Minister Leal dons Better Farming hat during Norwood Fall Fair

Oct 12, 2017

Peterborough County hosted the fair over the Thanksgiving long weekend

By Farms.com

During a visit to the Norwood Fall Fair in his home county of Peterborough, Jeff Leal, Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture, completed his outfit with a hat many farmers will recognize.

Minister Leal donned a limited edition Better Farming hat, complete with corn cobs on the side. He gathered for a photo with other local government representatives and Tom Klompmaker, a director with the Chicken Farmers of Ontario and the provincial chicken representative during the ongoing NAFTA discussions.

Left to right: Jeff Leal, Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Kim Rudd, MPP for Northumberland, Lou Rinaldi, MPP for Northumberland-Quinte West and Tim Klompmaker.
Photo: Jeff Dornan

But the Norwood Fall Fair isn’t the only time Minister Leal was spotted wearing his favourite Ontario ag magazine hat this year.

Earlier in the year, as he discussed weather challenges and Ontario’s risk management programs with farmers, photographers snapped a photo of Minister Leal wearing the Better Farming accessory.

The Norwood Fall Fair was established in 1868, only one year after Confederation!

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.