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Vol. 26 No. 08 October 2014
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On Sunday, September 21st, fifty-one NSFA member farms across Nova Scotia opened their gates to visitors. There was a good cross section of commodi-ties represented for Open Farm Day. There was good distribution of farms across the province, with obvious clusters in agriculture dense regions.Like everything else in agriculture, Open Farm Day’s success was dependent on the weather. Luckily, September 21st was one of the most beautiful days of late summer. The weather, much promotion of Open Farm Day and the 50% Buy Local Food Club of Farmers Markets Nova Scotia all played a role in keeping attendance numbers high from previous years. 2014 attendance numbers held at the 20,000 visitor mark.
Feedback from farm visitors and participating farms has been positive with some recommendations that will be considered for future Open Farm Days. Most repeating farms said they had an increase in visitors compared to other years, and all said the visitors they hosted were eager to learn about their operation. Many visitors who have nev-er been on a farm before said that they didn’t realize the amount of work that went into an agriculture operation.
Open Farm Day - Another Successful Year
Open Farm Day is put on and is funded through a variety of programs including the provincial and federal govern-ment through Growing Forward 2, Select Nova Scotia, FCC and NSFA. NSFA is the organization that delivers the pro-gram through support from the AgAwareness committee.
Open Farm Day also received much media attention from local radio stations and newspapers. Participat-ing farms were featured in the days leading up to Open Farm Day, which helped with promoting the event.
We would like to thank all of this year’s participating farms for helping make 2014 another successful year. If you think this is something you and your farm would like to help with for 2015, contact Maxine in the NSFA office at [email protected] or (902) 893-2283. If you would like to help with Open Farm Day in the future, but aren’t able to offer your farm for a day, we are always looking for ways to distribute maps and put up posters around the province. If you can help with this, or know someone who can, contact Maxine.
Feeding time at Windmill Holsteins on Open Farm Day.
Michelle and her niece Madeline, 2, at Rocaro Alpacas for Open Farm Day.
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Henry VissersExecutive Director, Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture
Fall is in the air and along with the har-vesting of crops comes a plethora of meet-ings of farm organizations, including the NS Federation of Agriculture. Your local Federation will be holding their annual meeting in the next month or so followed by the NSFA Annual General Meeting.
I urge you to take the time to get out to your local meeting and support your Federation. The board of directors has been working on your behalf all year and this is their op-portunity to report back to you on success-ful initiatives that they have undertaken through the year. It’s also your opportu-nity to discuss your needs as an organiza-tion and possibly let your name stand as a board member for your local federation.
We have also had our fall Council meet-ing a few weeks ago, a report is in-cluded in this newsletter as well as the draft policy paper that will go to the AGM for final discussion and adoption.
We have added a couple of new policy posi-tions this year. To start off, one is titled In-frastructure Deficit which looks at the Ivany report and the report’s goals 15 and 16. We believe that in order for agriculture to be able to meet those goals, basic infrastructure areas of concern must be addressed. Infrastructure concerns include the state of rural roads, cell and high speed internet, and 3 phase power. Another policy objective is around regu-latory burden. The province has estab-lished a Red Tape Reduction Act and a “Better Regulation Initiative”. We believe it is important that NSFA to lobby for re-ductions in red tape wherever possible.
Rounding out the new policies for 2015 is a policy for the development of a Land Bank program. This takes us back to the time when the Agriculture and Rural Development Act (ARDA) existed. A modern version of this pro-
Meeting Season is Upon Usgram would allow farmers to access land though the program without tying up much needed capital. It would also remove the development rights of the land so it would stay in agriculture.
Please take the time to review the poli-cies and attend the AGM on Novem-ber 27th and 28th to discuss them.We also have a couple of excellent speak-ers coming into the AGM this year. Dr Joe Schwarcz, Director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society, will debunk agricul-ture myths. He has received numerous awards for teaching chemistry and for interpret-ing science. He hosts “The Dr. Joe Show” on Montreal’s CJAD and has appeared hundreds of times on Discovery Channel, CTV, CBC, TV Ontario and Global Television. If you are inter-ested in following him he has a Facebook page and a website that will give more information.
