by Patricia Grotenhuis, lifelong farmer and agricultural enthusiast

January 7, 2021 - Growing up on a farm, I was one of the only farm kids in my class at school.  For years I heard from people asking me about cow tipping and claiming to have gone cow tipping. 

As hard as I tried, I know some of them didn’t believe me when I said it simply was not possible.  Everyone seemed to know someone who knew someone who claimed to have done it.

The theory is that cattle sleep standing up, so when they are sleeping they are unsteady.  All it takes is someone walking up and pushing on them to tip them over!

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Posted by OFAC on January 7th, 2011 :: Filed under animal handling,Beef cattle,Dairy cattle,Education and public awareness

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 By Patricia Grotenhuis, lifelong farmer and agricultural enthusiast.

December 22, 2020 - During the summer, I attended the Canadian National Exhibition with the Ontario Farm Animal Council’s (OFAC)  spokesrobot Oprah.  Most of the questions we were asked were fairly general, but there was one comment which has stuck in my mind since then.

 It is one I’m sure everyone in agriculture has heard at some point, and if they have not heard it yet, they will soon.  While we were on our way to the parking lot at the end of the day, a gentleman stopped us and asked what Oprah was for.  I briefly explained that she is an educational assistant sent to events such as fairs and festivals by the Ontario Farm Animal Council, and followed up by telling him who OFAC is and what it does.

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Posted by OFAC on December 22nd, 2010 :: Filed under Animal care,animal handling,Animal health,Barn fires,Codes of Practice,Consumers,Dairy cattle,Education and public awareness,Farm life,Housing,Innovation and technology,Regulations,Research,Sustainability of the family farm,Uncategorized

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Much of Canada has been following the stories this week of hundreds of drivers stranded along a particularly trecherous stretch of highway in southern Ontario. Kudos to these egg farmers for taking the lead on helping some of those motorists and thanks to the Toronto Star for covering such a touching story! - OFAC

Stranded travellers seek refuge at egg farm

December 15, 2020 Toronto Star - http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/907199-stranded-travellers-seek-refuge-at-egg-farm?bn=1

Debra Black

 The storm started Sunday night and it didn’t seem all that bad to Heather Helps, a 50-year-old egg farmer near Reeces Corners, Ont.

“We farm and so we have a snow day with the kids and that’s fine,” she told the Star.

But suddenly Monday the storm became severe. The Ontario Provincial Police shut down the nearby highways, and paralyzing winds and snow left more than 360 travellers stranded in their cars.

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Posted by OFAC on December 15th, 2010 :: Filed under Canada,Education and public awareness,eggs,Farm life

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We found this article interesting. Although it’s out of the United States, the findings would be mirrored in Canada  - OFAC

http://www.dairyherd.com/news_editorial.asp?pgID=675&ed_id=11876&news_id=28210&ts=nl2

July 15, 2021 - Research presented recently at the American Dairy Science Association annual meeting looked at consumer-purchasing decisions when it comes to animal welfare.

What would happen if all consumers were informed about the different types of egg and pork production systems available, and were allowed to purchase egg and pork products from these different systems? asked Bailey Norwood, associate professor at Oklahoma State University. The only difference between the food products would be the level of animal welfare. And, suppose that the price premium attached to products with higher standards of animal care exactly equals the estimated cost premiums. What would happen?

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Posted by OFAC on July 30th, 2010 :: Filed under Animal care,Consumers,Education and public awareness,eggs,Pork,Uncategorized

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We’re excited to see the amount of farmers that are using social media outlets to tell their stories about farming. Here’s a great article from the July 12 edition of the Calgary Herald that features once such farmer. We’re now following her on Twitter and hope you will too! - OFAC

Cowgirl blogger; A farmer’s wife tackles social media
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Cathryn Hagel can milk a cow and drive a tractor. She helps brand her family’s cattle and she’s chased a coyote or two.

And just for fun, she and her family bought a team of draught horses last year. Y’know: the great big ones that pull wagons filled with people.

But she’s no country bumpkin. Not at all. She’s part of a small but growing number of farm women reaching out to each other and beyond, with the help of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and blogging.

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Posted by OFAC on July 12th, 2010 :: Filed under Animal care,Beef cattle,Canada,Education and public awareness,Farm life,Horses,Sustainability of the family farm

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Richest Animal Rights Group Now Ranked Lower Than PETA

WASHINGTON, April 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Today the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) pointed to a newly downgraded rating from Charity Navigator as evidence that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is not adequately fulfilling its stated charitable purpose.

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Posted by BCFACC on April 7th, 2010 :: Filed under Activism,Consumers,Education and public awareness,Uncategorized

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January 6, 2021 - Happy New Year to the readers of this blog. This article was printed in the Toronto Star over the holiday season and we think this columnist got the issue exactly right. Farm animals aren’t pets and they definitely aren’t 4-legged people. And, with only 1 in every 46 Canadians now actively farming, there is a huge disconnect between farmers and consumers. Enjoy the read - OFAC

The annoying tendency to anthropomorphize animals is likely from our lost connection to rural life

by Connie Woodcock, Out There

Toronto Sun, December 20, 2020

When I was a little girl, I fell in love with a series of books about a pig named Freddy and his barnyard friends on the Bean farm in New York State.

I read every one of the 26 books available in my library over and over. I can remember peering at a New York road map in search of fictional Centerboro, the town supposedly nearest Freddy and his friends.

Written between the 1920s and 1950s, the Freddy books disappeared for a while but they were republished a few years ago and there’s even an association called The Friends of Freddy with its own website. I’ve bought several Freddy reprints and reread them still.

I mention this because much as I loved Freddy, Mrs, Wiggins the cow, Hank the horse with rheumatism in his hind leg, and Charles the henpecked rooster, we all grow up and realize there’s no such thing as a talking animal. At least, most of us do.

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Posted by OFAC on January 6th, 2010 :: Filed under Activism,Canada,Consumers,Education and public awareness,Farm life,Sustainability of the family farm
Tags :: activists, animal care, animal welfare, Canada, Consumers, Farmers, misconceptions, PETA

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By Dairy Herd news source  |  Friday, October 30, 2020

Mike Rowe, host of the show “Dirty Jobs” on the Discovery Channel, has been trying to separate myth from reality when it comes to farming and many other occupations in this country.

“Anybody from a city, in my opinion, who spends a day, a week, maybe even just a few hours on a working farm is going to be quickly disabused of a lot of what they believe,” Rowe told AgriTalk radio host Mike Adams last week.

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Posted by BCFACC on November 4th, 2009 :: Filed under Activism,Animal health,Consumers,Education and public awareness,Farm life,Media

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Lilian Schaer
Owen Sound Sun Times
October 19 2009

I ‘ve started noticing a bit of a trend in popular media — the bashing of farmers, especially those who grow crops we all depend on.

These horrible people — or so the theme goes — are ruining the environment by producing large volumes of corn and soybeans and they’re making us fat to boot.

There are two sides to every story and the farmer’s is rarely heard or included in the barrage of popular media and consumer criticism about agriculture. So let me debunk a few of these myths.

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Posted by OFAC on October 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Canada,Consumers,Education and public awareness,Media
Tags :: Canada, Consumers, Farmers, food, Media, misconceptions

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BC egg farmers care for the right reasons. There is more to caring for hens than meets the eye.

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Posted by BCFACC on October 16th, 2009 :: Filed under Animal health,Education and public awareness,eggs,Poultry
Tags :: animal care, chicken, education, eggs, Farmers, free range, Poultry

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