Barlow Says COVID-19 Program Funding Slow To Roll Out

Jun 12, 2020

The Federal Conservative's Shadow Minister for Agriculture says the Liberal Government seems to be good at making announcements but that's where it ends.

John Barlow says when it actually comes to allocating the funding and the program logistics for some of the Liberal's COVID-19 programs they've failed.

He says when it comes to the Agriculture sector a lot of that money still has not been rolled out.

"You know, whether it's the $9 million for jobs in agriculture, 700 jobs in agriculture sector. We've seen now the estimates of the budget, that money is not in there. You know, there's 10s of millions of dollars missing that we can't identify where it's coming from. So, you know, even to say now that farmers should be able to qualify for the emergency business account. What we're hearing from farmers is they haven't been able to access those funds from their financial institutions."

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Video: Back On The Fields | Cutting Alfalfa Hay| Crop Talk

We are cutting our second-cut alfalfa hay! Our machinery hasn't been repaired, but the weather is clear, so we take our opportunity to get back on the fields making hay. The alfalfa crop was ready to harvest, and any delays would result in poor quality feed for our sheep, so we decided to go ahead and get that mower rolling. We have a little crop talk about how we cut the hay with our John Deere hydrostatic mower, how we lay the hay out flat in rows to help it dry quicker, and how the two different plantings in that hay field have developed at varying rates and densities. We discuss the quality of the alfalfa hay and show how differing percentages of grasses mixed in with the alfalfa make a difference in the volume of the hay harvested. Hay is the primary feed source on our sheep farm. Getting it done just right is imperative for sheep farming, sheep health, and sheep care. Quality feed sets the stage for producing productive and profitable sheep and allows for feeding throughout the winter season when pasture grazing is no longer an option for those farmers raising sheep in cold climates such as Canada. While in the hay field, we also have a look at the adjacent corn crop and marvel at how well it has developed in such a short period of time.