Mitchell, Acres and Daynard Selected for Induction into the Ontario Ag Hall of Fame. Click below to add your best wishes.

THREE OUTSTANDING LEADERS SELECTED FOR INDUCTION INTO THE ONTARIO AGRICULTURAL HALL OF FAME

From the Ontario Agriculture Hall of Fame.

Milton. In its thirty-first year, the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame Association will induct three leaders into the Hall of Fame Gallery at Country Heritage Park in Milton on Sunday June 13, 2010. To qualify for this prestigious recognition, Inductees must have demonstrated visionary leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship in the advancement of agriculture in Ontario. They will have left a lasting legacy for the benefit of future generations.

Inductees for 2010 are:

Vera Mitchell, Metcalfe, (1929 - ). Mrs. Mitchell has amassed impressive accomplishments in agriculture, both as a key owner/operator of Donevelyn Farms Ltd. since 1952, and as a result of her work on behalf of agriculture across the province.

In the last fifty years, Donevelyn Farms has grown to comprise 1000 acres and four separate enterprises – dairy, a grain elevator, cash crops and custom cropping services. Vera was active in the dairy, accounting, grain trading, contracts, trucking, drying and storage aspects of the business.

With this extensive agricultural expertise, Mrs. Mitchell became a well-known spokesperson for agriculture across Ontario. She was often referred to the press by the Ontario Milk Marketing Board as a resource person with considerable knowledge of the dairy industry and Ontario agriculture in general. She defended farm practices and marketing organizations in the press, and emphasized that farmers were excellent custodians of the land.

She carried this educational component of her agricultural contributions even further by serving on the Advisory Board of Kemptville College, as well as hosting many national and international bus tours at Donevelyn. In addition, she worked closely with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to deliver the Ontario Agricultural Training Institute’s Farm Management Training Program throughout Eastern Ontario.

In 1986, Vera Mitchell was appointed by the Federal Minister of Agriculture as a founding Director on the Ontario Farm Debt Review Board. Its purpose was to facilitate mediation between financially stressed producers and their financial institutions in order to find workable solutions. The cases involved all sectors of agriculture and Vera served on panels across Ontario. She was renowned for her ability to get to the heart of a problem, and she brought considerable business experience in farm business expansion and diversification to the table.

Vera Mitchell has been an active farmer for much of her life, and has worked tirelessly on behalf of agriculture in her own region and across the province. In 2002, she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal for Outstanding Citizenship, Business Leadership and Contributions to Agriculture.

The Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame is proud to welcome Vera Mitchell to join an impressive list of contributors to Ontario Agriculture.

2010 Sponsored by Garnet Ralph and William Tupper.

Dwayne Cecil Acres, Osgoode, (1941 - ). The name, Dwayne Acres, is synonymous with the success of the sheep industry across Ontario and Canada. From 1964-2007, Dwayne was a partner with his wife, Laura, in Maple Meadow Farms, a 500 acre dairy, sheep, beef and cash crop enterprise. His sheep flock consistently topped results for rate of gain and feed efficiency, and his ability to breed top performing sheep is recognized around the province.

Mr. Acres demonstrated insightful leadership throughout the sheep industry, including genetics, performance testing, wool sales, judging, advocacy, marketing and computerized record keeping. He served on the board of the Ontario Sheep Breeders in the early 70’s and helped to change the membership so that it included commercial producers as well as purebred breeders. Out of this grew the Ontario Sheep Association which Dwayne chaired in 1975, leading the establishment of the first check-off for wool. This helped to finance initiatives by the current Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency to advance the interests of the Ontario sheep industry.

He became the founding Chair of the Ontario Ram Test Station Committee and was instrumental in establishing and operating ram test stations across the province to enhance the performance testing system. Nationally, he served as Chair of the Canadian Sheep Marketing Council in the late 70’s, and in the early 80’s as President of the Canadian Sheep Breeders’ Association where he helped institute a national venue for the sale of purebred sheep, now the All Canada Sheep Classic sale. He also served as Chair of the Canadian Livestock Records Corporation where he worked with breed associations to develop a means to expense the computerized record keeping system.

