dairy farming

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.

Is Starbucks Really “Ditching Dairy”? Top Company Execs Say No!

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About a month ago, the global community of dairy farmers was rocked by news headlines that proclaimed that Starbucks was “ditching dairy” and instead planned to promote plant based beverages “for the environment”.

We were doubly shocked. You see, two weeks earlier, we had been asked if we’d be interested in hosting a farm tour for Starbucks top executives looking to expand their knowledge on dairy farming. The tour facilitator explained that intention of the tour was to learn more about the environmental sustainability of dairy and dairy farming. We were happy to oblige because we truly do love hosting tours; but I must admit that the thought of hosting top execs from a multinational, well-recognized chain was a bit intimidating.

And then we heard the news that Starbucks was planning to phase out dairy. It was confusing to say the least, as we know first hand just how environmentally conscious we are as farmers. But it also made us very aware of the importance of our upcoming opportunity to showcase just how much dairy farmers do to steward and improve our land and environment while producing nutritive and delicious dairy. 

On Tuesday, February 11, Starbucks executives toured three farms in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, and four more just across the border in Whatcom County, Washington State. We spent an hour and a half with this group: we showed them our farm, shared our family’s generational story of dairy farming, described our passion for stellar animal welfare, highlighted how we follow the latest research on animal care, reported on how we have partnered with the University of British Columbia on several research projects, and detailed all of the ways we steward our land to hand it over to the next generation of farmers in better shape than we received it. They asked some really great questions and were genuinely interested in how we farm. We were transparent and open about all aspects of our farm, and I think this helped to plant the seed for the feelings of connection and understanding and camaraderie that developed over the course of the tour.

Introducing ourselves and our farm.

The group also encouraged us to share our impressions on the sustainability of dairy, so we explained how dairy is a hyper-local product. Milk produced by our cows could be consumed at a Starbucks 20km away from the farm. We mentioned the regulations we are held to regarding manure management and how these protect our environment and aquifers. We talked about how manure is a valuable fertilizer, and how we use our farm’s manure to provide nutrition for the crops we grow to feed our cows. It’s one giant circle of sustainability.

At the end of the tour, we were given an opportunity to ask our own questions. And we didn’t hold back. We thanked them for showing interest in dairy farming but explained that we were very confused about the recent news that Starbucks was phasing out dairy. Since Michael Kobori, chief sustainabilty officer had just started his new position at Starbucks a month earlier, he deferred to Hans Melotte, Vice President of Starbucks global supply chain, on this question.

Mr. Melotte began by saying that Starbucks absolutely has not committed to “phasing out” dairy. He referenced Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson’s letter, where he stated that one of the 5 environmental strategies to be implemented by Starbucks was to “expand plant-based options, migrating toward a more environmentally friendly menu”. (Find the full text here: https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/message-from-starbucks-ceo-kevin-johnson-starbucks-new-sustainability-commitment/)

 

Mr. Melotte reiterated several times that Starbucks will continue to serve dairy products. Starbucks is simply adding more options to their menu AND looking at ways to be more environmentally sustainable.

This visit to dairy farms was part of that initiative to learn about sustainability on dairy farms and how Starbucks can encourage and support sustainability initiatives in the global dairy industry. He stated that dairy is a huge part of Starbucks’ business, and this will continue into the future.

By the time the group left, they felt like old friends. At the debrief session with the tour facilitators the next day, Starbucks tour attendees shared how excited they were to connect and engage with farmers and learn more about dairy farming. They were in awe of all the different hats farmers wear: nutrition specialist, soil expert, animal caretaker, business person, etc, etc. They were impressed to learn how valuable dairy farming is to local economies and how closely connected our farms are to Starbucks coffee shops in our communities. It seems the realization that milk from our farms in all likelihood ends up at one of our local Starbucks shops was pretty impressive to them! The group will continue their learning to better understand dairy, its impacts and opportunities, and how Starbucks might play a role to support the industry and farmers. Every individual was extremely grateful to have been able to meet dairy farmers in person to learn from us and, most importantly, experience the human side of agriculture.

Meeting our cows

We too are so grateful to have had this opportunity to open our farm to Starbucks. We look forward very much to continuing this conversation and building on the relationship we forged on the farm. And in the meantime, we’ll continue to savour our homemade lattes made with freshly ground Starbucks coffee beans and milk from our very own cows. Coffee and real dairy: the best combination. ❤️🥛 ☕️

Cries of Anguish?

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“We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakeable. Then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal.” ~Joaquin Phoenix

Sounds awful. Especially coming from someone we admire and look up to.

But while Joaquin might be an amazing actor, he has little hands-on knowledge about the care and attention and LOVE that is involved in dairy farming.

