Ontario Agriculture

The network for agriculture in Ontario, Canada

The CFFO Commentary: Farmers Working Together Brings Results

By Henry Stevens

April 1, 2011


The hard work of the Ontario Agricultural Sustainability Coalition has finally produced positive results. As many people know, the 2011 provincial budget was announced this week and farmers received the eagerly anticipated news that new types of Business Risk Management programming are coming for many Ontario Farmers.

Presenting solutions that will cover the programming gaps found in existing programs like Agri-Stability has been the ongoing work of OASC. The coalition, made up of a wide variety of agricultural organizations, including the CFFO, has been concerned about the resiliency of the provincial agricultural sector and has worked tirelessly towards solutions.

Our provincial government recognized that volatility in commodity markets is an issue for farmers in managing business risks. The 2011 Budget announced the extension of the current pilot Risk Management Program for grain and oilseed farmers. Furthermore, the government will also implement a new Risk Management Program for the cattle, hog, sheep and veal sectors. Fruit and vegetable growers will be getting a new Self-Directed Risk Management Program.

These new risk management programs represent an innovative approach in providing bankable, stable and predictable support for Ontario’s farmers while responding to market trends in the long-term.

However, the job for CFFO and OASC isn’t done yet. The federal government still isn’t on board with regionally flexible business risk management programming. Moving forward, the efforts of OASC will need to focus on convincing the federal government that regionally specific programming is a necessity due to the sheer diversity of agriculture across Canada,

The CFFO would like to thank Carol Mitchell, the Minister of Agriculture, and the staff at OMAFRA for their hard work and support in making these new programs a reality. It took courage and leadership on the part of our province to move ahead alone in supporting Ontario’s farmers.

 

Henry Stevens is the President of the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario. The CFFO Commentary represents the opinions of the writer and does not necessarily represent CFFO policy. It can be heard weekly on CKNX Wingham and CFCO Chatham, Ontario and is archived on the CFFO website: www.christianfarmers.org. The CFFO is supported by 4,200 farm families across Ontario

Views: 36

Comment

You need to be a member of Ontario Agriculture to add comments!

Join Ontario Agriculture

Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

Canada’s Minister of AI and Digital Innovation visits EMILI’s Innovation Farms

The Honourable Evan Solomon, Canada’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation visited EMILI’s Innovation Farms to discuss AI innovation and get a firsthand look at the important work taking place to advance agtech in Manitoba. “This week in Winnipeg was about practical AI and Manitoba’s place in Canada’s innovation economy,” he said in a post on LinkedIn after the event. “I visited Manitoba Innovates and EMILI Innovation Farms to see how Manitoba is supporting startups, agtech and real-world technology adoption.” EMILI is very proud of the work taking place in Manitoba to drive agriculture innovation, and how the impact is stretching across Canada with the recent launch of the AIVA Network which EMILI is a co-founder of. It was an honour to share details and answer questions about 30+ projects being tested and demonstrated on EMILI’s Innovation Farms this season, including Verge Ag, Cellar Insights, Agi3, Geco Strategic Weed Management, Miraterra, GrainFox, and mor

This is Agriculture: Customer success sales and marketing lead

After entering university to play volleyball, Courtney Kowk found her way into the agriculture program and continued her studies with a masters degree in agricultural economics. While her work experience started during university, her connection to agriculture began with a love for animals and a connection to her grandparents in Saskatchewan. She continued into a role at Cellar Insights, which allowed her to work closely with producer-focused innovation. Where did you grow up? Was it an agriculture or urban environment? I grew up in East St. Paul, a small municipality just outside of Winnipeg. It wasn’t a farming community, but it also wasn’t fully urban, so I got a bit of both worlds growing up. What was your dream job when you were a kid? Thinking back, I don’t know if I ever really had a dream job. I don’t think I spent much time thinking about growing up or being an adult, I was pretty happy just being a kid and not having to worry about those responsibilities yet. At one point

Insurance companies slammed with hail damage claims from summer storms

Member companies of the Canadian Crop Hail Association (CCHA) say they're processing more than 2,000 claims of crop damage across the Prairies. Members of the Canadian Crop Hail Association include Co-operative Hail Insurance Company, Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation, Palliser Insurance Company Ltd, Saskatchewan Municipal Hail Insurance and Rain and Hail Insurance Services. The claims stem from storms that occurred June 22nd to July 5th. During that time, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba were hit with hail from golf-ball size to baseball size, along with wind and large amounts of rain. President of CCHA Tyson Ryhorchuk says a large area of Saskatchewan was hit by consecutive days of hail. "Alberta and Manitoba are also fairly heavy, especially in southwest Manitoba," said Ryhorchuk. "But there was that large storm that everyone's been hearing about that stretched basically from Calgary all the way down to Swift Current that had a pretty big swath of hail that came thro

Unity's Field of Dreams gets boost from BASF’s Field of Purpose

The Cardinal Diamond Revitalization Project will soon be transitioning into its third year of work, and this year the project received some help from BASF. For the past few years, the committee has had the opportunity to fund the project alongside the North West Terminal, with the sale of the grain being used to pay for the diamond renovations. Several farmers in the area have continued to help with these fundraising efforts following the sale of the local grain terminal, and committee president Cory Wildeman said the group learned about the Field of Purpose program after approaching BASF rep Layna Levorson for a donation of crop protection chemicals. The revitalization project received enough Sphaerex fungicide and Voraxor pre-seed to support 240 acres of soft white spring wheat through the BASF program, which has been operating under the Field of Purpose name for the past two years. Tabetha Boot, head of Communications & Industry Relations at BASF, said the company tries to support

New-Crop Soy Production Up, But Ending Stocks Steady

U.S. soybean ending stocks for 2026–27 were left unchanged in the USDA’s July supply and demand report on Friday, even after a larger planted area raised the expected size of the new-crop harvest. The USDA maintained its new-crop carryout forecast at 310 million bu, unchanged from June and well below the average pre-report trade expectation of roughly 332 million. New-crop soybean production was increased by 40 million bu to 4.475 billion, reflecting a 700,000-acre increase in planted area to 85.4 million acres. Harvested area was also raised by 700,000 acres to 84.4 million, while the national yield forecast remained unchanged at 53 bu/acre. However, the larger crop did not translate into an equal increase in total supply. Beginning stocks were lowered by 10 million bushels to 330 million, leaving total 2026–27 supplies up a net 30 million bushels at 4.83 billion. Meanwhile, the USDA also raised projected soybean exports by 30 million bu to 1.66 billion, citing increased supp

© 2026   Created by Darren Marsland.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service