There is also an online course at McGill of-fered by Dr. Schwarcz and others called Food for Thought. The course is about eating and understanding food and offers insight into a scientific framework to understand food and its impact on health and society. Visit https://www.edx.org/course/mcgillx/mcgillx-chem181x-food-thought-2806#.VB-wOFPldXXw for this specific course. Oth-er free university courses are available at https://www.edx.org, if you are interested.
Our other speaker this year will be Don Mills of Corporate Research Associates. He is one of Canada’s leading public opinion and mar-ket research professionals with over 34 years in the industry. He will be bringing us his in-sights into the future of rural Nova Scotia with an emphasis on the Ivany report and how agri-culture can propel the rural economy forward.
I’m looking forward to seeing you at the county/regional Federation meet-ings and the NSFA AGM Nov 27 and 28th.
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Council CornerThe Council of Leaders met in September with a great turn out of members. Chris van den Heuvel, 1st Vice President called the meeting to order fol-lowed by the regular business reports. In open-ing remarks, Dennis Boudreau highlighted the vari-ous issues and challenges of the industry; wildlife issues, blueberry processing challenges, mink prices, and fire blight in the apple industry, since the last meeting in April as well as the advocacy roles the Federation Executive have had with government.
The Council members heard a few presentations in mid-morning. Ruth Scothorn, Bluenose Finan-cial and Brian Field, Workers Compensation each gave an overview of programs of interest to the farm community. A comparison of options for dis-ability and private insurance versus coverage under workers compensation can be found in this news-letter, under the title “Are You Covered” on page 5.
Janette McDonald provided an update on the path of Agri-Futures Nova Scotia. Through an in-dustry needs assessment and strategic plan-ning process, it was reported that there are three areas of need identified for our Industry. 1. Service Provision – This includes provid-ing project and financial management along with other services to the Industry. The group is cur-rently looking at costing models of these services 2. Program Delivery – Design, develop and deliv-ery of programs for the Industry and/or government3. Research and Industry Development Facilitation – This area encompasses building on partnerships with existing leaders such as Perennia and Dal AC and includes planning for a 2015 Research and Innovation Symposium.
Agri-Futures Nova Scotia will hold their An-nual Meeting in conjunction with NSFA AGM in November and will launch a new look along with details of the upcoming symposium.
Just before the break for lunch, Turkey Farmers of Nova Scotia reported that there have been complaints of un-
registered processing facilities. Such complaints trigger an inspector to visit the premises and advise the facility that they cannot process turkeys until recognized by the province as a provincially inspected plant. There was a good discussion of compliance, regulatory burden, sup-porting buy local, providing safe food to consumers and the challenges of small farm business owners. It was agreed though that there needs to be support from the industry for commodity groups such as Turkey Farmers of Nova Scotia and encourage processing facilities to become compliant and support the law that is in place.
Following lunch, Farm Safety Nova Scotia called a spe-cial meeting to propose amended bylaws. Amend-ments included housekeeping points since their introduction in 2010, revising the number of di-rectors and membership to Farm Safety Nova Sco-tia. The bylaws were passed and will be in effect for the 2014 Annual Meeting on November 28th as a part of the Federation’s 2-day Annual Meeting.
The Policy Paper which is included in this issue was approved for presentation to the Annual meeting, along with the Annual meeting agenda which is avail-able on the NSFA Website www.nsfa-fane.ca . There were many reports delivered on the committee activi-ties, some of which are highlighted in this newsletter.
County Federation Annual Meetings
Below is a list of county federation annual meetings that we are currently aware of.
Cape Breton/Richmond County, October 21 starting at 7:00 pm at the Exhibition Grounds, Regent Street, North SydneyCumberland County, October 25 starting at 7:00 pm at the Shinimicas Fire HallInverness/Victoria County, October 29 starting at 10:00 am at the Skye Glen Community HallKings County, November 4 starting at 7:00 pm at the Coldbrook Heritage CentreAnnapolis County, November 6 starting at 8:00 pm at the Lawrencetown Fire Hall
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By Peggy Weatherby, Manager Programs and BRM, NSDAAgriInvest is a self-managed producer-government savings account that allows producers to set money aside which can be used to recover from small income shortfalls, or to make investments to reduce on-farm risks. AgriInvest is one of the Business Risk Management (BRM) programs under the Growing Forward 2 Agreement. Other BRM programs are AgriStability, AgriInsurance (Production In-surance) and AgriRecovery. Your AgriInvest account builds as you make annual deposits based on a percentage of your Allowable Net Sales and receive matching contribu-tions from federal, provincial, and territorial governments.