Let’s analyze his statement for a moment:

• Artificially inseminating a cow. Cows on dairy farms typically give birth once yearly, just like wild bovines and their cousins (moose, deer, elk, bison, yak, buffalo, etc). While a bull breeds the cows on our farm, many other farms use artificial insemination to breed their cows. AI, as it is commonly called, is the process of introducing semen to the cow’s reproductive tract. It’s much gentler for the cow to be bred by AI rather than being mounted by a 2000 pound bull! But regardless of breeding method, cows are only bred when they are in heat – that is, during their fertile period, which happens every 21 days. Cows in heat want to be bred – you should see our cows try to get to our bull when they are in heat! The desire to reproduce is so strong.

• Cow & calf separation. As farmers, it’s our job to ensure that both our cows and their calves are well cared for. There are several variables that impact our decision to separate cow and calf. Does the cow clean and care for her calf? Sometimes the mother doesn’t do a good enough job or shows no interest in her calf at all. Is the calf safe? We’ve had cows try to hurt their calves. Is the cow feeding her calf? Some cows will allow their calves to nurse, others are totally adverse to the idea and kick or move away from their calf when he or she tries to nurse. In short, each situation is different but typically if the cow and calf are getting along well they spend around 24 hours together. Once the calves are gently and calmly moved to our calf nursery they receive lots of affection, attention, and care from our family. We house our calves in pairs or sometimes triples at first so they always have a companion. They have lots of soft comfortable bedding and are well fed with plenty of milk from our herd and hay and grain as they grow older. They are weaned at three months of age and then moved to group pens with calves of their own age. Our calves are healthy, lively, and vigorous and we know that they receive the best care possible. It only makes sense for us to pay such close attention to these young animals; after all, they are the future of our farm! As for the cow, she too is content. Her herd is very important to her and she eagerly rejoins her friends when she has recovered well from calving. You’ll find her spending her days eating (lots of eating!), relaxing in a comfy stall or out on pasture, socializing with her herd mates, or enjoying a good scratch from the automated cow brush. Neither cow nor calf display any signs of distress, but are calm, relaxed, and content. In fact, visitors at our farm always comment on how quiet our barns are – just cows and calves contentedly going about their day with their every need met. Sorry Joaquin, there are no “cries of anguish”.

• “Stealing” milk meant for calves. Did you know that a dairy cow can produce upwards of 40L of milk per day? Her calf only drinks a fraction of that – usually 10-12 L per day. Our calves ARE fed their mother’s milk, but it is this EXCESS milk that is shipped to the processor and finds its way to our consumers’ tables.

Milk is a nutritional powerhouse. It’s full of essential nutrients so beneficial for our health. And yes, it is produced responsibly and ethically by family farms just like ours. Farms where cows are cared for with respect and compassion are the norm, not the exception.

As farmers, we chose this life because we love spending our days with our animals. We ensure they are happy and healthy, well fed, comfortably housed, and always, ALWAYS, treated with affection and respect. We love our cows.

It’s this love that draws us out of our warm beds to assist an overnight calving. It’s love that keeps us going when the days are long and full of hard work ensuring our animals’ every need is met. And it’s this love that is the over arching commonality between dairy farms all across the world. ❤️

It’s not just dirt. It’s the foundation of our farm.

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Let’s talk about soil.

It’s not something we discuss very often here because let’s face it, it’s not all that exciting or glamorous: it’s not cute and cuddly like a newborn calf nor as exhilarating as a herd of cows galloping our to pasture.

But without soil, our world as we know it would not exist. It’s the foundation on which civilization is built. Without soil, we’d starve. Healthy soil = a healthy planet. As farmers, we’re caretakers and stewards of our land and we’re at the forefront of efforts to ensure that we hand over our soil to the next generation of farmers in better condition than we received it.

Taking care of our land is crucial to the success of our farm. Our soil grows the crops we feed to our cows. Healthy soil grows nutritious crops that keep our herd in good health and producing top quality milk. And these crops that we grow to feed our cows also help to reduce our carbon footprint by absorbing carbon dioxide. It’s obvious then that soil is an essential cornerstone on which our farm and all farms are built.

Here’s some of thing we focus on to keep our soil healthy and care for our environment :

💩 Manure: Cow poo is full of nutrition for crops. It’s an excellent fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other nutrients. It also adds organic matter to the soil which improves soil structure, aeration, soil moisture holding capacity, and water filtration capability.

🐞 Soil life: bugs, earthworms, bacteria, protazoa, nematodes, rodents, and more make their homes in soil and are all instrumental to good soil health. Without the activities of soil organisms, dead plant matter and manure would accumulate and litter the soil surface, and there would be no food for plants. These organisms all work together to break down plant matter and manure into the nutrient building blocks that plants can use. To have healthy soil it is essential to focus on feeding the soil life and not just the crop growing in the soil as well as avoiding the use of any substance that can negatively impact soil organisms. Good soil is soil that is teeming with life.

🌱 Cover crops: We minimize erosion and run off of manure or leaching of nutrients by employing the use of cover crops. These crops are planted after the main season crop, such as corn, are harvested and protect our soil during the winter months. In the spring, residue from cover crops is incorporated into the soil to build up organic matter and feed soil life.

