Project will include providing Crown land to help kickstart livestock farming
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com
Ontario’s Ministry of Agriculture has launched consultations on the Northern Livestock Pilot project, a program designed to increase beef farming In Ontario’s north.
“The focus of this call for proposals is on the expansion of livestock production in Northern Ontario with a particular focus on the Great Clay Belt, specifically along the Highway 11 North corridor between Cochrane and Hearst,” OMAFRA’s website says.
The project aims to invest in new research to understand various aspects of northern livestock expansion, provide a parcel of Crown land to help kickstart livestock farming in the region and develop educational tools for beginning farmers in the north.
Approximately 1 million acres of farmland and 2,600 farms are in Northern Ontario. About 703,000 acres are in production, generating $192 million in revenue, according to the 2011 census.
Livestock industry representatives are encouraged by the possibilities of Ontario’s northern regions.
“It is encouraging that the provincial government has made a commitment to identify opportunities for livestock production in Northern Ontario,” Matt Bowman, president, Beef Farmers of Ontario, said in a May 12 release. “Expanding beef production in Northern Ontario…has been a priority for the Beef Farmers of Ontario for several years.”
Producers in the north are happy about the new spotlight on their regions but are concerned it has taken this long.
“I’m pleased about it, (but) many of us have been farming here for many years and we have been overlooked,” Kim Jo Bliss, a beef producer from Emo, about nine hours away from Cochrane and Hearst, told Farms.com.
“Even without giving up the Crown land, there’s plenty of land here that just needs a fence.”
One of the disadvantages of farming in Northern Ontario is the sheer size of the province, Bliss says.
“I talk to people every week about moving here but frankly most don’t want to be this far away from their families.”