Today, Dwayne serves as a Director on the Canadian Cooperative Wool Growers, and also as Chair of the Sheep Flock Improvement Program Advisory Committee. In this capacity, he is working to secure funding for staffing of the program and for sponsoring awards to enhance producer awareness of the benefits of utilizing production records to build profitable flocks.
He has been sought out as a competitive judge both within Canada and Internationally, including at the Royal Winter Fair, the Australian Melbourne Royal and the World Sheep Congress. Mr. Acres worked to develop the education format of the Central Canadian Exhibition Association and then founded “Capital Agrifest” to showcase the livestock of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec and to provide a forum for 4H livestock and showmanship competitions. In fact, in 1992, he was awarded Volunteer of the Year by the Canadian Association of Exhibitions.
The scope of Dwayne Acres’ work and vision on behalf of Ontario’s and Canada’s sheep industry has been extensive. He is an exceptional addition to the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame.

2010 Sponsored by the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency

Terry B. Daynard, Guelph, (1943 - ). Terry Daynard’s background in the corn industry is wide-ranging, as a corn producer, a corn researcher and educator at the University of Guelph, as Managing Director of the Ontario Corn Producers’ Association (OCPA), as contributing editor of Ontario Corn Producer magazine and as Executive Development Officer of the Ontario BioAuto Council. During the sixteen years he taught at the U of G, he influenced many students to make their careers in the grain industry and several of his PhD students have gone on to serve the grain and corn sector as researchers and educators. As a researcher, he has made important contributions to the corn industry in areas of corn physiology and hybrid development, grain development and photosynthesis, drought and stress resistance and primary tillage for maize production in Ontario. He built the OCPA into one of the most dynamic farm organizations in the province, while working to establish the Grain Financial Protection Fund. Through the Ontario Corn Producer magazine, he was instrumental in informing producers about such diverse topics as research innovation, bio-products, environmental practices and grain trade issues.

One of Mr. Daynard’s key skills is his ability to create coalitions and partnerships to influence policy, innovation, growth and development in Ontario agriculture.

Terry was a founding member of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association which led to the establishment of the fuel ethanol industry in Ontario. There are currently six ethanol plants in Ontario, producing 800 million liters of ethanol annually, using 80 million bushels of corn per year.

He and others formed the first AgCare Board (Agricultural Groups Concerned about Resources and the Environment) to deal with environmental issues affiliated with agriculture. One important development was the Grower Pesticide Safety Course, now mandatory for any farmer purchasing or using agricultural pesticides.

Terry was the first Chair of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, created to focus on the development of agriculture and food programs in Ontario to ensure continuing innovation, business opportunities and new partnerships, and to develop new markets for grain beyond food and feed. He served as Chair of Ontario Agri-Food Education) which was formed to develop agricultural education resource materials so that Ontario school children have the opportunity to learn more about the province’s food chain. He was the chief author of “Our Farm Environment Agenda” which outlined the environmental principles and practices of Ontario producers and led to the development of the first Environmental Farm Plan initiative in Canada. Terry was successful in bringing the chemical, plastic, agriculture, and forest industries together to form the Ontario BioAuto Council in 2007 in order to create and commercialize bio-based automobile technologies. He was also instrumental in creating the Agricultural Odyssey Group to develop strategic solutions, along with Ontario’s farm leaders, to economic and other issues confronting the agrifood sector.

Those who work with Terry Daynard consistently describe him as a visionary, as extraordinarily productive, as an innovator, as a supporter of a sustainable agricultural environment and as a gifted communicator. Certainly, his numerous contributions to agriculture in Ontario and beyond have earned him a well deserved place in the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame.

2010 Sponsored by the Ontario Corn Producers’ Association