79L, not 4L like up here in Canada) while I’m used to buying 4 L for $4.29 Canadian.”

Figure in the current exchange rate, and you’re paying over $6.65 for less milk. Interesting!

Mr. Bernier also claims that the price of milk in the stores would drop if supply management were abolished. Just take a look at the price of milk in New Zealand. They abolished supply management, but the retail price of milk is higher than in Canada AND farmers are paid much less. Just last year many farmers were forced to exit the industry when the farm gate price dropped far below the cost of producing their milk. Do we want to see our family run dairy farms disappear from our nation’s landscape? If Canada were to dismantle supply management, our family farms would be a thing of the past as large conglomerates would swoop in to take over those bucolic farms dotting our countryside from coast to coast.

Critics of supply management often say that our system stifles innovation. I’d beg to differ. Every year we take part in a tour of the newly built farms in our small part of the province. There usually are 10 farms on the tour, and the technology and innovation is staggering. Robotic milking equipment, robotic feeding equipment and the latest equipment in animal welfare advances, to name just a few.  Family farms are able to invest in these sort of technological marvels just BECAUSE of the stability that supply management offers. Take a look at the graphic below. Canadian farm gate price for milk is stable, and sufficiently covers the cost of production, which allows for investment capital for these projects. This stability means that the banks are confident in our farms, and we are able to borrow the money to fund these innovative additions to our farms. Our farms are well maintained, in good repair, and feature the latest equipment and tools to provide the best care for our cows.

Screenshot 2017-03-21 15.04.52

It should now be quite obvious to you that critics of supply management are basing their opinion of our system on faulty information. But these critics refuse to listen to the voices of Canada’s dairy farmers. We’re facing a very real, very immediate problem. If an anti-supply management candidate is elected in this leadership race, we could stand to lose much of our support in Ottawa if the voice of the official opposition does not hold the governing Liberals’ feet to the fire when or if our system comes under attack during trade negotiations and the like. And I shudder to think of what could happen should the Conservatives be re-elected in 2019 and either of these candidates would become Prime Minister. Not an ideal situation in the least!

Now that you understand the threats facing our family farms, would you be interested in helping to keep our system intact and benefiting both consumers and farmers? Here’s what you can do: Become a member of the Conservative Party of Canada by March 28, 2017. Membership is open to all citizens and permanent residents of Canada above 14 years of age, provided they are not a member of another political party. A one year membership is just $15 and allows you to vote in this coming leadership election to be held on May 27. We, along with our fellow Canadian dairy farmers will be watching the race with interest, and will in all likelihood be in communication with one another about which candidate we feel will best benefit all of Canada, dairy farmers included. Due to the way this vote will be structured, it will be important for all dairy farmers to vote as a block in order for our votes to be of any influence in the outcome. We have a few more weeks to decide who this candidate will be. I’m curious to hear from candidates, their staff, and other interested parties about who they think will be the best person to man the helm of the Conservative Party of Canada going forward.

Until next time,

Julaine, a Canadian dairy farmer.

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He’s the Face of Canada’s Future Dairy Farmers… but will he realize his dream?

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Farming is in this five-year-old farm boy’s blood. No doubt about that! Farming is a lifestyle, not just a job, and it’s driven by a love for the land and animals that often runs strong and true through the generations. If his dreams come true and he takes over our farm one day, he’ll be a sixth generation dairy farmer.

But what does the future look like for him? Around the world, the dairy prospects are currently very grim for aspiring dairy farmers, established dairy farmers, even five-year-old dairy dreamers. The world milk price is very very low, depressed by a huge glut of excess milk on the world market, thus driving farm gate prices down below the cost of production. Around the world – the US, EU, New Zealand, Australia – dairy farmers are producing milk at a loss. Many have been forced to give up their dream, closing their barn doors forever, shipping their animals off to auction. They just cannot continue to run a business while losing money hand over fist, regardless of how much they love their animals and land and farm.

