Author name: Brenda O'Farrell The Advocate

Andrew McClelland
The Advocate

Agrologists and governments have been telling farmers for years that being efficient is the key to running a successful farm.

And young Ontario producer Olivia Mudde is so busy that she had to learn how to be efficient in every part of her life.

“My time at Macdonald Campus (in Ste. Anne de Bellevue) helped prepare me for life and business because I was on the varsity women’s rugby team. I had to be very good at time management because all practices and games were downtown!” beams the 21-year-old Farm Management and Technology (FMT) graduate. “By being on the team and having a full schedule with the FMT program, my spare time was limited.”

Looking at Mudde’s résumé would leave one wondering how she has had time to earn all the accolades that have been awarded her in recent years. A two-time FMT scholarship recipient at Mac, Mudde also completed an internship with Bayer Crop Science Canada in her second year of university, and, along with playing on McGill’s women’s rugby team, dove headfirst into planning the FMT graduation supper and started a fundraiser for the event with Farmers Feed Cities.

Her efforts were acknowledged following that when she was awarded Mac’s Gold Key Award for her outstanding and commitment to enriching student life on campus.

“Since graduation, I find myself having more and more contacts from people at Mac,” said Mudde, who completed her final semester last spring. “And that has helped me the most with learning about new ideas and techniques to implement on my farm.”

Responsible for the herd

The farm in question is no small operation. Together with her father, Ian, Olivia is now the youngest generation to run Mudde Farms Inc., a cash cropping and swine farm in Iroquois, Ont., 60 kilometres up the St. Lawrence River from Cornwall.

With 1,930 acres on a corn/soybean/winter wheat rotation and a swine herd of 230 sows, there’s lots of work for an eager producer to do around the farm.

“I’m in charge of managing the swine barns — still with some guidance from my dad,” Mudde explained. “I’m also the certified site manager and CQA (Canadian Quality Assurance)manager, meaning I’m responsible for the animal welfare aspects and deciding if a pig is fit to ship, as well as the treatments it will receive and record keeping.”

Growing up, Mudde had plenty of opportunities for gaining experience in agriculture: her grandfather — who emigrated from the Netherlands in 1966 — ran the cash crop and swine herd, and her mother’s family ran a dairy farm. Mudde got the chance to work on both farms, learning the ropes and making memories.

“My first memory of the farm was helping my Opa move pigs out of the hot rooms to the grower barn. He was always so patient with my brother and I, since we were just small, and often the pigs were almost the same size as us.”

Mudde was very enthusiastic about moving to the island of Montreal to attend Macdonald Campus at just 16 years old. And then COVID happened.

“I couldn’t go to school, couldn’t play the sports I loved. Everything just stopped,” she said. “I’m a very athletic person, so there was no way doing nothing was going to work for me. I began going to the barns and working in the fields when I was supposed to be doing ‘online school’. I think every farm kid was doing this.”

But the experience of quarantine was a blessing in disguise, helping Mudde to see what a career made on the family farm would be like.

“Truly, being on the farm during COVID helped me to find my love for farming,” she explained. “And seeing my entire family work together during this weird time was amazing. I loved it.”

Grateful for family business

Mudde feels that her degree at Mac help her see the business side of the family farm she grew up on. And now, it’s her (and her family’s) intention to manage that business so that it can support her family and allow her father to retire. And she has lots of ideas.

“Since being back on the farm, I’ve seen a need for better record keeping,” said Mudde, who has introduced the online platform PigKnows to the farm, allowing Olivia and her father to keep better records of all sows and inventory of pigs.

“It’s a key program for us to get good at using before next summer. That’s when we’ll be converting our dry sow barn to a free-access stall barn.”

Until then, Mudde is enjoying life on the farm and the challenges it gives her to apply her learning, work with her father, and being productive and efficient in her craft.

“Being back on the farm has been great,” she said. “The summer has absolutely flown by.”

Andrew McClelland
The Advocate

Ben Nichols knows that any successful dairy farmer has a good team around him.

“I built my barn to be able to manage my farm by myself if need be, but in reality you can’t do it on your own,” said the Eastern Townships producer. “You need family, you need reliable teams and the proper tools to help always improve. I never think I’m perfect.”

Family farming has always been the way for Nichols and his ancestors. His great-great-grandfather came to Canada from the U.S. in 1887, purchasing 50 acres in Compton, southeast of Sherbrooke, that would become the nucleus for the land Ben and his wife, Annie Grubb, still farm. It was Nichols’s grandfather who brought in the Ayrshires that would be the basis for their Crystal Brook Farm’s dairy herd.

“When my father took over, he improved the field management quite a bit,” Nichols said. “I’ve been working hard to increase both the field production and milk production with all the tools that I try to bring to the farm.”

Ben took over the family farm in 2014, after graduating from Macdonald Campus in 2010. He had big plans to expand right away, bringing in five kilos of relève quota to help increase the 24 kilograms of the farm’s quota. Today, they have 60 kilograms.

But Nichols knew expansion would require more help. And that’s why, in 2020, he decided the family team on his farm needed a little help from a robotic milking system.

“A robot never calls in sick,” said Nichols with a smile. “It’s always very consistent, and it’s a bit better tempered than we can be sometimes.”

Specifically, Nichols went with the Lely Astronaut A5 milking system, known for its adaptability to cattle behaviour, allowing each heifer to choose when to be milked and resulting in less stress and higher milk production.