After your AgriInvest application has been received and processed, the Administration will issue you a Deposit No-tice outlining your ANS, maximum matchable deposit, mini-mum matchable deposit, account balance and the maxi-mum amount that can be held in your AgriInvest account. You can make a maximum deposit of 100% of your ANS,
and receive a matching government contribution for the first 1% (your maximum matchable deposit), up to $15,000. The minimum matchable deposit is $75 (ANS of $7,500) in order to receive a matching government contribution.
The important things to remember is that you only have 90 days from the issue date on the Deposit Notice to make a deposit to your account and you can only make one deposit per Deposit Notice. If you deposit less than your maximum matchable deposit, you will not have an oppor-tunity to make the rest of the deposit and receive govern-ment contributions at a later date. Your financial institution will notify Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada once you have made a deposit and the matching government contribu-tions will be credited to your account. You have the flex-ibility to withdraw funds at any time throughout the year.
To learn more, go to the AgriInvest website at www.agr.gc.ca/agriinvest.
Victor Oulton - Executive Member
AgriInvest
Victor Oulton is a humble man, despite having hosted movie stars like Sandra Bul-lock and Dennis Leary on his farm. On top of being home to all kinds of exotic ani-mals, cattle, and a meat processing shop, his 1500 acre opera-
tion has been the set of six or seven films, including The Scarlett Letter, Two if by Sea, and a few CBC films. Almost forgetting to mention his farm’s multiple claims to fame, he speaks casually about his farm and his family members who keep it all going. Victor is a member at large on the board of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture. He says he ran for the position because he knew the role needed to be filled, and he saw opportunities to improve the relationship between the fed-eration and commodity groups. “When the commodity groups were going out looking for money, if they would let the federation know what was go-
ing on ahead of time, that would be beneficial,” he says. Having been involved in Hants County Federation of Agri-culture, he knows that the relationships between the NSFA and county-level organizations are strong, but the relation-ships between the NSFA and commodity groups could use some work. He seems up to that challenge.
“I’m just getting started at this, and there will be a steep learning curve,” he says.
His family’s farm, W.G. Oulton and Sons, is a real family op-eration. “It works good. We’ve got lots of stuff going on to keep everybody busy. My brother Wayne and his family are here, my mom and dad Mike and Diane, and my son goes to the AC and is working here in the summertimes.”
“My brother Wayne looks after the meat shop and free range chickens, exotic animals , deer and elk,” he says. “I look after the beef cattle and the orchards and cropping and stuff like that.”
Victor says he was never pushed to stay on the farm – he just never really thought about leaving. “I’m the fifth gen-eration on this farm, and I’m the fifth generation to go to the AC. I never really wanted to be anywhere else.”
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Farming is affected by a number of business risks and protecting your assets is an important part of risk man-agement. At the September 17th Council Meeting, Ruth Scothorn, Bluenose Financial and Brian Field, Workers’ Compensation Board joined us to talk about options when it comes to protecting yourself, your employees and your farm against losses due to accidents and injuries. Ruth Scothorn of Bluenose Financial represented the private insurance sector discussing an insurance op-tion, Acci-Jet. It is important to note that not all pri-vate insurance companies provide disability insurance or are willing to cover farmers; however, the Acci-Jet insurance plan is designed with farmers in mind. Acci-Jet is an income replacement product covering accident and soft tissue injury and/or illness, depend-ing on the options chosen. Acci-Jet provides 24 hour coverage, so employees are covered whether they are at work or at home. Eligibility criteria includes: that the employee is between ages 18-69, must be work-ing 8 months of the year and at least 21 hours per week and must be a Canadian citizen or have lived in Canada for at least 6 months and meet certain crite-ria. Acci-Jet will provide coverage for accidents, but will not cover repetitive motion injuries. There are many add-on options for Acci-Jet insurance so the plan will be designed specifically for you and your farm. Brian Field of the Workers’ Compensation Board pro-vided information on how WCB coverage works and applies to the agricultural industry. For the most part WCB is not mandatory for the agricultural industry with the exception of some commodities such as Christmas tree, mink processing and a few others. In mandatory in-dustries, those business with less than 3 employees are not required to register for WCB. Workers’ Compensa-tion is no-fault insurance, which means all accidents at work will be covered regardless of fault. WCB is entirely funded by the employers and in turn, employees waive their ability to sue their employer if injured at work.
