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Better Farming
January 2017
SHORT
TAKES
Changes in farm severance policies
Despite split perspectives in the local agricultural community, Perth
County now allows surplus farm dwelling severances.
The agriculture and agribusiness
sector is a significant driver in
Ontario’s economy. As a recent
expansion in Bruce County demon-
strates, the industry can also
stabilize rural decline.
An expansion at
Gay Lea Foods
Co-operative Limited
plant in
Teeswater will create some new
jobs, says
Michael Barrett
,
company president and CEO.
But more importantly, the
expansion secures a steady
future for the 85 employees
the company already
employs at this location.
Barrett says the deci-
sion to replace the dryer
at the co-operative’s
Teeswater facility was a
no-brainer. “Our 1,300
dairy farmer (owners) live,
work, play, sleep, marry, die in the
rural communities,” he says. “You
cannot have rural sustainability
without being able to have a balance
of both agriculture and healthy
(small) urban centres.”
Robert Buckle
, mayor of South
Bruce, describes the addition,
announced in November, as “a
tremendous economical growth
project for this area and it will
benefit our agricultural industry
quite a bit.”
The two-year project
will double the plant’s
current 140 million-litre
capacity. The company will
use the new 38-metre
dryer in the manufacture
of high-end milk ingredi-
ents such as milk protein
concentrates and isolates.
BF
Expansion of a rural Ontario dairy co-op
Conservation efforts
Rural landowners’ involvement in
land conservation is mostly depen-
dent on their environmental attitude,
according to a recent study led by
Silke Nebel
, a research associate at
Western University
, and coauthor
Jeff Brick
.
“Public recognition did not affect
farmers at all,” when deciding to
participate in conservation programs,
says Nebel. Instead “they were most
interested in how a decline in the
wetland areas would affect them
personally, and if they would be
getting access to information and
technical assistance.”
“Wetlands are important (to
farmers) for a number of reasons,
including providing a healthy ecosys-
tem, and providing a filtering func-
tion for controlling any excess
nutrients,” says Nebel. About 3,000
rural landowners were surveyed.
BF
In November, nearly 20 years after
Perth County banned surplus farm
dwelling severances, county council
implemented a policy to allow them
once again.
The decision to permit the sever-
ances was by no means unanimous,
and
Allan Rothwell
, Perth County
director of planning and develop-
ment, says the division reflects the
split perspective in Perth’s farm
community over the issue.
“Livestock producers for the most
part do not support being able to
sever surplus farmhouses,” says
Rothwell. Cash crop farmers, on the
other hand, typically don’t have an
issue with such severances. For
livestock producers, more neighbours
mean more logistical headaches, such
as the minimum distance separation
that’s required when planning a barn
expansion, he explains.
The county will limit how severed
farmhouses can be used. For example,
the buildings can still be used for a
home business but not a secondary
farm occupation such as small-scale
food production.
BF
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