🌾 Crop rotation: different crops have different nutritional needs. We rotate different crops through different sections of our farm to allow optimum uptake of nutrition and to discourage the buildup and potential for leaching of nutrients into ground water.

🐄 Grazing: having our herd on pasture does amazing things for our soil. First of all, the cows fertilize as they eat; the cow pies they leave behind are soon homes to bugs and organisms busily breaking down the manure into available nutrients. Secondly, the herd tramples part of the grass, which decomposes and also adds organic matter and nutrients to the soil. Thirdly, a field that has been grazed will grow back more densely than a field that has been mowed and harvested. The resulting mat-like structure of the grasses shields the soil from the sun which adds to its water retention capabilities, obviously very helpful during our dry summers,

🧪 Soil sampling: we regularly take soil samples to determine if our soil lacks or has an excess of nutrients and we adjust our application of manure accordingly. These tests are instrumental in keeping our soil life well fed and avoiding any run-off or leaching issues.

📝 Regulations: we adhere to all provincial regulations surrounding manure application, which includes times when application is forbidden, such as in periods of heavy rainfall and the winter months when crops are dormant.

Franklin D Roosevelt once said,

“a nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.”

I think all farmers agree that it’s perhaps the most important part of our job to keep our soils healthy and productive, for the current and the next generation of farmers and consumers. It only makes sense to take good care of our soil; without a vibrant productive base our farms have no foundation.

Cow-Calf Separation: Cruelty or Necessity?

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Tuesday, May 21:

Mama Annie had her new calf – a heifer! 😍 – sometime over night between Sunday and Monday. When we came to the barn Monday morning, the calf was standing, all fluffy and dry after being thoroughly licked clean by her mama. However, it did not appear that she had nursed; her tummy was flat and she was bawling periodically. We milked Annie in the parlour, then bottle fed her colostrum to her very hungry calf. The two have been together since then and we have not yet observed the calf to be nursing, so like always, we feed her her mama’s milk with a bottle. We will move her to the calf nursery later today – about 36 hours after birth.

This is Annie’s second calf. As you can see in the video, Annie is not afraid of her farmer. Her calf, curious and precocious, runs up to the camera, perhaps thinking it is feeding time again. Annie watches, but she’s not nervous or overly protective. She knows from experience that her farmers will care for her and her calf with compassion, affection, and respect. When the time comes to move her calf to our comfortable calf nursery, we will do so calmly and gently. If Annie’s behaviour thus far is any indication – she’s been more interested in munching on feed at the feed bunk than in her calf – it will be the typical relaxed and stress free event it always is.

Wednesday, May 22:

Separating cows and calves is an emotionally loaded subject. Why? Because the reasons for and realities of the practice are not widely understood.

Too often, we attach our own emotions to animals, and while of course it is obvious that cows experience pain, fear, joy, and other emotions, they do not have exactly the same needs and preferences that humans do.

They don’t crave stimulating conversation, “Netflix and chill”, quality time with their spouse, a bed with blankets and sheets, nor many other human desires.

Coming from a non-dairy background myself, I at first was taken aback at the practise of separating cows and calves within a day or two after birth. Growing up, our beef cows spent several months with their calves until weaning time, and weaning was no fun: bawling calves & cows meant little sleep for the first few nights. However, once I saw for myself how neither the dairy cows nor their calves were unduly disturbed by the separation, my feelings changed.

It’s like this: in a beef herd, good mothering instincts are a desirable trait. A beef cow that isn’t a good mother won’t last long on a beef ranch; she must take excellent care of her calf out on the range when contact with the rancher is sporadic – or her calf will die. In dairy, however, the farmer is much more present and involved in all aspects of the cow’s day to day life and so it is easy to step in if the cow is not caring for her calf. This means that over the generations, good mothering instincts have not really been a factor when choosing desirable traits. Rather, calving ease, milk production, udder traits, feet and legs traits, longevity, and other “good milk cow” characteristics have been at the forefront of most breeding decisions. That mothering instinct has mostly been lost.

I’ve seen cows neglect their calves, more often than you can imagine. Others, like Annie here, will clean their calf after birth but not allow it to suckle. I’ve even seen cows attack their calves. Dairy cows are, by and large, just not the greatest mothers. Yes, we’ve had some cows that are better at caring for their calves. But even these cows react in the same way as you’ll see in this video. We’ve even occasionally experimented with keeping some of those cow calf pairs together in the herd. Do you know what happened? The cows pretty much ignored their calves and the calves began to treat the entire herd as their own personal milk smorgasbord, nursing from numerous cows in the herd. Yeah, not an ideal situation in the least!

Let me conclude with this: cows trust their farmers and are honestly more interested in access to food and water and spending time with the herd than in the wellbeing of their calf. The calf is well cared for as well, and showered with attention and affection. Both thrive. Both are happy. And that’s our goal as farmers: happy, healthy animals.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (I know we stress this often), remember that the best source of info about animal agriculture will ALWAYS be where it all happens: the farm. Have any questions about cow-calf separation or any other farming practice? Please ask!

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.