Thankfully, here in Canada we are blessed to farm under different circumstances. Under our stable and secure supply managed system, farm gate prices have remained fairly stable. Our milk price is determined by the cost of production, not by the world milk price. Still, there are threats looming over our enviable system also.

Supply management is based on three pillars that ensure that our system works effectively:

1 Production management that matches supply with Canadian demand.

2 Predictable imports to ensure Canadian dairy market requirements are primarily met by Canadian milk production.

3 Farm gate prices that provide a reasonable return that covers production costs. Canadian dairy farmers do not rely on taxpayer subsidies.

Unfortunately the second pillar, government management of imports, has been slowly eroding over the past few years. A modified dairy product called diafiltered milk has been flowing over our borders tarriff-free because it has been classified as an ingredient at the border. That’s all fine and dandy, but once this ‘ingredient’ arrives at the processing plant, suddenly it is treated as ‘milk’. Canada’s dairy processors are required to adhere to our cheese standards, which require that a set percentage of each type of cheese must come from ‘milk’ while the remainder can be made up other ‘ingredients’. So this diafiltered milk, classified as an ingredient at the border, suddenly is re-classified at the processing plant as milk to meet the minimum milk percentage requirements. Not really fair, is it? And it’s not just small change we’re talking about here, but rather a huge hit to Canada’s dairy farmers, to the tune of 231 million dollars per year, and climbing.

There have also been troubling rumblings in the political world of late. Government support has historically been a critical part of supply management working well. This is why I, along with my fellow Canadian dairy farmers, have also been extremely unsettled to hear of a certain Member of Parliament’s recent attack on our system. This MP has shown little understanding for the current world dairy situation and has intimated that our Canadian dairy farmers would do well to imitate Australia’s example and dismantle supply management. Obviously he has not been following the news as the situation Down Under is very grim at the moment, not an ideal dairy utopia in the least! I don’t want to call extra attention to this MP and his stance on supply management by addressing these inaccurate and concerning comments, but still feel that Canadians should be aware of the battles facing dairy farmers, both at present and possibly in the future.

Just like an old fashioned three legged milking stool, our system only works if all three legs or pillars are strong and stable. Allowing one of these pillars to weaken or erode will unsettle supply management and even has the potential to topple the whole system, plunging Canadian dairy farmers into the turbulent and uncertain waters currently engulfing our international dairy farming compatriots. If that should happen, our five-year-old farm boy’s dream of following in our dairy farming footsteps would meet a sudden and heartbreaking end. Our small family farm would likely be unable to compete with the glut of foreign-government-subsidized milk flooding the world’s dairy market, and perhaps we too would be forced to close our barn doors and say goodbye to our cows and our way of life. We were unable to join our fellow Canadian dairy farmers drawing attention to these issues at the dairy rally in Ottawa last week and so are doing what we can to express our concerns in other ways, including here on social media. We’re calling on our government to show support to Canadian dairy farmers by enforcing the cheese standards and committing to continued support for our system.The Canadian dairy industry is a huge and beneficial contributor to our country’s economy and social fabric and we feel that as such we’ve earned our government’s support. Fellow Canadians, please join us in voicing your support for your Dairy Farmers of Canada. I’m sure none of us, farmers and consumers together, want to see our family farms disappear from our nation’s landscape.

Respect is a Two-Way Street

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What would you do if you noticed a local celebrity sharing a blog post that calls into question your integrity? Would you respond with anger? With outrage? Or would you take a minute to calm yourself and respond with kindness and respect?

Recently, a local news anchor shared a post from Mercy for Animals on Facebook. Mercy for Animals is an animal rights group. Like all of these types of groups, Mercy for Animals campaigns for the cessation of all animal agriculture. They do so by sharing opinions that are biased and slanted against animal agriculture, using wording like this: “As shocking as it may seem, sexual assault and stealing babies are common in modern animal agriculture”. They share horrific videos of animal abuse, claiming that abuse is common practice on farms. And they promote a vegan diet that eliminates all animal products.

