Search
Better Farming OntarioBetter PorkBetter Farming Prairies

Better Farming Ontario Featured Articles

Better Farming Ontario magazine is published 11 times per year. After each edition is published, we share featured articles online.


New Brunswick dairy producers agree to common quota policy

Friday, June 11, 2010

by SUSAN MANN

Eastern Canadian dairy farmer boards, including Ontario’s, have convinced another province to sign on to a common quota policy.

After talks in May with their counterparts in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, New Brunswick dairy producers have decided to adopt the common quota policy. The policy was implemented by the Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia boards in 2009.

Prince Edward Island producers, the fifth member of what the industry refers to as the P5 group that has been negotiating the common policies, has yet to join.

Peter Gould, general manager of Dairy Farmers of Ontario, says New Brunswick will introduce the common policies as soon as possible, possibly within the next month or two.

“They’re prepared to do it right away,” Gould says. But there will likely have to be a meeting of the quota committee for the provinces that have already harmonized their policies to work out the details.

Gould says the executive of his organization along with those of Quebec and Nova Scotia got together with the full boards of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island in separate meetings in early May to talk about those provinces’ concerns with the common policies.

Gould says he’s confident P.E.I. will join quota harmonization eventually.

One of the P.E.I. board’s concerns is that it wants to keep quota leasing as a production management tool but it doesn’t want to take a 0.5 per cent reduction in its quota allocation as a penalty. Dairy Farmers of Prince Edward Island has proposed that quota leasing be made available to all farmers in the P5. Another of the province’s concerns is with milk movement obligations. 

Harold MacNevin, chairman of Dairy Farmers of Prince Edward Island, says having to take the quota reduction to keep its leasing program is a sore point with the Island’s farmers.

MacNevin says eight of Canada’s 10 provinces now have some method of selling production credits or leasing quota as part of their production and quota management options. It’s just Ontario and Quebec that don’t. “There are variations of it across Canada. They’re not all called quota leasing or quota credits.”

But Ontario has always been against quota leasing, which permits producers to temporarily transfer unused quota to another producer for a fee. Ontario’s long-standing view about quota is it is there to be used to produce milk, says Gould: “The quota itself should not be a means to generate income.”

Gould adds that before Ontario started negotiations with the other P5 provinces on the common quota policies it had a very dim view of any mechanism that allowed quota to be temporarily transferred between producers. Now that the provinces using the system explained it, Ontario understands why they’re doing it. But Ontario still doesn’t think it’s the right thing to do and won’t be introducing it into this province in the foreseeable future. “If you want to keep quota leasing there has to be some other consideration if you want to join P5 quota harmonization,” he says.

Both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have opted to continue using quota leasing and have accepted the 0.5 per cent reduction in quota to participate in the harmonization process.

There are a total of 9,000 to 10,000 dairy farmers in the P5 provinces. Those provinces share revenue from industrial and fluid milk markets and work cooperatively on other matters of mutual interest. BF

Current Issue

September 2025

Better Farming Magazine

Farms.com Breaking News

Corn and Soybean Diseases Spread This Season

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

As reported on the OMAFRA website fieldcropnews.com, as well as in previous articles by Farms.com, the 2025 growing season is nearing its end with corn and soybean farmers in Ontario and the U.S. Corn Belt facing disease challenges that reflect changing weather conditions. For corn, two... Read this article online

Wheat Output Decline Projected for 2025

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Statistics Canada’s latest modelled estimates suggest that wheat production in Canada will decline slightly in 2025, driven primarily by weaker yields across several regions. National output is expected to edge down 1.1% to 35.5 million tonnes, with yields forecast to fall 1.2% to 49.6... Read this article online

Research Projects and Companies Supported Through OAFRI

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

The governments of Canada and Ontario have announced an investment of up to $4.77 million to strengthen the province’s agri-food sector. This funding, delivered through the Ontario Agri-Food Research Initiative (OAFRI) under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable... Read this article online

First Northern Cohort Joins Ontario Vet Program

Thursday, September 4, 2025

This September, the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) at the University of Guelph welcomed its inaugural Northern Cohort of 20 students through the Collaborative Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Program (CDVMP). This initiative, created in partnership with Lakehead University, marks a milestone... Read this article online

BF logo

It's farming. And it's better.

 

a Farms.com Company

Subscriptions

Subscriber inquiries, change of address, or USA and international orders, please email: subscriptions@betterfarming.com or call 888-248-4893 x 281.


Article Ideas & Media Releases

Have a story idea or media release? If you want coverage of an ag issue, trend, or company news, please email us.

Follow us on Social Media

 

Sign up to a Farms.com Newsletter

 

DisclaimerPrivacy Policy2025 ©AgMedia Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Back To Top