Data galore

Nichols explained his approach to mixed herd management through robotic milking during a videoconference in June hosted by the Quebec Farmers’ Association.

“The cow learns the robot and the robot learns the cow,” Nichols explained. “Starting from Day 1, the robot memorizes where the teat placement is. So if the cow moves to the one side, the robot knows that the next time, it’ll probably move again.”

From the start, Nichols could see that the system provided a wealth of information for herd management.

“It’s got over 100 reports that I can view at any time on the computer or from my phone,” he said.

Lely Horizon — the management system that comes with the A5 — provides charts, graphs and statistics on anything and everything from Herd Overview, Cow Robot Efficiency, Health Report, Cow Daily Production, Milk Yield Prediction and Herd Plan.

“With these kind of graphs, which I can see every day, the system helps me plan for the future to make sure that I’m not going to be overproducing or underproducing,” Nichols explained.

Crystal Brooks’ milking herd currently sits at around 45-55 head, mostly Ayrshires, according to family tradition, but with 20 per cent Jerseys and five per cent Holsteins.

Nichols uses a bedded pack barn design, which he finds provides flexibility for different cow sizes and superior comfort compared with other housing systems. While aerating the hardwood shavings requires a lot of management and cattle wrangling, it’s a system that suits his herd.

“In the wintertime, it’s twice a day I have to work it and turn it over,” Nichols explained. “I have to put shavings down about every four or five days at its extreme in the winter — and once every couple weeks in the summer. But for the herd, it’s a comfort that you can’t have in any other system.”

Team work

Nicholsis a firm believer in doing the work he does best — and then hiring the rest. That means relying on expertise from different field reps, vets and genetic advisers.

“I know a little bit about everything and a lot about nothing. So I make sure that I have a good team behind the scenes to help me out for cattle management.”

As such, Crystal Brook Farm uses feed reps to offer advice on rations, field reps to help manage field performance, visits from the Clinique Veterinaire Coaticook every three to five weeks, and genetic reps from CIAQ or Select Sires to inform him of new bulls that would complement his mixed herd.

“I don’t think any ‘brand’ is better than the other. I think it’s important to find which reps in your area you can trust. Because if you’ve found you can trust them in the past with good advice, they probably have your best interests at heart,” Nichols said.

But, in the end, family is the biggest part of the equation for Nichols’ success. Just as it has been for the four generations.

“My family is always there, too, telling me if I’m doing things right or if I’m forgetting something,” Nichols admitted. And that humility is part of how he innovates and continues to learn.

“If I think I’m doing something right, I make sure I find somebody who tells me I’m doing something wrong and find out what I can do better. Because there’s always room to improve.”

Andrew McClelland
The Advocate

When it comes to qualities that a young person needs to be an agricultural producer, determination is high up on the list.

And 20-year-old Maude Legault definitely has that in spades.

“Trying to make a living just out of agriculture can, in fact, be stressful for some of us young farmers,” said the cash crop producer from Godmanchester, in the Châteauguay Valley. “Especially when you know you could have chosen a more profitable career. But, in the end, it’s all about doing what you want to do.”

The young producer is a graduate of the Farm Management and Technology program at Macdonald Campus. In 2022, she received a Warren Grapes Agricultural Scholarship from the Quebec Farmers’ Association. Then, in her final semester, Legault was awarded the Médaille d’or du ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation du Québec and the Governor’s General Collegiate Bronze Medal (twin awards given out to the student ranked first in their graduating class) and the Union des producteurs agricoles bursary for demonstrating exemplary results in farm accounting, budgeting and administration.

Those awards were a boon to her confidence, but not as much as the accolades that followed from her instructors and peers.

“When I learned that I won those awards, I was in shock — but not as much as when my friends and teachers started congratulating me,” Legault said. “Their comments were so wonderful, ranging from ‘I saw you were hardworking right from the beginning, you deserved it,’ to being told by a teacher that I was a role model! I just couldn’t believe it. I was full of joy.”

It runs in the family

You would almost expect a young producer like Legault to win awards related to farm business management. Not only was she an exceptional student, but great farm management skills were modelled for her by her father and uncle at the family’s 2,400-acre cash crop operation.

Legault’s grandfather, Richard, established the farm in the 1970s, in the township of Godmanchester, just north of Huntingdon. In 1997, her father, Simon, graduated with a farm management degree from Institut de technologie agroalimentaire in St. Hyacinthe and started working on the farm full time with his brother.

“Since my dad and uncle already did the best they could to keep the farm in great condition, it’s hard for me to come up with ideas that will improve the farm extraordinarily!” Legault said. “I’m proud of what my family built and I want them to be proud of me when I start managing it.”

And working back on the family farm is exactly what Legault has been doing since her graduation. The Legaults cultivate about 1,000 acres of corn, soybean and winter wheat. That’s on top of managing 400 acres of custom planting and 1,000 acres of custom harvesting.

“We try to improve or at least take care of things on a regular basis,” Legault explained when asked about how the family makes decisions on the farm. “We managed to build a planter, improve our drying plant, build a megadome, change the combine, and buy other farm equipment in the last decade.”

Farm management a must

The family is also constantly revising its crop plan. They recently stopped producing buckwheat after winter wheat, instead seeding cover crops after winter wheat in a bid to increase corn yield and improve soil health.

Cover crops were something Legault learned lots about at Mac. And, as she works on the farm alongside her father and uncle, Legault has lots of opportunity to implement what she learned at school on the family farm. But for now, she’s taking the transition to being farm manager slowly and cautiously.

