Toronto, Ont.) – The Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO) is pleased to announce Van Osch Farms as the 2025 Ontario recipients of The Environmental Stewardship Award (TESA), sponsored by the RBC Royal Bank. The award was presented to the family at BFO’s 2025 Annual General Meeting Banquet, which was held in Toronto, this week.
Van Osch Farms, operated by the Van Osch family – Fred, Gerald, Brendon and Kurt – is located in Middlesex County. The farm, with a feedlot capacity of 11,500 head of cattle, is certified with the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef through the Ontario Corn Fed Beef Quality Assurance Program. The family is committed to making decisions that improve cattle performance and efficiency, while also improving the land that supports their farm. They’ve upgraded their barn facilities to include natural light and ventilation, and integrated new technologies like recirculating water bowls to eliminate hydro use. They also use solar powered cameras to monitor feed bunks and minimize feed waste. To utilize the upcycling ability of cattle, they also incorporate by-products into their feeding program. Forty per cent of the feed ration used on Van Osch Farms is made of by-product ingredients, keeping these products out of landfills and reducing food waste.
“Our farm is founded on the core principle that the land is our most precious resource, and that fits well with our certification with the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef through the Ontario Corn Fed Beef Quality Assurance Program,” says Brendon Van Osch. “We take the sustainability of our farm very seriously and utilize farming practices that ensure the soil and the natural environment are protected for our future generation.”
Van Osch Farms has undertaken a number of projects and land use practices in partnership with Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority (ABCA) that benefit the watershed and environment. Over the last few years, they have planted over 1,000 trees on their farms. This includes establishing multi-species perimeter shelterbelts at two of their large barns and planting a naturalized buffer around a pond and wetland. Shelter areas have also created homes for many species of wildlife like deer, coyotes, rabbits and birds.
“Van Osch Farms have adopted cover cropping as their standard practice, planting hundreds of acres in cover crops each year,” says Ian Jean, Forestry and Stewardship Specialist, from the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority. “Cover crops protect soils from wind and water erosion and improve the water holding capacity of the soil, preventing runoff and sedimentation in our watercourses, improving water quality and aquatic habitat.”
“We know that the most productive land is the land that has something alive on it. This is why we utilize cover crops between our regular cropping seasons to feed our second most important livestock - the critters that call our soil home,” says Brendon.
The Van Osch family has plans to open an on-farm retail store this summer and they currently offer beef to customers in their community through online sales. Learn more at
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