Updated, April 15 — Ontario’s cattle producer organization is asking members to consider delaying sales of cull cows until market conditions “normalize.” Beef Farmers of Ontario’s board on Thursday published a memo to beef and dairy cattle producers, asking them to help “prevent a further surge in cull cows in the market” — especially of […] Read more
Beef Farmers of Ontario ask for curb on cull sales
BFO concerned over processing 'backlogs'
COVID-19 strains already-battered Ontario beef industry
Limited processing capacity remains financial challenge for province's feedlot sector, despite recent increase in retail demand
Ontario’s beef industry was already in the midst of an economic crisis, but COVID-19 is worsening the financial toll on the province’s cattle feeders. Due to extremely limited processing plant capacity, an uncompetitive market and disruptions to trade and market access, Ontario’s beef industry was losing an average of more than $2 million per week […] Read more
Ontario offers cash for abattoir upgrades
Applications now being accepted through April
Ontario’s 123 provincially-licensed abattoirs can now start applying for a piece of $2 million in federal/provincial funding to step up food safety, biosecurity and animal welfare measures. The Ontario and federal governments on Wednesday announced applications for cost-share funding can be submitted between now and April 30, “as long as funding for the initiative is […] Read more
Ryding-Regency’s federal beef packing licenses cancelled
Citing “false or misleading information” given them during an E. coli probe, food safety officials have now permanently pulled the federal slaughter, processing and export licenses for Toronto’s Ryding-Regency Meat Packers and related companies. The cancellation, announced Monday, indefinitely prolongs what was already described as “critical processing capacity shortage” for the province’s cattle producers, leaving […] Read more
Ontario beef checkoff to rise by $1.50
Ontario beef farmers have approved an increase of $1.50 in checkoff per animal to fund an ambitious industry-wide marketing effort for Ontario beef. Producers at the Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO) annual meeting in Mississauga on Wednesday voted 87 per cent in favour of the plan. A similar plan was rejected at last year’s annual […] Read more
Producers vote down Ontario beef checkoff increase
A bid to increase the checkoff paid by Ontario’s beef farmers to Beef Farmers of Ontario was quashed when it failed to get the 66 per cent support it needed for approval. Why it matters: Beef Farmers of Ontario pulled from its reserves to fund at close-to $1 million deficit in 2017 and was planning […] Read more
Guelph gets new beef research facility
The federal and provincial governments and the Beef Farmers of Ontario have all announced funding for buildings and programs at the University of Guelph’s renewed beef research station this week. The funds announced are to help create a completely new cow-calf and heifer research facility next to the current beef research station, and a new […] Read more
Former BFO president turns to provincial politics
A former president of the Beef Farmers of Ontario will be running for the Liberals in the next provincial election. Bob Gordanier was nominated Monday as the Liberal candidate for the southwestern Ontario riding of Dufferin-Caledon, which has been held by Progressive Conservative MPP Sylvia Jones since 2007. During his farm organization service Gordanier served […] Read more
Ontario doubles down on feeder cattle loans
Ontario cattle feeders will be able to take out larger loans to buy livestock under an expansion of the provincial feeder cattle loan guarantee program. The program guarantees 25 per cent of a financial institution’s loan to one of Ontario’s 18 feeder cattle co-operatives, which then allows the co-op’s members a “more competitive” interest rate […] Read more
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