“I take part in discussions related to decision-making and try to bring ideas or useful thoughts, but I don’t necessarily make those decisions myself,” she explained. “I like to come up with budgets or cost calculations to have a clear view of our different options. I might not have enough experience yet to make major decisions, but I feel it’s my duty as the ‘relève’ to build positive management skills and a great sense of critical thinking.”

Choosing farming over career

That approach will serve Legault well as her experience builds and daily farm management increasingly becomes her role on the family operation. And for now, the variety of challenges and tasks that running a large cash crop offers is what keeps her interested in the agricultural life.

“When I chose to be part of the FMT program and take over the family farm, I knew I could make more money working somewhere else,” she said. “But still I chose to be a farmer because being a farmer is also being a mechanic, a welder, an electrician, a manager, a heavy equipment operator and lots more.”

With her skill set, Legault could absolutely pursue more lucrative off-farm work in research, agromony or business administration. But her vision and determination are focused squarely on the farm.

“I might not make a tonne of money living off the farm, but I am building myself an infinite amount of knowledge and skills. Plus, I’m confident that living just from agriculture is highly achievable with willpower, hard work and proper management.” 

Andrew McClelland
The Advocate

Farm Credit Canada says changes to its loan program designed to make intergenerational transfers of farms easier will improve how assets move from one generation to the next.

“One of the most consistent challenges faced by Canadian producers is transitioning their operations to either family or an outside qualified buyer,” said Justine Hendricks, FCC president and CEO. “It is complex, nuanced and emotional.”

In response, the FCC has created the “Enhanced FCC Transition Loan.” The loan allows the seller (i.e. the older generation) to agree on a payment schedule anywhere from two to 10 years with the buyer (the younger generation).

FCC guarantees those funds and disburses the money accordingly at agreed-upon dates. This amount is added to the buyer’s loan, and they only pay interest on that amount.

Under the new arrangement, FCC guarantees the seller’s payments, giving them financial security. At the same time, buyers can avoid the burden of making a large down payment, easing the path for the next generation of farmers, according to the lender.

Colin Brisebois, vice-president of products and market strategies with FCC, says that the enhanced loan program was launched specifically to address the price of transferring farm assets.

“I think it’s important now as the industry continues to evolve, the price of assets continues to grow and there continues to be opportunity to do more on the farm transition side — as far as having the next generation take over for those currently involved in the industry,” Brisebois said.

For those starting or expanding a farm or agribusiness, FCC’s transition loan can cover the full purchase price. The program offers flexibility: new owners can choose to make accelerated principal payments to build equity more quickly than with a traditional loan — if they can manage the higher costs.

Alternatively, they can make interest-only payments to preserve cash flow and invest in other parts of the business, particularly during the early stages of operation, Brisebois said.

Young producers groups across Canada welcomed FCC’s introduction of the new loan program.

Here in Quebec, the Fédération de la relève agricole, a specialized federation of the UPA that advocates for the needs of the next generation of the province’s farmers, said it fully supports the new program.

“The changes to the FCC loan program recognize the economic reality faced by emerging farmers,” said FRAQ president David Beauvais. “A five-year timeline is simply too short for a new agricultural business to achieve the stability required to begin repaying a loan.” 

The FRAQ points out that there is no lack of technical know-how regarding farming among the younger generation: Quebec universities and CEGEPs award more than 1,000 diplomas in agriculture each year. However, it notes that Quebec loses approximately five farms per week.

Wave of transfers

Canada’s agriculture and food system is sitting on more than $50 billion in farm assets expected to be transferred in the next 10 years.

In Quebec, nearly 40 per cent of agricultural producers are over 55 years of age and say they are likely to transfer their farm in the near future. Every year, an estimated 600 to 800 farms or agri-businesses are transferred in the province.

But those statistics cause some alarm among farm industry reps who are anxious to curb the trend of mega farms and consolidation. To hold steady at the number of 30,000 farms currently in Quebec, the number of transfers happening per year would have to be up around 1,100.

Currently, 29 per cent of Quebec farms have a completed or in-progress succession plan in place to ease the transfer of ownership from one generation to the next. That’s the second-highest rate in the country, just behind New Brunswick’s 31.6 per cent.

For more information on FCC’s Enhanced Transition Loan, visit www.fcc.ca/transitionloan

Cutline:

David Beauvais, president of the Fédération de la relève Agricole du Québec, says that a new loan program from Farm Credit Canada answers many of the industry’s needs regarding flexible loans for young producers to acquire farm assets. “A five-year timeline is simply too short for a new agricultural business to achieve the stability required to begin repaying a loan,” Beauvais told the Advocate.

Credit:
Photo by Frederic Lavoie

Andrew McClelland
The Advocate

The Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL) issued an urgent call to the United Nations in July on what it describes as ongoing violations of Indigenous rights in Quebec.

Concluding a diplomatic mission at the 18th session of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the First Nations leaders demanded greater international scrutiny of Quebec’s public policy reforms — specifically the way the province wants to manage its forests.

“In Quebec, a reform of the forestry regime is under way, which directly affects our territories, our cultures, and our ways of life — without adequate consultation, without recognition from our governments, and without respect for our knowledge,” AFNQL Chief Francis Verreault-Paul said in a statement.

The AFNQL represents 43 First Nations governments of Quebec and Labrador.

At issue is Quebec’s Bill 97, which would divide Quebec’s forests into three zones: one that prioritizes conservation, one focused on timber production and a third zone for multiple uses.

