Huron County Federation of Agriculture elects new president

Nov 03, 2020

Robert Vanden Hengel replaces Ethan Wallace

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

The Huron County Federation of Agriculture has a new leader.

Organization members elected Robert Vanden Hengel, a dairy and cash crop producer from Seaforth, Ont., as president at its annual general meeting on Oct. 23.

Vanden Hengel replaces Ethan Wallace as the federation’s president.

“I’ve been on the board for about seven years so I kind of figured my time was coming to be president,” Vanden Hengel told Farms.com.

Vanden Hengel assumes the presidency as the industry and society overall continue to manage life amid COVID-19.

Until the virus is no longer the news of the day, it will likely be a primary discussion topic in the industry, the new president said.

“Everything is so focused on COVID-19 and it probably will be for a long time,” he said. “But what COVID-19 has done is highlighted areas of our society that need improvement.”

One item, for example, is rural Internet connectivity.

This month, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture will meet for its annual general meeting in a virtual format.

This one-day event will provide insight into what areas of the province have or need better broadband access, Vanden Hengel said.

“We’re really getting to see the gaps in rural broadband access,” he said. “If anything, we can use this meeting to determine where investments might be needed to ensure rural Ontarians have good and reliable Internet.”

The coronavirus hasn’t been all bad for the ag sector.

Commodity prices, for example, are up, which doesn’t usually happen around harvest, Vanden Hengel said.

“For whatever reason, prices are high for corn and soybeans,” he said. “That’s not usually the case when we take our crops off the field. I know for myself, I’m not going to sit and wait to see if the prices are going to go higher.”

Soybean prices are around US$10.64 (C$14.01) per bushel and corn prices are around US$4.00 (C$5.27) per bushel as of 2:10 p.m. EST, the Chicago Board of Trade says.

Robert Vanden Hengel/Twitter photo

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.