Farmers address drought concerns with Minister Leal

Sep 09, 2016

Minister of Agriculture participated in a roundtable discussion

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Farmers in Eastern Ontario participated in a roundtable discussion with Ontario Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Jeff Leal and the conversations focused on the summer drought.

According to the Brighton Independent, Leal called the current situation a “crisis.” He said he understands “the depth of the challenge” producers are facing.

Many farmers provided the minister with personal accounts of the struggles they’re facing.

Doug Gray, a beef farmer from near Caslteon, said he used to get four bales of hay per acre, and this year only got half of a round bale per acre.

Jeff Leal

According to the Brighton Independent, Gray’s culled five cows from his 85 head and is short nearly 400 bales of hay.

Dan Darling, a farmer near Morganston, told the roundtable that he’s spending between $200 and $500 per week to have water delivered to his cattle.

Arlene Dorland, whose farm hosted the roundtable, said it is imperative farmers receive a quicker payment of crop insurance claims.

“We’ll do all we can to expedite it,” Leal said according to the Brighton Independent.

He said his takeaway is that farmers are looking for government assistance sooner than later.

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.