by SUSAN MANN
The Dairy Farmers of Ontario board declared Henry Wydeven of St. Marys the winner in the election to represent farmers in Huron and Perth (Region 10).
The board made the decision Wednesday during its regular two-day November board meeting. Graham Lloyd, Dairy Farmers general counsel and communications director, says Wydeven was declared elected “in accordance with regulation 760 of the Milk Act as having received the most votes.”
Wydeven beat incumbent David Murray by two votes. John Van Dyk finished third.
Wydeven says he ran to represent farmers in Huron and Perth on the board because “I felt that representation needed to be changed and the mindset for this area needed to be changed. I wasn’t happy with where things were going.”
The other reason he ran is the “whole question of communications and accountability,” says Wydeven, who is in his last year of being on the Perth Dairy Producer Committee. “I’m not saying the communications that we were getting was bad, but I’m talking more overall.”
Wydeven says it’s wrong that the Perth Dairy Producer Committee meetings occur after the Dairy Farmers of Ontario board meetings. Rather than the area’s board member telling committee members what happens at the board meetings it should be that the committee meeting is held and members are aware of what’s on the board meeting agenda to “give input to our board member, who now is me, and I can bring ideas from the grassroots forward. I have not seen that happening.”
Wydeven says he’s not being critical of Murray but of the “whole mindset of the system and I’m as guilty as anybody because I was chairman (of the Perth committee) too. I’m not blaming anybody. It is just observations that I’ve made.”
The Dairy Farmers board considered the Region 10 election results after it received a request to reconsider counting some of the ballots that were excluded. Twelve ballots were received after the Oct. 29 due date and they were not counted.
Candidates now have seven days to request a recount from the time they were notified of the board’s decision, Lloyd says, noting they were advised of the board’s decision electronically Wednesday. According to the Milk Act, if the board receives a notice requesting a recount it has to conduct one.
The top priority for Wydeven to represent the region’s farmers is “getting back to our main focus and that is marketing milk. We used to be the Ontario milk marketing board and now we’re doing so many different things it seems like we’ve forgotten what our focus is and that’s marketing milk.”
Another priority is getting more grassroots input from farmers and increased communication from the board and Dairy Farmers management team back to farmers. “I do not feel that it is adequate whatsoever,” he says. For example, Wydeven says he won the Region 10 election 22 days ago but the results are still not on the Dairy Farmers website. “Everybody knows about it but it’s all through other sources and that’s not acceptable.”
A third priority is accountability. “We send $34 million a year to Dairy Farmers of Canada for marketing and yet they can’t tell us what we’re getting for it and there’s no excuse for that,” Wydeven says, adding he has no problem with the amount allocated for marketing but “show us what we’re getting for our money.”
David Murray, who has been on the board since 2006, couldn’t be reached for comment. BF
Comments
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While this erstwhile gentleman talks about getting "grassroots" information from farmers, he, along with the entire dairy industry, studiously ignores the seeking of advice, or information, from "grassroots" consumers who have given up on our dairy industry completely, and who shop for their dairy products in the US.
Secondly, he seems to be quite willing to ignore any "grassroots" advice coming from anyone associated with the pricing of milk for use in making mozzarella cheese - resulting in some cheese makers paying 87% more for milk than others.
Thirdly, he seems to be quite willing to ignore any "grassroots" advice coming from non-supply managed farmers who are tired of being treated as second class citizens because of the purchasing power available only to supply managed farmers.
Fourthly, he seems willing to avoid seeking "grassroots" advice from companies which, like Chobani, have fled Ontario because of policies developed by, and fiercely defended by, the dairy industry.
Finally, it's too bad he seems to be not willing to seek any "grassroots" advice from anyone in the business community when it comes to his inexplicable inability to not understand how, and why, $34 million in marketing expenses can be completely wasted because you've priced your product too high in the first place.
I mean, really, it's not just this fellow, but the entire dairy industry which just can't seem to grasp the concept that if they lowered the farm gate price of milk, they wouldn't need to spend even a fraction of this $34 million in the first place.
It's what inevitably happens when you take price out of the marketing mix and try to rely on advertising instead - yet dairy farmers, in their single-minded greed, refuse to believe they caused the problem that $34 million in advertising expenditures can't fix.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
WHAT A JOKE !!,DOES THIS FELLOW THINK HE IS GOING TO CHANGE THINGS AT DFO? WAS HE BORN LAST WEEK , THIS GOVERNMENT AGENCY WAS BORN IN 1960 AND IT HAS THE SAME MANDATE TO DAY AS IT HAD THEN !! TO CONTROL FARMERS ,THEY DO NOT MARKET A THING ,OTHER THAN SET THE DEMAND AND PRICE FOR MILK TO PROCESSORS !! WHEN ARE FARMERS GOING TO GET IT ,YOU DO NOT PROCESS ANYTHING ,YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE PROCESSORS !! DFO SETS THE PRICE YOU ARE PAID AND CHARGES THE PROCESSOR FOR THE MILK !! FARMERS PAY TO WAREHOUSE SURPLUS DAIRY PRODUCTS , AND RAPE THE PROCESSOR AS TO WHAT THEY PAY FOR MILK IN ALL CLASSES ,NOTHING MORE !! THE PRCESSORS LET DFO ADVERTISE GENERICLY FOR THEM .WITH THEIR MONEYUNDER THE MILK ACT !! I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THIS GENTLEMAN THINKS HE IS GONE TO DO ,OTHER THAN CONTROL FELLOW PRODUCERS AND COLLECT A GOOD PAY CHECK !! IN THE END ,IT IS THE CANADIAN CONSUMER THAT GETS RIPPED OFF AND PAYS TWICE THE PRICE !! JUST TO KEEP SOME GOVERNMENT FAT CATS SITTING ON THEIR BUTTS AND BARKING OUT ORDERS TO FARMERS !! BILL DENBY /BILLS RENTALS
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