The bill includes a clause that says that any activity interfering with or restrictingforest development efforts is prohibited — with the exception of Indigenous activities pursued for domestic, ritual or social purposes. 

But that clause “in no way guarantees the preservation of the quality of these territories, which are essential to the preservation of their traditional ways of life, cultures and languages,” the AFNQL stated.

In other words, Quebec First Nations communities would be free to use a third of the province’s timber forests, but only after the forestry industry was done, citing concerns over environmental degradation.

“They call it triade in French, meaning 30 per cent of the territory will be specifically used by the industry in exclusion of other users,” Lac-Simon Anishnabe Nation Chief Lucien Wabanonik told the UN gathering. “They exclude everyone else.”

Quebec’s Minister of Natural Resources and Forests Maïté Blanchette Vézina tabled the bill this spring, following what she described as “extensive consultations” with Indigenous leaders.

However, Verreault-Paul noted that a board with Indigenous leaders was only formed after the bill was tabled in April 2025, despite their explicit request that they be consulted beforehand.

“Once again, we are faced with a fait accompli,” Verreault-Paul told Blanchette Vézina at a meeting in early June.

Other AFNQL representatives echoed these concerns.

Chief Wabanonik accused the Quebec government of “methodical territorial dispossession” by reserving one-third of public lands for private interests without Indigenous consent. He called the forestry plan a violation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Quebec’s constitutional obligations.

Beyond the formal UN sessions, the AFNQL delegation met with Indigenous leaders from across the globe and Canadian officials, including the country’s UN ambassador. These diplomatic efforts aimed to build solidarity and ensure international awareness of the challenges First Nations face in Quebec.

“Our sovereignty predates that of the states,” Verreault-Paul said. “We are governments in our own right, with our own institutions and legal systems.”

Andrew McClelland
The Advocate

For renowned soil scientist Odette Ménard, why we do something in agriculture is much more important than how we do it.

“We don’t ask ourselves the ‘why’ part of doing what we do in agriculture often enough,” Ménard said. “I’ve been to so many meetings where the focus is just on ‘How can we do this?’ But if you don’t know why you’re doing something, sometimes it’ll work — and sometimes it really will not work.”

Ménard has been at the cutting edge of getting farmers to change the way they think about farming the soil for nearly 40 years.

Starting as an agronome in 1988, the Ange-Gardien native became MAPAQ’s regional adviser on soil and water conservation, covering the Montérégie region for 36 years.

That job made Ménard quickly realize the negative effects of traditional agricultural practices on soils. Just as quickly, she became a leading voice for conservation and no-till practices — at first in Quebec and then throughout the world. She’s spoken and led projects on farms as far away as Australia and Ukraine; in 2013, she was invited to speak at the U.S. National No-Till Conference in Indianapolis and received the prize for best lecture.

“When I started over 30 years ago, producers found it funny to see someone showing up with just a shovel to look at what’s in the soil,” Ménard said.

Look at your soil

“Back then, we were relying on the labs to tell us about our soil. But now, we’re coming around to the idea that the first step is to do a soil profile. And as you see your soil, as you see its living potential, then you can understand the impact of tillage, machinery and chemicals.”

In 2005, Ménard became the first Quebecer and the first woman to be inducted into the Canadian Soil Conservation Hall of Fame. The accolades followed one after another as she worked tirelessly to promote sustainable agricultural practices focusing on soil health. In 2013, Ménard created the Caravane santé des sols (Soil Health Caravan), a program that allows experts to visit farms to assess soil health and propose solutions.

Most recently, Ménard received the high honour of being inducted to the “Temple de la renommée de l’agriculture du Québec” (the Quebec Agriculture Hall of Fame) in November 2024.

Earthworms are key

But to her friends and followers, she is often called “Madame Vers de Terre” (Madame Earthworm), a term of endearment that points to Ménard’s reminder that these invertebrates recycle crop residue left on the soil, stimulate biological activity and promote root growth.

“The data has been there for a long time: earthworms help with drought resistance; infiltration; climate control because of their effect on organic carbon; nutrient availability due to the carbon transformation they’re doing and because of the stable root galleries they create,” Ménard said. “They are vital to taking care of the residue at the soil surface. And you can see them with your own eyes just by looking.”

Looking at the soil was the theme of the evening as Ménard spoke to members of the Quebec Farmers’ Association during a videoconference May 28.

The CRO₂P. concept

“I like to start all my talks with the ending, just in case we get carried away and run out of time,” Ménard said with characteristic humour. “You have to remember the ‘crop’ concept for having healthy soil — that’s CRO₂P.”

CRO₂P, Ménard explained, is a helpful acronym to remember the four essential criteria for soil health and conservation. “C” for “cover” — a minimum coverage of 30 per cent after sowing must be achieved to adequately protect the soil against erosion, from both wind and water, and the sun.

“R” is for “roots.” Roots are essential for maintaining microbial life in the soil and, thus, ensuring both a better structure and better structural stability.

“O_2” is for oxygen. And “P” is for “porosity.”

“We need to make sure that we don’t break our soil’s porosity,” Menard said. “Soil porosity is really related to machinery, and the weight that we put on our soil. Maintaining the wheel load below 3,500 kilograms is necessary to maximize soil porosity.”

Over the course of her career, she’s influenced thousands and developed a following of devotees who have applied her research to their farms to great success. But for Ménard, the first rule of agriculture is to observe the soil and ask deceptively simple questions about what farming is.

