by SUSAN MANN
Organic dairy farmers Kathie and Francis Groenewegen have found a way to branch out so their adult children can earn a decent living from their small operation.
The Groenewegen’s children, Patrick, 22, and Olivia, 20, both want to farm. But Kathie says their Kingston-area farm is too small for everyone to make their living. The 300-acre farm is in Elginburg, 10 minutes north of Kingston. Along with milking 30 cows, they have a small organic egg and meat business with beef, chickens, turkey and pork. They sell their products from the farm gate.
For the past 10 years the Groenewegens have contemplated establishing an on-farm fluid milk processing business. Now the couple is in the planning stages and hopes to have it established by the fall of 2011.
To do so, they have become part of a pilot program developed by Dairy Farmers of Ontario to encourage on-farm fluid milk processing. Called Project Farmgate, the program provides market development support, including staff support in working with the Ontario agriculture ministry on matters related to plant approval. In return, the farmers are to provide the business knowledge they acquire to Dairy Farmers.
The Groenewegens plan to process fluid milk, skim, one per cent, two per cent and whole, in glass bottles along with table cream. They’ll eventually expand into yogurt, butter and cheese. Their products will be sold from an on-farm retail store and they’re planning to do home delivery into Kingston.
Kathie says there’s a lot of interest in local food in their area. “We already have a small clientele built up.”
Extending their farming operation into milk processing will enable their children’s strengths to shine. Kathie says Patrick, who already farms with them, excels in working with machines. Olivia is studying organic agriculture at the University of Guelph. She’s good with people and loves the farming portion of the business.
Another family establishing an on-farm processing plant through the program is John and Bonnie den Haan, who farm just south of Alliston. Like the Groenewegens, they’re in the preliminary planning stages of setting up their plant.
The den Haans plan to produce whole, unhomogenized white and chocolate milk that’s pasteurized for a longer time but at a low temperature. “It just improves the taste so much,” Bonnie says. The den Haans milk 52 cows and produce 1,600 litres a day.
“People are asking for it so we decided it would be a good time to do that,” she says, noting consumers want to know where their food comes from.
Their milk will be sold in glass bottles from an on-farm retail store. “I can’t wait to get the product out there so people can taste it,” she says.
Bill Mitchell, Dairy Farmers assistant communications director, says the organization’s representatives were inspired to start the program last year after visiting on-farm fluid milk processors in the United States to gather information.
Dairy Farmers is looking into on-farm fluid milk processing in Ontario because with the move to niche and local marketing it “was thought to be a logical extension of something we might examine,” Mitchell says.
Dairy Farmers has contributed $50,000 to the project. The organization has also applied to the Ontario Rural Economic Development Fund for matching funds.
On the farm side, the farmers will continue to be regulated and paid by Dairy Farmers. All of the deductions for research, administration, transportation, promotion and CanWest DHI, still apply to their milk. On the milk processing side the farmers will need a license from the agriculture ministry and have to meet its regulations.
Mitchell says “to us he’s a farmer and he’s a processor” and it’s completely separate. The location of both the farm operation and processing plant on the same premises is “almost immaterial to us.”
Agriculture Ministry spokesperson Susan Murray says all processors of fluid cow’s milk have to meet the same regulatory requirements regardless of size or location.
Four dairy farms in the province already do on-farm processing of milk into products, like yogurt, ice cream and cheese. But so far there hasn’t been any on-farm fluid milk processing in Ontario. BF
Comments
Only in the fantasy-land of supply-management would DFO be so dismissive/patronizing/oblivious to the processing sector. It's bad enough that supply management keeps reducing the volume of milk available to processors, solely to keep the farm-gate price of milk high, it's even worse that DFO is now giving money to farmers in order to compete against processors who are already being screwed by the lower volumes of production mandated by supply management.
Dairy farmers, and DFO, are so out-of-touch with reality that they issue press releases to pat themselves on the back for being so innovative, yet completely, and wilfully, ignoring the damage their actions are causing to the processing sector of the milk marketing system.
It's completely preposterous for DFO to take the position that on-farm dairy processing operations are, or could ever be, separate from the farm itself. It's even more preposterous for DFO to take the position that having both the farm operation and processing plant on the same premises is "almost immaterial to us".
The complete absurdity of DFO's position can be illustrated by looking at the situation in reverse. Simply imagine the outcry dairy farmers would raise if Kraft, or Saputo, for example, built dairy farms right beside their processing plants in order to supply these plants, yet, when farmers do exactly that type of vertical integration at their end of the marketing channel, not only does it get DFO blessing, it gets DFO money.
The DFO are trying to get out of a hole they dug them selves. In the nineties the DFO and OFPMC got rid of all small processors in favor of Kraft,Saputo and Parmalat and now that these companies have the market place in Ontario the look around the world for cheap prices to import four billion dollars worth of powdered milk to make Canadian cheese.
Were is the Ontario farmer going to sell his milk?
The DFO have a new strategy ,if the farmers can process the milk on the farm millions and millions of city people will drive hundreds of miles twice a week to the farms to buy it.
why would people drive hundreds of miles to buy Canadian milk at the farm, when they can drive a fraction of that distance to buy US milk, in the store, and at a fraction of the price they'd pay anywhere in Canada?
The DFO is only doing this in a weak response to try and combat Michael Schmidt and for no other reason. They want to get consumers to stop drinking raw milk by being able to buy milk from DFO shippers drect, it's not going to stop raw milkk sales lol
what a joke
Not only am I pretty certain that almost anywhere in Ontario you wouldn't have to drive hundreds of miles to show up at a dairy farm. I am also pretty certain that anyone who is proud to be Canadian isn't going to buy US milk.
Do you know the difference between what they put in US milk and the regulations of Canadian milk? If you did I don't think you'd buy US milk just because it is cheaper. (Also, and I could be wrong but the whole point of supply managemnt in Canada is so that we don't have to import milk. It prevents an inferior product from flooding the market.)
Why is it that a lot of Canadians complain about why prices are so expensive and purchases are inconvient and then those people are the first to go to the US to buy things. People like you are the reason EVERYTHING is made in China!!
Seriously, folks SUPPORT LOCAL!! No matter whether you find the DFO controversial you are supporting a family farm. That's the important part.
In ninety seven the ODF and OFPMC closed the last independent dairy . Eight local farmers decided to buy my equipment and start there own local creamery with the blessing of the ODF .
Three years later I was told that the farmers lost all their investments and gave up.
Remember that the milk cheque is not in the mail box every two weeks when you leave the farm quota end of the business.
There is no price guaranty per liter or subsidies to help you out
But still I wish you good luck
sounds like a jealous outsider looking in
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