Three more Ontario farm fires over the weekend

Jan 18, 2016

Brings the total of January barn fires to five

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Ontario’s farming community is reeling after three more barn fires over the weekend – bringing the total number of recent barn fires in Ontario to five and all within a span of about two weeks.

The first occurred at an empty barn in Georgetown at Ninth Line and 5 Sideroad around 5 a.m. Saturday morning.

Two barns and a vacant home are located on the property and the smaller of the two burnt. There were no animals inside the barn but there was cattle outside.

The second weekend barn fire happened at a farm near Delaware on Sunday morning.

When firefighters arrived around 6 a.m. they found the barn engulfed in flames.

Approximately 500 milking goats and 30 cattle were lost in the blaze and damage is estimated to be around $2 million.

The third weekend fire occurred Sunday afternoon in Flamborough.

When Hamilton firefighters arrived just after 12:30 p.m., they found heavy smoke and fire coming out of a building.

There were six tractors and other equipment inside the building, but no livestock.

The damage is estimated at $100,000.

With the fires that occurred over the weekend, the total number of farm or barn fires in Ontario is now five.

On Jan. 5, a fire in Puslinch claimed the lives of 43 Standardbred horses and a Mount Forest barn fire on Jan. 14 killed 13 Arabian horses.

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.