“How many of us can say that our soils are healthy? How do we even measure our soil’s health? And once we’ve determined that, where does soil health fit into our farm management?”

Andrew McClelland
The Advocate

Canada’s agricultural industry used to be a place where only farm kids worked. You grew up on the farm, you maybe went to college, and then returned to the family farm.

After all, who else but young folks raised on a farm were tough enough to put in the long hours? Certainly not some college grad who had never milked cows at dawn growing up.

But that’s all changed in the past 30-odd years. Increased enrolment in ag colleges from students without a farming background, and the real labour shortage in the industry, have changed the face of who farms in Canada.

Eighteen-year-old Florence Bolduc benefits from that change. Growing up in the town of St. Louis de Gonzague, in the MRC of Beauharnois-Salaberry, southwest of Montreal, to a father who works for Desjardins and a mother who advocates for workers in the daycare industry, Bolduc wasn’t a typical “farm kid.” But she is now.

“When I was 14, I started to go work with a friend at their farm and I fell immediately in love with that world,” Bolduc explained. “I’d visit the barn and help with chores every weekend. That’s how I came to understand that farming was something that could help the world.”

Loved it from the start

That farm is “Ferme Iceberg” in St. Stanislas de Kostka, the next town over. A Holstein-herd dairy operation owned by David Cecyre, Ferme Iceberg gave Bolduc her first glimpse into farm life and the joys of working with animals.

“Everything I know about agriculture is mostly because of my boss David,” Bolduc explained. “He taught me everything he knows — from the field work to the impact of it in the barn.”

Starting off helping with basic chores, Bolduc’s enthusiastic volunteering on Ferme Iceberg grew into an employee relationship over the years. Equipped with a 3 Lely A4 robot to milk the cows and a milk taxi to feed the calves, the farm keeps a herd of 150 lactating Holsteins – and Bolduc is now essential to their upkeep.

“I mostly do barn work — any and every task that needs to be done during the time we’re in the barn,” Bolduc said. “We have multiple vaccines that we need to give the calves, heifers and cows for different reasons, so I created the computer files to help us keep track of which animal needs which vaccine and when.”

Enrolled at Mac

That’s a lot of responsibility for a young producer entrusted to working on a family friend’s operation, not to mention that Bolduc also monitors the health of the herd and handles their registration with Holstein Canada. That’s why Bolduc enrolled in Macdonald Campus’ Farm Management and Technology program in 2023, hoping to gain theoretical knowledge behind the hands-on training she learned at Ferme Iceberg.

Bolduc gained that and more. She was one of five students to win a Warren Grapes Agricultural Scholarship awarded by the Quebec Farmers’ Association at the organization’s 2024 annual general meeting last November. Now, her plans are to move on to a degree in agronomy at McGill University or Université Laval after graduating from FMT.

“I want to stay in the industry and help farmers,” Bolduc said. “And there’s still not that many female agronomes out there.”

Future might be more female

Having a female presence in agriculture is important for the future of farming, Bolduc said. While she describes her experience as a female producer as positive, she realizes that’s not always the case.

“I’ve always been welcomed where I work and have never had any issues with male employees being unwelcome to women,” she explained. “My boss makes sure that we are comfortable and makes an environment safe for us. But the industry in general should promote agriculture to young girls like me, who are not born on a home farm and want to explore this beautiful industry that feeds the world.”

Not being born on a farm but loving agriculture is something Bolduc knows much about. But this articulate young producer is hopeful that Canadian farms in the future are learning to invest in young workers – regardless of whether they’re “born and raised” there or not.

“The cost of land is high and interest rates are climbing, which often makes it impossible for a non-farmer to borrow enough money from a bank to buy a farm,” she said.

“But if farms are making plans for the future and want to invest their money in the right place, future farmers will be able to continue and find a place in agriculture.”

Andrew McClelland
The Advocate

The House of Commons unanimously passed a bill aimed at protecting supply management in future trade negations earlier this month, as the BlocQuébécoisramps up its efforts to pressure the federal government to keep its promise on defending Canada’s protected agricultural sectors.

“The current context forces us to act as quickly as possible to protect the Quebec agricultural model, which is under increasing commercial pressure from the United States,” said BQ leader Yves-François Blanchet, who tabled the bill on May 29.

 “We must defend our agriculture tooth and nail so that no part of the supply management can be sold during negotiations with the U.S. administration.”

Blanchet’s bill, now designated Bill C-202, is timed to make Prime Minister Mark Carney follow through on his statements that the Liberal government would defend supply management.

Speaking of future trade negotiations at the French-language leaders’ debate in April, Carney said: “We have to be clear what will never be on the table: the French language, Quebec culture and supply management. Never on the table.”

The bill also comes on the heels of King Charles’s May 27 Speech from the Throne, during which the visiting monarch mentioned the Crown’s desire to protect agriculture in general — and supply management specifically.

“The government … will protect the people who give us access to fresh, healthy and quality food: agricultural producers,” the King said. “And it will protect supply management.”

Quebec’s dairy producers welcomed the bill’s passing on June 6, echoing the anxieties shared by many Canadian farmers regarding Donald Trump’s aggressive stance on U.S.-Canada trade relations.

“We thank all parties in the House of Commons for allowing the bill to pass quickly, especially in the current context with what appears to be the resumption of trade and security discussions between Canada and the United States,” said Daniel Gobeil, president of Les Producteurs de lait du Québec in a post on the group’s official Facebook page.

