It’s been almost one week since our Breakfast on the Farm event at the Werts’ dairy farm in Avonmore, Ontario. Here’s a fun roundup of the day’s numbers.

Many, many thanks and shoutouts to those that make our Breakfast on the Farm event possible!

Presenting Sponsors: Egg Farmers of Ontario, Dairy Farmers of Canada, Gray Ridge Egg Farms, Dairy Farmers of Ontario

Additional sponsorship: EastGen, Farm Credit Canada, Grenville Mutual Insurance, National Bank, Ontario Plowmen’s Association, Ontario Veal Association, South Nation Conservation Area, Stormont Federation of Agriculture, and Turkey Farmers of Ontario.

Food is provided by: Avonmore Berry Farm, Conestoga Meat Packers, Morris & Donna Dusomos, Eastern Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association, Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Ltd., Gray Ridge Egg Farms, Warren & Trudy McIntosh, Ontario Apple Growers, P & H Milling Group, Rubicon Farms and Willowgrove Hill Farms.

(click image to enlarge)

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on August 12th, 2014 :: Filed under AgVocacy,Animal care,Breakfast on the Farm,farm tours,Uncategorized
Tags :: #farmbkfst

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They came. They ate. They met cows and calves, pigs, hens and chicks. They checked out tractors and milk trucks, met farmers, veterinarians and nutritionists and, throughout the day, learned a little bit more about farming in Canada.

Last Saturday, 2,000 visitors dropped by Heritage Hill Farms, near New Dundee, in Waterloo Region, Ontario for Ontario’s first Breakfast on the Farm (BOTF). It’s an initiative copied from colleagues at Michigan State University Extension who hosted the first BOTF event in 2009. Since then, more than 40,500 children and adults have attended Breakfast on the Farm events throughout Michigan to learn about where their food comes from.

Ontario’s first event, organized by Farm & Food Care Ontario, and presented in partnership with Egg Farmers of Ontario and Foodland Ontario, was an overwhelming success. Also attended by the Premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne, and several of her Queen’s Park colleagues, the day offered visitors the chance to see what happens on a working dairy farm.  The Johnston and Doré family, whose ancestors have been farming in Ontario for seven generations, provided complete access to their farm with visitors wandering through their barns, milking parlour, milk house and more.

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on June 26th, 2013 :: Filed under Agricultural Advocates,Agriculture Education,Breakfast on the Farm,Consumers,Dairy cattle,Education and public awareness,eggs,farm tours,Pigs
Tags :: Consumers, dairy cattle, education, eggs, farm tours, Farmers, pigs

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This coming weekend, on Saturday June 22, Farm & Food Care will host Ontario’s inaugural Breakfast on the Farm program. An estimated 1,700 complimentary tickets have already been reserved for the Taste-of-Ontario breakfast and dairy farm tour that will be held on the dairy farm of the Johnston and Doré families near New Dundee, in Waterloo Region.

Ontario’s event is based on the successful initiative of Michigan State University Extension which has hosted 25 such events since its first in 2009. Each event, held in a different part of the state, attracts thousands of urban visitors. We’re very appreciative of the advice and assistance we’ve received from the Michigan committee.

We’re also grateful to the program’s founding partners: Foodland Ontario and Egg Farmers of Ontario, and the more than 25 other commodity groups and agri businesses that are providing support.

The day will include the chance to eat a wonderful Ontario breakfast, meet cows and calves, chickens and pigs as well as check out farm equipment like tractors, feed and milk trucks and more. There’ll be lots of special exhibits and a few surprise guests.

Want a sneak peek of the farm on the tour? Watch this YouTube video to meet Graham Johnston, one of the farmers on this fifth generation family farm. In this video, he’ll explain how cows are milked on this farm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAWVXG-e2pI

There are still a few free tickets available for this event. You can reserve one by visiting http://www.farmfoodcare.org/about-us/breakfast-on-the-farm

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on June 20th, 2013 :: Filed under Agricultural Advocates,Agriculture Education,Dairy cattle,Education and public awareness,eggs,Farm life,farm tours
Tags :: education, farm, Farm life, farm tour, Farmers

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by Kim Waalderbos

This week farmers are being reminded to ‘Get with the plan!’ – the farm safety plan, that is. It’s all part of Canadian Agricultural Safety Week, held this year from March 10-16th. The week kicks off with events held at farms across Canada.

The farm and food care industry is a key primary industry in Canada, and also one of the most dangerous. Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting (CAIR) shows that 1,975 farm-related deaths occurred between 1990 and 2008. Of those deaths, 47 per cent were farmer/owner operator, and 14 per cent were their children. CAIR also found 14,830 individuals were admitted to hospital because of agricultural injuries between 1990 and 2000 (the last years injury data was readily collected).

In a recent survey, the majority of Canadian farmers (85 per cent) say safety is a priority on their farm, but less than one in ten have a written agricultural safety plan on their farm or ranch. This week, the spotlight is on and farmers are being encouraged to use free resources like www.planfarmsafety.cato make their own customized, written, farm safety plan. With a plan, farmers can identify hazards on the farm, control them, outline emergency actions, conduct training and monitor incidents.

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on March 11th, 2013 :: Filed under Farm Machinery,farm tours,Uncategorized
Tags :: Farm life, farm machinery, Farm Safety, Farmers

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By Kelly Daynard

Sarnia – It started six years ago as a conversation between friends. Today, that idea tossed around a kitchen table has become Bluewater Beef, an initiative of the Eyre and Shaw farm families of Lambton County.

Murray Shaw recalls that early conversation. “We wanted to expand our farms but the economics at the time, for small farmers, didn’t make sense.”

While most of their beef produced at the time was sold directly to larger processors, he and partner Ralph Eyre already sold a small amount of beef locally, taking orders from friends and family for beef from their farms. From sales of that “freezer beef”, they had learned that people liked knowing exactly where their meat came from.

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on February 27th, 2013 :: Filed under Agriculture Education,Animal care,Beef cattle,Consumers,Farm life,farm tours,Food,Meat processing,Sustainability of the family farm,Uncategorized
Tags :: animal care, beef, cattle, Consumers, Farm life, farm tours, Farmers

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by Kristen Kelderman

As a little girl, I can remember one of the biggest events we held on our farm was the annual Holstein barbecue. I remember this specifically because of all the extra work I was assigned to do that summer, cleaning the window sills, brushing the cows and painting just about anything you could slap a coat of paint on.  And on that warm July night, some 400 neighboring farmers and friends gathered to enjoy a night of fantastic food, great people and to celebrate dairy farming. This distant memory crossed my mind this summer as my colleagues and I travelled to Michigan State to visit the Judges’ dairy farm in Isabella County for a program called Breakfast on the Farm.

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Posted by FFC on September 27th, 2012 :: Filed under Agriculture Education,Barns,Breakfast on the Farm,Dairy cattle,Education and public awareness,Farm life,farm tours,Sustainability of the family farm,Uncategorized,United States
Tags :: animal care, animals, Breakfast on the Farm, Consumers, dairy cattle, education, farm, farm tours, Farmers

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