Recovering from the 2021 drought will be a major focus for dairy farmers this year.
David Wiens is chair of Dairy Farmers of Manitoba.
"That has been pretty high up on our agenda in terms of trying to address that situation to work our way through this difficult time," he commented. "Looking forward, hopefully we continue to get good snowfall throughout the winter and timely rains again next summer to help us through."
Wiens says they'll also be encouraging more dairy processing across the Prairies.
"Continue to be looking for those opportunities so that we can continue to grow production here on the farms in Western Canada."
He notes issues related animal care and the environment will also be top of mind in 2022.
Last month, the federal government announced that the third payment under the Dairy Direct Payment Program is available to producers.
Based on their milk quota, dairy farmers will receive compensation payments totaling up to $469 million for this fiscal year.
The money is compensation for market access concessions made under CETA and CPTPP.
Wiens says they're still waiting for details on compensation related to the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
"With the CUSMA agreement, or the new NAFTA agreement, that the Canadian government signed onto a couple of years ago, in order to secure that agreement, the government once again provided further access for the Canadian dairy market for the U.S. and that trade agreement. They felt that they needed to have the overall agreement but certainly the dairy industry paid a heavy price there."
The Government of Canada says within the next year, it is committed to working with supply-managed sectors to determine full and fair compensation for the impacts of CUSMA.
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