Goat milk producers ponder change

Thursday, March 4, 2010

by SUSAN MANN

Goat milk farmers will be asked next week if they approve dissolving their organization so the industry can have one association with a single, strong voice.

Jennifer Haley, executive director of the Ontario Goat Breeders Association, says if the vote at the Ontario Goat Milk Producers’ Association annual meeting March 13 in Guelph is approved the organization would be dissolved and its membership list merged with that of the breeders’ association.

There are about 80 members in the goat milk producers association and about 135 in the goat breeders association. Some farmers hold memberships in both organizations.

When the goat milk producers association was formed in 1989, there was a difference of opinion between it and the goat breeders association. Goat milk association president Laurie Llewellyn South says in the past it was felt the goat breeders association primarily focused on the meat industry and goat breeding. But a lot of things have changed during the past 15 years.

Llewellyn South says that over the years the need for the division between the two organizations “is less than the need to have one voice. To move the industry forward we need to have one representative organization for all goat farmers.” The goat milk producers’ board is recommending approval of the motion to dissolve the association.

“The current structure of (the Breeders Association) does have a mandate of milk, meat and fibre,” Haley explains. “That has probably been misunderstood in the past.”   

Haley says the goat industry has been discussing its future for the past three to four months. Farmers, government officials, processors and others in the industry have all said there needs to be one goat voice. “We can’t have multiple goat voices out there.” BF