Quebec milk producers reminded the public that the battle over supply management, particularly in the milk, egg and poultry sectors, has been waged for the past five years.

“Supply management, which has been the subject of concessions in the last three trade agreements, is simply not negotiable,” wrote Gobeil, referring to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Those agreements, while leaving supply management fundamentally intact, made some concessions on modifications to the milk class system and allowed a greater share of Canada’s fine cheese market to overseas imports.

The BQ introduced a similar bill, which was approved by 80 per cent of the Hosue of Commons in 2023, including the entirety of the Liberal caucus (except for two MPs), as well as the NDP and Bloc. At the time, Conservatives voted 56 for; 49 against.

Yet, that bill was ultimately stalled in the Senate in 2024 by Independent Senator Peter Boehm and Progressive Senator Peter Harder, in a move the BQ described as “literal sabotage.” It then died in January, when Parliament was prorogued.

“I don’t think it’s in Canada’s national interest to pass this bill because it divides the agricultural community … and it will impact future trade negotiations,” Boehm said at the time.

Neither senator commented on the Bloc’s reintroduction of a supply management bill.

A review of the CUSMA deal is scheduled for 2026. Blanchet said that he would be meeting with the prime minister this month to discuss the bill.

Andrew McClelland
The Advocate

The Union des producteurs agricoles is planning big changes in how it collects fees from Quebec farmers, with the aim of making the system fairer for all producers.

A new payment and collection formula is scheduled to be approved by UPA members at the organization’s general congress in December.

In a public consultation document published in April, the UPA says producers have been asking for years to make union dues and rates more equitable for all farm businesses.

“There is a desire to modify the current system,” the UPA said in a statement. “Firstly, so that the assessment amounts are based on farm size, and secondly to achieve a better balance between production types that pay contributions to the UPA under joint plans and those that do not.”

Quebec’s agricultural producers union has been holding consultations on the process since November 2023. Now, three main changes are being considered to its union dues and contribution fees, or what the UPA commonally calls its “cotisation” structure.

First, tiered assessments would be introduced based on a farm business’s gross receipts.

Second, an assessment increase (in the form of complementary assessments) would come into effect for businesses where 25 per cent or more of gross farm receipts come from production types in which no contributions are paid to the UPA through joint plans.

Third, producers would have to file annual declarations to determine the assessment amounts they would be charged.

“The new contribution scheme is not intended to increase the union’s budget,” said Mathieu St-Amand, a director for the UPA’s training and organizational development.

“It aims to meet already anticipated financing needs,” St-Armand said. “Under the proposed new scheme, only the distribution of the amounts collected will change to ensure greater fairness among agricultural businesses.”

Currently, the UPA is financed by a mix of fixed charges and variable contributions based on a calculated assessment determined by the size of their business. All producers are charged a fixed amount, also known as dues, which are paid by all registered producers in the province.

“Variable contributions” are percentages: producers in sectors covered by joint plans are charged a variable contribution (in addition to their fixed assessment) based on the individual production volume for their business.

The changes are aimed at reconciling a long-held rift within the union. Producers covered by a joint marketing plan, such as grain or maple syrup producers, have long paid a contribution based on their total sales volumes.

However, those not covered by a joint plan, such as market gardeners, haven’t historically paid contributions to the UPA, only an annual fee. The proposed solution, according to the proposed UPA plan, is to require those sectors to declare their income, so that the UPA will then charge them a higher contribution based on their volume of business.

“The proposed changes respond to repeated requests from producers in recent years for a fairer contribution system for all businesses,” said UPA president Martin Caron.

“They also allow for better preparation for the future and the provision of all the representation, interventions and follow-up required for the sector’s sustainability, throughout the country and in all forums.”

UPA officials point out the new regime is still in its consultation phase. Producers are encouraged to participate in the consultations scheduled for the local union meetings in September and October.

Following those consultations, a resolution and bylaw governing the new dues system will be presented at the UPA’s 2025 annual general congress in December. If the bylaw is approved there, it will be submitted for ratification to the Régie des marchés agricoles et alimentaires du Québec. The goal is for the changes to take full effect in January 2027.

Producers interested in learning more and getting involved in the consultation meetings should visit https://www.upa.qc.ca/en/producteur/union-life/consultation-dues-system (the webpage is available in English)

Andrew McClelland
The Advocate

Jacques Nault is very honest about why he uses his knowledge to fight climate change.

“For my part, I’m a very climate-anxious person,” said the St. Chrysostome-based agronome. “It scares me. And the only way I can sleep at night is by taking action.”

It’s been a long road for Nault to reach the point where he feels he is making a change that can prevent, and even reverse, aspects of the current climate crisis. But after more than 25 years in business, his company has developed programs that can help agricultural producers take advantage of the Canadian carbon market and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

“My brother and I founded Logiag in 1999,” Nault said, referring to the company that is at the centre of his efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of the agricultural sector. “And a few years ago I gathered all our employees and said, ‘OK, we’re going to develop a service to help farmers in their climate transitions. We’re going to try to sustain a company that advises farmers who are interested in turning their farms around and facing the climate crisis that’s in front of us.”

That mission led the company to create its climate transition plan for farmers. The voluntary program starts by conducting a greenhouse gas inventory on a producer’s operation, and recommending cost-effective practices to reduce its GHG emissions and accumulate carbon in the soil.

