BFO’s Northern Ontario Proposal Gets Government Attention

Beef Farmers of Ontario says there’s more potentially farmable land in the Ontario section of the Great Clay Belt than is now being farmed in the entire province.

Executive Director Dave Stewart says they’ve been crunching the numbers on putting cow-calf operations in that part of northern Ontario for the past year.

Because of technological advances and climate shift, Stewart says their research has found it’s feasible.

BFO says the Premier and the Agriculture Minister have now committed to working with farmers to bring significant amounts of Crown and private northern land into agricultural development.

Stewart says farmland in Southern Ontario has become too expensive for cow-calf operations.

He says that’s one of the reasons the province’s beef industry has been facing a shortage of cattle.

BFO feels a cow-calf sector in northern Ontario would help resolve that shortage, would create opportunities for new farmers and could create a new source of stable jobs in that part of the province.

Stewart says they’re in discussions now with the province on how to make a cow-calf industry in northern Ontario a reality.