BFO Statement on the 2023 Federal Budget

Apr 12, 2023

The Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO) applauds the Government of Canada’s commitment of $57.5 million over five years to fund a Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine bank, and support for the development of emergency response plans related to the devastating animal health disease. The funding was announced this afternoon during the release of Canada’s Budget 2023. BFO and our allies across the Canadian cattle sector had been calling on the federal government to invest in this critical response measure for the better part of the last two years, and are extremely pleased and appreciative of today’s announcement.

“While an FMD outbreak in Canada would be devastating to our sector, having a dedicated vaccine bank in place to ensure early vaccination and a robust response plan will help us control the spread of the disease, and protect our export markets and the livelihoods of farmers as much as possible,” says Jack Chaffe, BFO President.

In addition to the FMD commitment, Budget 2023 also promises to provide farmers with an increase to the interest-free limit for loans under the Advance Payments Program (APP) from $250,000 to $350,000 for the 2023/24 program year.

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Video: Making budget friendly pig feed on a small livestock farm

I am going to show you how we save our farm money by making our own pig feed. It's the same process as making our cattle feed just with a slight adjustment to our grinder/ mixer that makes all the difference. We buy all the feed stuff required to make the total mix feed. Run each through the mixer and at the end of the process we have a product that can be consumed by our pigs.

I am the 2nd generation to live on this property after my parents purchased it in 1978. As a child my father hobby farmed pigs for a couple years and ran a vegetable garden. But we were not a farm by any stretch of the imagination. There were however many family dairy farms surrounding us. So naturally I was hooked with farming since I saw my first tractor. As time went on, I worked for a couple of these farms and that only fueled my love of agriculture. In 2019 I was able to move back home as my parents were ready to downsize and I was ready to try my hand at farming. Stacy and logan share the same love of farming as I do. Stacy growing up on her family's dairy farm and logans exposure of farming/tractors at a very young age. We all share this same passion to grow a quality/healthy product to share with our community. Join us on this journey and see where the farm life takes us.