There are currently 370 farmers registered with WCB. Once a farm is registered, all employees on pay-
roll are covered regardless of the number of hours worked. Family members, however, living under the same roof as the owner/shareholder are not automati-cally covered even if they are on payroll. Therefore coverage for owners/shareholders and their family members must be elected separately. WCB rates are determined through a formula using cost of claims relative to payroll dollars. If a farm were to register with WCB for the first time they would automati-cally be set at the industry rate (2015 livestock rate $3.81/$100 payroll, crop rate $3.76/$100 payroll). However, upon developing its own claims history the following years’ rates would be determined based on the individual claims history of the farm, therefore the rate per hundred may decrease (by a max. of 30%) or increase (by a max. of 60%) for your operation. Knowing there are options available to protect your-self, your employees and your farm from loses due to accidents or injuries is important when mitigating busi-ness risks on the farm. This may be a good opportu-nity to review your insurance policies and ensure they provide the coverage you need for your operation. Are you covered? Which options works best for you?
Members looking for more information on the above presentations can contact Ruth Scot-horn (902-758-1448) or WCB (1-877-211-9267).
Are you covered?
Tell Your Story Today!
Do you want to showcase your farm? Have you recently gone through a farm succession?
We want to hear from you!
NSFA is adding to our “Meet Your Farmer” profiles and preparing profiles for upcoming succession
projects.
If you would like to submit your farm for profiling, please contact Maxine in the NSFA office at [email protected] or 902 893-2293.
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Farm Safety Nova Scotia hosted two one-day grain bin entry and technical res-cue training courses on S e p t e m b e r 20th and 21st open to farm-
ers and emergency responders. With assistance from the FCC Ag Safety Fund administered by the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association with funding from Farm Credit Canada, we were able to bring trainers from the Safety and Technical Res-cue Association (SATRA) in from Michigan. The trainer brought a vast amount of experience and expertise to the training. The Saturday course was held at the Port Williams Fire Hall with 31 participants in attendance. The training moved to the Cobequid District Fire Hall in Lower Truro on Sunday where there were 42 participants. While the majority of the training was focused on rescue, SATRA emphasized the importance of grain quality. The better the grain quality going in, the less likely you will be required to enter a bin.
Grain Bin Entry & Technical Rescue Course a SuccessSATRA’s recommended best management practices in-clude:1. Stay out if possible2. Never enter alone3. Never enter untrained4. Follow entry permit5. Shut down/lockout6. Secure lifeline7. Emergency preparedness
For more information on grain entrapment preven-tion visit www.grainentrapmentprevention.com. Farm Safety Nova Scotia would like to thank the Port Wil-liams Fire Department and Cobequid District Fire Depart-ment for hosting the events and Inglewood Grain Centre Ltd. for donating the use of the grain for the training.
The owners of small forested parcels in Nova Sco-tia have an innovative new tool: An online assess-ment that will help them to identify and priori-tize their personal goals for woodland ownership.
The tool was developed by the non-profit Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners and Operators Association (NSWOOA). Depending on how a landowner responds, the short se-ries of questions will take 5-15 minutes to complete.
Woodland owners throughout the province are invit-ed to try the self-assessment. There’s a link on the NS-WOOA website at www.nswooa.ca. It’s fun, easy and free.
In addition to helping people consider what’s most impor-tant about their woodlands, the tool is an easy way to re-quest the information and other resources they need to
achieve their goals. The NSWOOA staff will follow up (at no cost) with every landowner who asks for assistance.By identifying their most important objectives and needs, landowners will also help NSWOOA to adapt its programs and services to the changing needs of family forests.
