A recap of the Ontario Sheep Farmers annual district meeting presentations from 2023-2024.
The last couple of months have been a whirlwind of travel and district meetings as we finalized the 2023/24 fiscal year. We am grateful to be working with such dedicated producers, in this exciting industry.
The meetings started early this summer with District 6 and District 1 holding their meetings in the first two weeks of August. District 6 had Brad DeWolf as a guest speaker to share pesticide management strategies to minimize dewormer resistance. District 1 toured the Parkhill Meats processing facility and learned about their expansion project then returned to the pavilion in Ailsa Craig for a presentation from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation on trailer safety.
At the end of August, districts 3, 5 and 8 held their meetings and all opted for farm tours. Thank you to the Harper, Martin and Bennett families for opening your barns to our members. All three facilities offered different approaches to sheep farming that started interesting discussions. The Harper family farm has a combination sheep and beef operation in a new barn, the Martin farm has a built a platform over the feed alleys to store straw for an easy and efficient way to bed pens and the Bennett farm has a new biodigester on site to manage deadstock.
District 4 also met at the end of August at the Ancaster Fairgrounds (sharing the facility with an Indian wedding that rivaled our meeting for fun) and won the award for most resolutions. The beginning of September began the road trip to Norwood, Earlton and Elmwood over three days of perfect late summer weather. District 7’s guest speaker was Mike Carter from Agrivoltaics Canada, who shared an overview of solar farm grazing in Ontario and discussed future opportunities for sheep farmers. In the north, District 11 had a presentation from local veterinarian Dr. Amy Gaw who offered a primer on managing parasites. The District 2 presentation offered a new perspective to OSF members on environmental sustainability by inviting guest speaker Alex Hamilton from Dairy Farmers of Ontario to share the success of their quality assurance programs.
The district meeting schedule concluded with districts 9 and 10 holding their meetings in the second week of September. Congratulations to District 9 for their significant turnout of over 25 producers to hear Dr. Emma Borkowski’s presentation on her projects to evaluate sheep for parasite resistance using the CarLA saliva test. District 10 had a guest presentation from Canadian Sheep Federation General Manager, Corlena Patterson, on the Global Sheep Producers’ Forum’s initiatives to support youth development and their recent trip to Australia’s LambEX conference.
Thank you to the committee members who have volunteered their time to organize meetings and educational opportunities for the producers in their districts throughout the year. Thank you especially to the members who have dedicated their time over many years to their districts and who have retired this year from their district committees. …...more
...more
Show less