This local news anchor is a celebrity in her own right. She’s been featured on local television for nearly 20 years and has gained many well-earned accolades for her work. She is a respected advocate for Down Syndrome and blogs about her life as a mom of three. In short, she’s an esteemed and popular voice in British Columbia. As such, she has a large following on social media.

So you can imagine that when she shared that she was having misgivings about consuming dairy products after reading a Mercy for Animals blog post that accused dairy farmers of abusive practices, I was dismayed. In fact, I was hurt, upset, appalled and, truth be told, angry. Not at her, but at these animal rights groups. These groups smear my honor, my integrity. I’m proud of my life as a dairy farmer. I’m proud of the stellar care we give to our cows – our “girls” – 365 days of the year. And I’m proud to provide my fellow citizens with a nutritious product that was produced ethically and responsibly. I know that there is nothing un-ethical or cruel about the way our cows are treated on our family farm.

Happily, there was a saving grace in this post:

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I read this post as a call for help, for assurance. I saw someone who desperately wanted to learn more about the food she served her family and consumed herself. I saw an opportunity. I could have responded with heated words and recriminations. And I saw some of those types of comments. But I calmed myself. This was not the time to be angry. This was the time to convince and reassure and support. It was a time to “err on the side of kindness”.

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And, as it turns out, it was the right thing to do. I soon received this message:

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This was huge. I was so excited. Success!
The next day, this appeared on her page:

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The hours I spent responding to comments and accusations on this post was time well spent! If I had responded with anger and outrage, the conversation would have unfolded much differently and I might have lost the opportunity to inform and influence both this celebrity and her followers.

Now, I’m not sharing this to toot my own horn. I’m using this as an example of respect being a two way street. To gain respect, we must give respect, regardless of whether or not we agree with the person we are interacting with. This definitely applies to our conversations surrounding our farms and our way of life.

Consumer perception of dairy farming but also of dairy farmers will be a driving force behind our successes or our failures in the time to come. Take the recent mayhem over Earl’s ill-advised decision to abandon the Alberta beef industry as an example. This uproar showed that consumers support those they respect and value, and they obviously hold the Alberta beef industry in high regard. Would they do the same for the dairy industry? Time will tell as we begin to see more foreign dairy imports due to the recent trade deals.

In the meantime, as dairy farmers we would do well to remember that the general public has little to no knowledge of dairy farming. Perhaps they even have misgivings or misconceptions about our farms. It’s not. their. fault. The average Canadian is at least two generations removed from agriculture. What little they do know about dairy farming comes from information that they glean either via word of mouth or the internet and social media. Groups that oppose animal agriculture and the dairy industry take advantage of this gulf of ignorance, using it to promote their vision of a farm-animal-free “utopia” by using lies and half-truths to propagate fears and concerns about our industries.

Knowing this should influence how we interact with those who have genuine questions and concerns about the dairy industry. Do not interpret questions as accusations or concern as acrimony. Instead, use these apprehensions as opportunities to share your passion for your cows and your farms. Do not be afraid to allow your enthusiasm for your way of life to show clearly in these interactions. Your love for your animals and your land will drive consumer confidence and support, guaranteed. I’m not suggesting that you allow yourself to be subject to bullying or threats. If those types of comments are directed your way, move on and definitely do not stoop to that level. Hold yourself to a higher standard and you’ll advance your status and your credibility in the eyes of those who may be following the conversation from the sidelines.

Going forward, let this example that I’ve shared drive your motivation to interact with concerned consumers with kindness and respect. There’s enough hateful and horrid material coming from the animal rights’ camps. Countering that animosity and hostility with kind and polite interactions will help to gain respect and will also lend credence to your claims of proper and ethical animal care. In my opinion, that little golden rule exactly fits these situations: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Don’t you agree?