NSWOOA does not offer forest management or harvest-ing services; it is only interested in supporting the long-term prosperity and stewardship of woodlots in Nova Scotia. Founded in 1969, the association has taken a clear stand in advocating for environmentally centered, so-cially responsible, and economically balanced forestry.
Landowners who have questions about their wood-lands are welcome to call NSWOOA toll-free at 1-855-NS-WOODS (1-855-679-6637) or visit the Acadian Forest Management section of its website at www.nswooa.ca.
New Tool for Forest Landowners
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This year’s Environ-mental Farm Plan Award judging proc-ess is well under-way, and we’ve taken this opportunity to
look back at our past winners to see what they’ve done with their farms since winning the award.
Gilberte and Siegmar Doelle own and operate Wild Rose Farm in Baie Saint-Marie. They won the 2013 EFP award for their years of dedication to organic farming, low en-ergy consumption, and biodiversity preservation efforts. Gilberte says when they won the award, “everyone got a bonus! Everyone worked hard last year, and they really deserved it.” They used some of the money to build a new greenhouse after one of theirs was damaged in a storm.
Their next major sustainability project is to widen the buffer zones that surround their operation and make it more suitable for nesting birds. Gilberte says this will increase biodiversity of the farm, help-ing with everything from pollination to pest control.
“I would definitely recommend that everyone apply to this award,” Gilberte says. “The application and judging proc-ess were smooth and easy, and the reward was great!”
Ruth and Greta Mathewson from Upperbrook Farm in North River won the award in 2012 for their grass-fed sheep and cattle. Foraging is good for the sheep and the ecology of their loand - it prevents soil erosion, maintains soil microbial activity, and keeps soil oranic matter high. Ruth and Greta also diversified their op-eration to produce several wool products instead of leaving the wool for waste. They used their prize mon-ey to improve pasture management, and have since continued to improve the sustainability of their farm.
Ruth says they recently put a grease catch in their sep-tic system to separate the lanolin from the wool wash water. Because they needed to keep the lanolin out of the soil and water to prevent de-oxygenation and fish kills, they were using giant waste tanks. “It looks much nicer around here without liquid storage tanks!” They’ve also spread 81 tons of lime into the fields, as
EFP Update Article
recommended by their nutrient management plan.“This is a completely worthwhile program, and we’re very honoured to be considered, much less win,” Ruth says. “And we love the painting of our farm! The sheep in-dustry has got highs and lows, like everything. We’re still going 40 years later! It’s phenomenal to be recognized.”
“There is no downside to applying, you’re only going to get better if you do.”
The Oulton Family and W.G. Oulton Sons won in 2011 for their efforts in nutrient management and biodiversity conservation. They took the $2000 cash prize and put it straight into upgrading the lighting in the barns. Even though they expanded the barn that same year, their power bill stayed the same, thanks to the efficient lighting system that they put in.
Dean and Catherine Manning won the 2010 Environmen-tal Farm Stewardship award for their variety of ecologi-cally sound practices. They minimize their pesticide use by using beneficial insects as much as possible, main-tain buffers and shelter belts, and find the most suit-able pieces of land for each of their production needs.
Since they won the award, Dean says they’ve refo-cused on the many ways their operation can have a lower environmental footprint. “We’re thinking longer term, not just year to year, but what we might want to do a few years from now.” He says they used the award money to bring in an engineer to help make their greenhouse more efficient, and soon he’ll be switch-ing from an oil furnace to a wood or pellet furnace.
Dean says the judging process for the award was huge-ly beneficial, before he even knew he won. “You can’t put a value on having someone come to your farm and talking about what you’re doing and what other peo-ple are doing. You’re going to get something out of it. Whether it’s new or just confirm something you already know, you can’t put a value on that kind of feedback.”
This year’s EFP Award finalists will be announced soon, and one more deserving applicant will win $2000 cash and a painting of their farm!