Through anything and everything – from creating windbreaks, planting cover crops and optimizing nitrogen fertilizer application – participating agricultural businesses can build carbon assets that add value to their farms or invite non-farm businesses to purchase GHG reductions to offset their own emissions. 

“That’s what people are talking about when they talk about the ‘carbon offset’ market,” Nault explained.

But as much as such programs work on paper, they can be abused and aren’t necessarily the smartest way for climate-conscious producers to work.

“If you reduce (your carbon footprint) by a thousand tonnes (of carbon), you sell it, you get money, and once you do it, it’s gone,” Nault said. “You cannot claim it again. You cannot say you’ve reduced because your credit has been sold, your effort has been sold somewhere else, and it can only be sold once.”

Focus on dairy

As an industry leader in climate transition and GHG reduction, Nault wanted to find a better way for dairy farms to reduce their emissions and create a roadmap for producers wanting to make an environmental difference. What they came up with is what they call “Dedicated Dairy Farms,” a voluntary program currently in its third year of operation that’s already showing great results.

“In dairy, 87 per cent of GHG emissions come from the farm,” Nault explained during a videoconference April 23 hosted by the Quebec Farmers’ Association. “That’s a lot more than from transport and from packaging and processing. So if we want to actually, physically reduce those emissions, we have to start at the farm.”

Dedicated Dairy Farms starts by doing some “greenhouse gas accounting” on a producer’s operation, taking into account all emissions and finding a baseline that all improvements can be measured from.

“We look everywhere for where emissions are coming from: in the barn, in the manure and in the field. And we go back three years to establish a baseline scenario. What are the usual practices on this farm, and what emissions are coming from its usual practices. That’s the starting point.”

Logiag also thoroughly tests that farm’s soil’s organic carbon and figures out the carbon footprint of its milk. On average, Quebec milk producers emit a kilo of Co2 per kilo of milk produced, Nault said.

Certified carbon reduction

That’s where Logiag gets active by having boots on the ground at the dairy farms involved in the program. Agronomes look at each farm and create a transition plan that considers the close links between animals, plants and soils, with a goal to increasing profitability, productivity while reducing the carbon footprint of the milk produced. Most of the 135 farms participating have measured a 15- to 33-per-cent drop in their greenhouse gas emissions.

“Once those reductions are made, we make sure that they’re certified,” Nault said, noting that all reductions in the program are verified by SustainCERT, a European carbon-emissions accounting and verification platform. “This is where each farm’s reductions gain value. And it’s important to protect the farmers and to recognize their efforts once it’s in the books.”

That certification makes the milk from farms in the Dedicated Dairy Farms program particularly attractive to milk processors. So attractive that the cost of the program is paid by them; General Mills was the first processor to sign on, with Costco following suit.

“Companies like that are under tremendous pressure to have a response to the climate crisis, and to answer a genuine request from customers to invest in real climate and carbon-footprint solutions,” Nault said. “Currently, it’s entirely paid by the food processors and the farmers are receiving a compensation for the time as well.”

As Nault notes, dairy producers in the program then have two sources of income: their milk and Co2 reduction.

It’s a system and a dream that Nault hopes will actively address the climate crisis and help the dairy industry get on a path to greater profitability.

“We want to make sure the reductions are real. And I want to make sure that it helps decarbonize the whole value chain,” he said.

“I believe that at the end, if the dairy sector, or agriculture in general, doesn’t do this, then there’s going to be other alternatives that are going to come and answer the needs of the customers and distributors.”

Andrew McClelland
The Advocate

Great farmers are not born, they’re made. And that may be the best way to describe how 20-year-old Aidan Velthuis became the confident young dairy producer he is today.

“One of my earliest memories of being introduced to agriculture was pushing in the cow feed with a little snow shovel as a little 4- or 5-year-old kid, and asking my dad to be able to help in the milking parlour,” said the Macdonald Campus student. “I remember standing on a milk crate to be able to reach the cows in the parlour, although I was undoubtedly less effective at my tasks back then.”

Velthuis remains grateful to his dad for patiently showing him the ropes of dairy production. Teaching the next generation has been part of the family legacy since Aidan’s grandparents left The Netherlands in 1955 to settle in Canada. Through hard work and determination, Bert and Ann Velthuis purchased their farm in Osgoode, Ont., about half an hour south of Ottawa. That’s the farm the Velthuis family still operates today.

When Aidan’s father, Paul, and uncle, Steven, took over the farm, expansion was the name of the game. By 2003, the brothers had built a new free-stall barn and grew the herd from 85 milking cows to as high as 250.

“The farm’s grown to decent scale in both cash crop and dairy operations,” Aidan said, humbly describing the 240 cows and 2,000 acres in cropping the family now manages. “We’ve ventured successfully into genetic based breeding, and the production of stud bulls for Semex and Select sires, namely Maple Downs I-GW Atwood, and Boldi V Gymnast.”

A 4-H kid

Young Velthuis clearly knows his stuff, as you might expect from a lifelong 4-H kid who grew up showing cows and hearing about the awards the family’s cattle were winning at the Ontario Summer Show and National Holstein Show.

“The amount of independence and experience gained in the 4-H program has been valuable in so many ventures in my life,” Velthuis said. “Through travelling to judging competitions, and shows across Ontario, 4-H has provided experiences that I will carry with me forever.”

Upon graduating high school, enrolling in Macdonald Campus was a pretty easy choice for Velthuis, who’s now in his third year of college.

