Jim Clark named interim chair of OFPMC

Dec 21, 2016

Clark will hold the position as of January 1, 2017

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

Only a week after Geri Kamenz announced his resignation as chair of the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission (OFPMC), Ontario Minister of Agriculture Jeff Leal announced the commission’s next chair during the transition process.

"I'm pleased to announce Jim Clark has been appointed by Order in Council as interim Chair of the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission, effective January 1, 2017,” Minister Leal said in a release. “Jim is well-known throughout Ontario's agriculture community and is currently supporting the Commission as one of two Vice-Chairs. His experience in leadership at the Commission and in the industry will be critical to ensuring that the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission continues to support Ontario's agriculture and agri-food value chain in the public interest.

Jim Clark
Photo: Ontario Cattle Feeders' Association

The process of recruitment for a new Chair is underway and will be advertised through the Public Appointments Secretariat website in the near future."

Clark owns and operates a beef and cow-calf farm in Elgin County, and for nearly 20 years has served as the executive director of the Ontario Cattle Feeders’ Association.

Farms.com has reached out to Jim Clark and the Ontario Cattle Feeders’ Association for comments.

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.