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The Wildlife Committee met on September 4th. Some of the highlights included discussion around communication tactics to ensure wildlife is being re-ported so that it can be tracked, ensuring farmers know about the nuisance permit process and also ways to work with Federation of Anglers and Hunt-ers to match hunters with farmers that are interest-ed in having them on their farm property during the hunting seasons. There is a bit of progress in the Re-search Chair for Wildlife and Human Conflict Issues. Staff from DNR are meeting with the research de-partment Acadia University to discuss opportunities. A presentation was given on the deer management ap-proach of DNR. The focus is on bucks and limiting the number of does harvested. Antlerless deer permits are issued through a draw system and based on popula-tion trends and other data by zone. Information on the 12 deer management zones and deer harvest data from 2007 – 2013 was shared with committee mem-bers. Zones with changes for the 2014 season include Yarmouth (zone 101), increasing doe license from 800 to 1600. Zones 108 and 109 are now open to either sex, removing the need for a doe license in these ar-eas (Cumberland County and Northern Pictou areas). There was also a presentation on the pilot project underway in central Nova Scotia to reduce dam-age and crop loss in a soybean field by using pe-rimeter fencing. In site visits and reports from the trail camera, the damage is significantly less to the crop inside the fenced area. The project contin-ues with final analysis following the fall harvest. An update on the wildlife compensation program was provided. It was reported that so far this year (up to the end of August) $110 thousand has been paid in wildlife compensation. The total for the pre-vious year was $80 thousand. Some figures reported so far show an increase in apple claims at 156,000 lbs of pears and apples lost from deer damage and blueberries at 42,000 lbs of both deer and bear damage. It was also reported that $5,000 has been paid to the Bee Industry for wildlife compensation.
Wildlife Committee UpdateReport it!
It helps to report the issues of nuisance wildlife and damage to the Department of Natural Resources (Here is a link to the DNR field offices in Nova Sco-tia http://www.novascotia.ca/natr/staffdir/offices.asp) – by reporting the damage, issues will be re-corded and tracked for future reference. If need-ed, a Nuisance Permit can be obtained, see the link http://www.novascotia.ca/snsmr/paal/dnr/paal119.asp or ask about this process at the DNR field office.
Connect with Hunters!
The Nova Scotia Federation of Anglers and Hunters are interested in working with farmers to connect you with one of their members during the hunting sea-son. The NSFA encourages farmers to make contact with Tony Rodgers at Federation of Anglers and Hunt-ers to get in contact with a hunter and make a con-nection that will work for both parties. The website is www.nsfah.ca and the office number is 902-477-8898. Get Compensated!
The Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture de-livers a Wildlife Compensation Program through the NS Crop and Livestock Insurance Commission. There are various compensation levels for live-stock and for crop damage caused by wildlife. De-tails and contact information on the program can be found online at http://novascotia.ca/agri/pro-grams-and-services/financial-funding/crop-livestock-insurance/ or call the office at 1-800-565-6371.
As always if the Federation can help sup-port or guide you through this process or oth-er issues with nuisance wildlife, contact us.
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It’s Time to GrowFarmers’ Markets of Nova Scotia will be offering training for vendors and their personnel, and mar-ket managers across the province through the Au-tumn and Winter seasons. Sessions offered are “Business Excellence Skills” for Vendors and “Lead-ership and Marketing” for Market Organizers.Business Excellence Skills for Farmers’ Mar-ket Vendors will be held in the following regions:
• Southshore, Yarmouth Area – Autumn 2014• Halifax Regional Municipality – Autumn 2014• Valley Region – Autumn 2014• Cape Breton – Winter 2015
• Truro, Tatamagouche, New Glas-gow, Antigonish and Area – Winter 2015
Leadership and Marketing for Market Man-agers will be held from Autumn 2014 – Spring 2015 and cover all of Nova Scotia.
More information on registration can be found at the Farmers’ Markets of Nova Scotia website under “For Members”. www.farmersmarketsofnovascotia.ca Any questions can be directed to FMNS Executive Director, Keltie Butler, [email protected].
A field in Earltown encouraging passersby to Eat Local using hay bales. Photo Credit to Paul Brenton
The Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for agriculture pro-duction operations on ~100 ha of Crown lands at Bel-leisle Marsh, Annapolis County.
The tender is open until October 31, 2014. To view de-tails regarding the tender, please visit the website at:
https://www.novascotia.ca/tenders/tenders/tender-details.aspx?id=60147579
If you have any questions, or wish to learn more, please contact Terry McKay, NS Agricultural Resource Coordi-nator by email at [email protected] or by phone at 902-638-2396.
