Cost-sharing opportunity for farmers

Nov 14, 2019

The Canadian Agricultural Partnership helps producers invest in the efficiency and sustainability of their operations

By Jackie Clark
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Farmers can soon apply to take advantage of cost-share opportunities through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

This program “is offered to producers, farmers and other businesses related to plant health, and delivered by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA),” Angela Straathof, program director at the association, told Farms.com.

The next intake of applications for this stream begins on Jan. 8.

“The project categories that are open (for this window) will be announced in December,” Straathof explained. “When an intake opens, OSCIA accepts applications to the project categories that are associated with that intake.

“Producers can go online to ontarioprograms.net and open an enrollment form that allows them to apply for the project category of the best management practice that they’re interested in implementing,” she added.

Project categories fit into three priority areas: economic development, environmental stewardship, and protection and assurance. Previous project categories within those priority areas included financial analysis, cover crops and equipment to improve animal handling, respectively.

Farmers have enthusiastically participated in the Partnership.

“Our most recent intake opened March 22, 2019 and was open for six weeks. We had over 1,000 applications,” Straathof said.

“I think there’s strong interest from the farming community. They recognize that the financial support they’re able to mobilize through this program are incentives applied in the right direction for them.”

Program administrators have made efforts to simplify the application process.

“Applicants will see a more streamlined and user-friendly application process that will save time and allow them to focus more on what they do best: growing and producing some of the highest-quality food in the world,” Ernie Hardeman, minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs, said in a statement on Nov. 7.

The Partnership is a five-year initiative that started in April 2018. OMAFRA administers additional streams offered to food processors and agri-business organizations.

Daisy-Daisy\iStock\Getty Images Plus photo

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.