AUGUST 2006

What a party! Party boys on the Hill

Farmers hand out free food and pro-farm message

Wrapped in a Canadian flag, Tanya Heeney, of Ottawa, said her mother bought "Farmers Feed Cities" t-shirts for the entire family on Canada Day in front of Parliament Hill on Wellington Street.

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(Patrick Meagher photo)

 LEAD STORY 

• New Federal farm funding is "huge math problem" for bureaucracy 
  This year's federal budget has turned into a "big math problem" for bureaucrats as they are still working on how much individual farmers will get, says a director of the Ontario Soybean Growers."
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EDITORIALS 

• Why power eludes the OFA         The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), Ontario's leading farm lobby group, has launched province-wide meetings to overhaul the organization. 
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OPINION 

• Pre-Vaccination makes good money sense before selling beef calves              It is decision time for beef calf producers who plan on selling their calves as "pre-vaccinated" calves.      Go to story

 ARTICLES 

• Farmers consider dumping manure in the city
  NORTH GOWER - While the grassroots Canada Day farm rally on Parliament Hill was successful for its warm and fuzzies, the next step for the grassroots protest movement will likely be directed at the federal government. But politicians won't be feeling the love.  
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• Tractors pay second visit to Prime Minister's house                                       OTTAWA — Ontario and Quebec farmers paid their second visit to the home of Prime Minister Stephen Harper in two months.  
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• Conservatives say new money is coming this fall
  CORNWALL - Eastern Ontario MP Guy Lauzon says farmers should hang in with the Conservatives as new funding money announced in this year's budget takes time to process.  
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• Corn market set to take off, but don't applaud yet
  KEMPTVILLE - The corn market could be poised to turn on a dime as it did in 1996 when the price doubled. Analysts across the U.S. are saying there just won't be enough to go around and corn on the commodity markets could outperform copper and gold by 2008.   
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• Quebec hit with corn shortage -             Don't expect any Quebec corn on the Ontario market this year.
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Stories for our subscribers:

• Vankleek Hill 'dream farm' to hold 90,000 hens - The future of egg farming has arrived just outside Vankleek Hill as construction is nearing completion  on a new barn. Owned by the Quebec-based Desil-Egg, it’s expected to hold 90,000 hens. The average Ontario farm holds 21,000 hens.

• Twister carries off two cows, calf hutches and one silo -  COBDEN - A dairy farmer was lucky to find his cows unharmed after a tornado carried off a calf and ripped one of this three silos in half. 

• WTO falls flat - Negotiations fizzle out  -  GENEVA - World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations fell flat again. According to a government press release, Canada was looking for an "Ambitious outcome" because it has "much to gain from the multilateral trading system."   

• Newfoundland offers free dairy quota to farmers - ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland  - The dairy industry is booming in Newfoundland. The marketing board has allocated 1,000 litres per day to farmers - 100 litres of that if free and the remaining 900 litres is interest free - to be paid back over 10 years.     

• Eastern Ontario farmer boasts Alberta is better -  The Casselmans left eastern Ontario for new opportunities in Alberta.  Ontario language and political issues helped them make their decision. "We saw the province of Alberta as a place where liberty, freedom, a strong sense of independence and common sense are very important," said Casselman, 33, a Cargill employee. "We were worried about out children's future (in Ontario)."   

• Judge orders Spencerville no-quota egg producer to temporarily shut down -  BROCKVILLE - Spencerville egg farmer Shawn Carmichael, who flouted the rules by selling eggs without quota, is now contemplating whether to continue selling his eggs.  

• New Eastern Breeders GM ready to rock the market - KEMPTVILLE - Over the last dozen years Eastern Breeders Inc. (EBI) has changed the thrust of the general manager's position three times. This time, the farmer-owned co-operative has hired marketing specialist Ann Louise Cason.    

• Larmer tops EBI show -  SPENCERVILLE - Ninety-six intrepid young souls turned out for the Eastern Breeders 4-H teaching and showmanship seminars. They clipped, prepared animals for show, and paraded them in the cattle ring; and when it was all over a Durham East lad, Steven Larmer, was named the outstanding participant.   

• Machabee buys Renfrew Stock Removal - ST. ALBERT - Machabee Animal Food, with head office in St. Albert, has bought Renfrew Stock Removal. This brings the number of outlets to three, the third outlet being Smiths Falls Deadstock Removal.     

• Landowners sign agreement with arch enemy - PERTH - The Ontario Landowners Association (OLA) and the South Nation Conservation (SNC) signed a joint press release on the proposed Clean Water Act (Bill43).    

• Legendary cow wins Summer Show -  LINDSAY - The winner of the Ontario Summer Show, Quality BC Frantisco, is turning into a legend. It doesn't matter the show or the times of year she's number one. She's won the last six or seven major Holstein shows, says John Crawley, a judge and major winner at this year's Summer Show.

• Long wait for Cornwall ethanol plant almost over - CORNWALL - The plant expects to start processing the 2007 corn crop in the first quarter of the following year, probably in late March.  

  THEY SAID IT:       

"We see a lot of stalling. I'm hearing (federal ag minister) Strahl is very thinned skinned and not approachable."

-- Moose Creek crop farmer Alain Leduc on new federal funding that has yet to get into the hands of farmers.  

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  FARM FACTS:

Amount of new federal budget funding through CAIS that has reached farmers............0

Estimated date of cheques totaling $450 million that will arrive in mailboxes .....September

Province offering free milk quota .......Newfoundland