“Mac was close enough to home for me to be able to still work on weekends, as well as providing a very well-rounded education when it comes to farm management,” he said. “It’s exceeded my expectations.”

Velthuis’ time at Mac has been educational and successful. Last fall, he was one of five students to be awarded a Warren Grapes Scholarship by the Quebec Farmers’ Association, for agricultural and silvicultural students pursuing higher education. The Warren Grapes fund enjoys a great reputation among McGill students; Velthuis had heard of it multiple times through past recipients and from being encouraged to apply by Mac faculty and staff.

Honoured by award

“Learning that I was chosen as a recipient was a feeling of honour as well as gratitude,” he said. “The Warren Grapes award has been an extremely helpful gift to young farmers in my program, and I cannot express how grateful I feel to be a chosen recipient this year.”

Velthuis plans to move back to the family farm upon graduating. He has a strong family legacy to carry on. And his time away has made him into an articulate young producer very aware of the trials agriculture is facing.

“Farming as a whole faces many challenges in the near future, with rising tensions between Canada and our southern neighbours. Weathering these ever-changing times is bound to produce significant uncertainty within the agriculture industry,” says Velthuis.

Looking to the future

“Farming today also faces environmental challenges, with a need to produce more and more food for a growing global population. It’s imperative to determine the most efficient ways to produce, while being conscious of the environment and ensuring a sustainable set of agricultural practices. That’s crucial to ensuring a future for agriculture as a whole.”

But the Velthuis family will be able to overcome those hurdles better than most. And Aidan’s gratitude to his parents and grandparents for instilling him with a work ethic and founding a farm is boundless.

“My plan is to succeed the home farm. And I am extremely lucky to have a farm to call home, and that is ultimately what I hope to provide in the future for my future children.” 

Andrew McClelland
The Advocate

Stan Christensen isn’t really interested in the old business model of selling at the lowest possible price to the largest number of customers.

Instead, this beef producer would much rather sell his product at a fair price to a dedicated group of people who value great beef.

“If someone sends me an email saying, ‘I’m interested in your products. Can you send me your prices?’ we’re likely not on the same page,” explained Christensen, who run a farm in Lac Ste. Marie, north of Gatineau. “If price is your main concern, you can get cheaper beef at the supermarket.”

It’s a business philosophy that wasn’t apparent for the 73-year-old veteran of Quebec’s beef sector when he first started in 1980. At that time, Christensen and his wife Cheryl Sage had 36 cattle. Throughout the ’80s, the family grew their commercial cow operation, expanding to a full purebred Red Angus herd.

And then something unexpected happened.

Mad cow crisis changed everything

“As anyone in the beef industry knows, our 9/11 was May 20, 2003, with BSE,” Christensen recalled, referring to the discovery of a single reported case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, on an Albertan farm on that date.

With the regular supply chain in Canadian beef turned upside down overnight, Christensen and Sage began looking at how they could sell beef directly to the consumer.

“We started with a lot of ideas of how that was done,” Christensen explained during a videoconference hosted by the Quebec Farmers’ Association on March 12. “It was a steep learning curve, because we discovered that most of those ways don’t work.”

It was a time of reflection. And Ferme Sage emerged from it with a way to reinvent its business and become a pillar of its community.

Key decisions made

“We decided the best way to find out how to sell beef direct is to figure out who we are and what we want to do,” Christensen said. “And then can we translate that into creating a product that people will buy into so that they are willing to support us.”

Christensen started by with simple math: how much beef could they have ready for sale on a consistent schedule and how many customers could they reliably sell to? He also looked into market research done in the U.S., which revealed that the most appealing marketing term in American grocery-store advertising was “local.”

That gave him an idea.

“I had been a ski instructor for decades at that point and had a lot of connections with the community around Mont Ste. Marie,” Christensen explained. “Cheryl had a lot of connections through the health industry from working at the CLSC. We looked at all these things and said, ‘Who could we sell to?’ And that’s when we discovered that everybody was looking to help us out.”

Connected with customers

Ferme Sage’s livestock and land management turned out to be just what forward-thinking customers wanted. Christensen grazes his cattle throughout summer and winter, uses no hormones and introduces antibiotics only when treating a sick or injured cow. The farm hasn’t used herbicides or pesticides in more than 30 years, and a member of the family has always sat on the watershed committee that is responsible for the Gatineau River and for conservation around lakes in the region. In 2023, Ferme Sage was the Quebec nominee for the Environmental Stewardship Award.

Those qualities helped Ferme Sage develop a loyal customer base. To promote their direct sales, Stan and Cheryl (and, by this time, sons Eric and Ian) supported local tournaments and charity events.

“After that, it was just word-of-mouth,” Christensen said. “Since around 2014, we’ve been screening clients and the rest is friends, long-time customers — and even some other farmers.”

These days, Ferme Sage also sells breeding stock throughout Quebec and Ontario, takes its own cattle to the Thurso abattoir, and sells vacuum-packed, frozen meat from a small retail shop on the farm. It also supplies the Mont Ste. Marie ski resort, golf course and Restaurant Lachapelle in nearby Kazabazua.

Size isn’t everything

For Christensen, the key to success hasn’t been “bigger means better.” It’s been adjusting his sales to what Ferme Sage can reliably produce and then finding the right customers.

And it turned out they were his friends and neighbours.

“Selling locally, is just a great experience for somebody that wants to connect with their community,” he said. “If every local farm product is sold on the commodity market, nobody gets to know that what they see along the road is something they can actually buy and consume and share the benefits of with their friends.”