Agricultural Lands at Belleisle Marsh - Request for Proposal
Page 10
Farm Credit CanadaFCC will be hosting several learning events in the up-coming months. These events include the following:
The 6 Key Habits of Successful Farm Families• December 8th in Moncton• December 9th in Fall River
SummaryLearn the key success habits vital to energizing your operation while maximizing family harmony. You’ll get insight into growing and managing your busi-ness from Canada’s family business doctor, John Fast.
Benefits of attending• explore how your farm family reacts to normal, pre-dictable challenges• discover what works in your family’s unique com-munication style• get tips for managing the transition from parenting to partnering relationships on the farm• learn why “fair” and “equal” don’t mean the same thing• uncover leadership strengths you might not know you have• examine sibling partnerships and learn how they can work for you
How to Increase Profits Without Increasing Farm Size – • November 17th Summerside• November 18th Florenceville
SummaryToday’s moderate-sized farms can be very profit-able. Land and quota are big investments, so find-ing ways to add profitability to your existing pro-duction base becomes increasingly important.
Benefits of attending• understand how cost of production relates to profit-ability• explore strategies for optimizing yield• gain insight into cost control options• discover the benefits of different farm structures• learn how family dynamics can impact efficiency• explore examples of agricultural activities that can add profit
Dairy Producers WorkshopFebruary 2015 – Fredericton
To register for any of these events or others that FCC hosts across Canada, check out the FCC website at fcc-fac.ca and look under the AgKnowledge tab.
NSFA 119th Annual MeetingThe 119th Annual Meeting of the NSFA will be held No-vember 27 & 28, 2014 at the Best Western Glengarry, Truro. Among the guest speakers this year are Don Mills, Corporate Research Associates and Joe Schwarcz, McGill University along with our regular lineup of Ag Critics and the Minister and Deputy Ministers of Agri-culture. For a detailed agenda of events visit our web-site at www.nsfa-fane.ca.
New this year is the ability to send a designated repre-sentative to vote on your farm’s behalf if you are unable to attend. This does not affect the delegate and alter-nate delegate process that has always been in effect.
This is intended for individual farms that would like to be represented at the meeting and cannot attend in person. This form as well as the regular registration form, which should be used for individuals planning on attending who are not already registered in the dele-gate process, will be available on our website.
County Federations and Commodity Groups are re-minded to get your annual reports into us no later than Friday, November 14 in order to be printed in the An-nual Meeting Booklet for this year.
We are looking forward to another successful event!
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If you are a county delegate to the NSFA annual Meet-ing you may be eligible to have expenses covered.
In 2013, a county delegate fund was created by transferring $5 per member of the County Mem-bership share payment into a pooling fund to as-sist with the expenses incurred by county delegates attending the NSFA’s Annual General Meeting.
This fund was not fully utilized in 2013. Along with better communication of the availabil-ity of this delegate pooling fund, the coun-cil of leaders agreed on the following for 2014.
2014 AGM Delegate Pool Fund
• Increase the mileage rate from $0.25/km to the provincial rate, currently $0.4366/km• Hotel and breakfast expenses reimbursed based on submitted receipt• Lunch and NSFA banquet tickets provided to County Delegates at the Annual Meeting
2014 Delegates to the NSFA Annual MeetingCommunications Payment for County and Regional Federations of Agriculture
County and Regional Federations of Agriculture are eli-gible to receive $300 as a communication payment if they have provided the following to the NSFA office:
1. Written reports on county board meetings2. Written report to Council of Leaders meetings (September 2014, Feb & April 2015)3. Written report to the Annual Meeting for the AGM book (November 2014)
Payment will be made the following year at the time of regular County Membership Share pay-ments, based on satisfactory receipt of the above documentation. If you have any questions about this County Communications payment or the delegate fund, please contact the NSFA office.
September 23rd to 25th, the AgAwareness commit-tee hosted over 300 grade three students of Cole Har-bour’s Heritage Farm. The day was geared to show these students what agriculture is about. There were eight interactive stations for students to visit and ask questions. The eight booths highlighted a cross section of Nova Scotia agriculture. Stations covered wetlands, what it takes to be a farmer, Christmas Tree farming, what part of the plant the vegetables we eat is, and what animal do certain consumer items come from.
