Dairy Farmers of Ontario suspends new farmer quota applications

Thursday, December 22, 2011

by SUSAN MANN

Dairy Farmers of Ontario has suspended applications from new farmers who have priority access to the quota exchange but who aren’t part of the quota loan program.

The board decided at its meeting this month to suspend the applications while it reviews its new producer policy. The policy enables one new producer each month to have priority access on the exchange for up to 35 kilograms of quota. The matter will be discussed with dairy producer committees at the spring policy conference in March.

Dairy farmers will also be invited to comment to the organization during the review.

The new producers with priority access to the exchange are third in line for quota. First are existing producers who bid for quota and are successful. They have priority access to 0.1 kg of quota, while new entrants receiving assistance have second priority.

George MacNaughton, Dairy Farmers director of production and regulatory compliance, says by email that, “at the rate of one new producer applicant per month it would take over nine years for the last applicant in the new producer queue to be eligible to acquire quota.”

The new producer policy is one of two programs Dairy Farmers has for new producers. The other is the New Entrant Quota Assistance program that provides quota loans of up to 12 kilograms each to new producers. Successful applicants in the program must hold a minimum of 12 kgs of their own quota while receiving the loaned quota. Dairy Farmers provides up to a total of 120 kgs of quota a year for the new entrant quota assistance program.

There were 26 new producers who acquired quota on the exchange in 2009/10, compared to 10 during the previous fiscal year, it says in Dairy Farmers 2010 annual report. BF