All booths were well received by students and teach-ers. These students were excited for the hands on op-portunities while the teachers saw benefits of bring-ing their students to an agriculture setting to learn about the industry from agriculture professionals.
Thank-you to all those who helped demonstrate the vari-
ous aspects of agriculture over the three days. We invite anybody who would like to help out with similar events in the future to please contact Maxine at the NSFA office or another member of the AgAwareness Committee.
Farmer for a Day
Students learning about what part of the plant they eat with Horticulture Nova Scotia.
NSFA News & Views is the Newsletter of the NS Federation of Agriculture, the United, Strong & Caring Farm Organization repre-senting the best interest of Nova Scotia’s Agricultural Industry.
News & Views is provided free of charge to its members. We value comments and concerns from our members, please direct them to Executive members or the Office Staff.
2014 Executive Members:President: Dennis Boudreau Phone: 769-35011st Vice President: Chris van den Heuvel Phone: 631-18842nd Vice President: Kimberly Stokdijk Phone: 895-4817CFA Director: Dennis Boudreau Phone: 769-3501At Large: John Quinn Phone: 783-2834At Large: Lloyd Dyck Phone: 538-3083At Large: Jim Baillie Phone: 657-2256At Large: Victor Oulton Phone: 798-4440Past President: Beth Densmore Phone: 369-2876
Staff: Executive Director: Henry Vissers; Associate Director: Wanda Hamilton; Financial Services Coordinator: Krista Vroegh; Administrative Services Coordinator: Shelly MacKenzie; Com-munication & Research Coordinator: Maxine MacLean; Farm Safety Coordinator, Carolyn Van Den Heuvel, EFP Staff, Kathryn Bremner, Paul Brenton,Trevor Davison, Jillian Saulnier & Cory Roberts.
60 Research Drive, Perennia Innovation Park, Bible Hill, N.S.Ph: 893-2293 Fax: 893-7063Email: [email protected] Website: www.nsfa-fane.ca
News & Views
Page 12
The Environmental Farm Plan Welcomes New StaffThe Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) team and the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture would like to welcome two new staff members: Jillian Saulnier and Cory Roberts.
Jillian Saulnier is excit-ed to join the NSFA as an Environmental Farm Plan Coordinator. She holds a Bachelor of Sci-ence Degree in Agricul-ture from the Nova Sco-tia Agricultural College, Diploma in Ecosystem Management from Flem-ing College in Lindsay, Ontario and is currently enrolled in a Master’s of Science study in Wa-
tershed Management at Dalhousie. Jillian has worked in various professions, from a Pesticide Research Technician with Environment Canada, Project Coordinator for an en-vironmental education and waste reduction program with Clean Nova Scotia and Stream Restoration Coordinator with Shubenacadie Watershed Environmental Protection Society. Jillian’s most recent employment was with the Mi’kmaw Conservation Group as Project Coordinator. In that position she worked closely with Pictou Landing First Nation Community to improve the habitat and water qual-ity of surrounding water bodies. She also engaged the pub-lic on the impacts of industrial and household waste on the environment. Jillian will fill a maternity leave for Kath-ryn Bremner, which will begin in January 2015 and in the meantime will help work on the backlog of follow-up visits.
Cory Roberts is filling the vacant position left by Lynda Weatherby. Cory graduated with a degree in Environmental Science from the Ontario Agri-cultural College at the University of Guelph in 2001. After graduation he worked on various projects at the Univer-sity including a multi-year nutrient budgeting study with Ontario organic dairy
farmers. He came to Nova Scotia with his family in 2007 to accept a job at Dalhousie University Agricultural Cam-pus working as an Agricultural Technician in the Innova-tive Waste Management lab. In that position he was in-volved in research related to soil amendment nutrient dynamics, composting, and the fate of soil contaminants. He is excited about his position with the NSFA and looks forward to travelling the province and meeting with farm-ers helping to develop Environmental Farm Plans. He lives in Debert with his wife Stephanie and his four children.
Jillian and Cory can be found in the EFP room at the NSFA office in Bible Hill. You can reach them at [email protected] and [email protected] or by phone at (902) 893-2293.
