The new total is $2.20 per live animal sale
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
An Ontario livestock organization is increasing its licensing fees after more than a decade.
The Ontario Sheep Farmers (OSF) announced a 40-cent increase to its licensing fees, bringing the total to $2.20 per live animal sale.
The previous increase occurred in 2010 when the fees went up 30 cents from $1.50 to $1.80.
“The decision to increase fees came about because they haven’t gone up in 13 years,” Erin Morgan, executive director of the OSF, told Farms.com. “The people here before me did an amazing job of managing the budget within the organization’s threshold.”
The new fee structure will take effect on Oct. 1, 2023.
Landing on the 40-cent increase came during the organization’s budgeting process.
In 2021, the OSF launched a new five-year-plan, Building Strength for a Better Future, which includes multiple initiatives to support the industry.
And delivering on those items requires financial resources, Morgan said.
“It’s a balance where you’re trying to meet the needs of the organization without asking for more than what the organization needs,” she said. “You don’t want to go back to the members in a short period of time and ask for more. I know our board is hopeful we can go a long time before having to review further fee increases.”
One of the initiatives the new fees will support is the Sheep Institute, which is focused on education.
It is shaping up to be a central location for producers, Morgan said.
“It’s going to be its own educational entity,” she said. “We’re going to gather all the educational assets under one umbrella and make them accessible to our farmers. A lot of that will include knowledge transfer from research results.”
Another new item on the OSF’s agenda is a market research project.
This will include an international market scan.
“We’re going to look at other countries that have a thriving lamb and sheep industries, and looking at a key market segment that other countries have that Canada doesn’t. In the U.K. they call it a hogget.”
Hogget “refers to animals between 1-2 years old, and is a delicious combination of tender lamb and full-flavoured mutton,” according to Salter & King, a British butcher shop. “Hogget can be cooked hot and quick like lamb, or low and slow – anywhere in between and it might toughen up. It is a very versatile meat and has a nice fat to meat ratio.”
A third item the increased licensing fees will support is a new part-time member relations role beginning in the fall.
The person in this role will help bring people together, Morgan said.
“Our members are spread out across the province and you really have to work to bring people together to collaborate and actively including all the members of the organization,” she said. “That takes some pretty substantial coordination, and our organization operates democratically, so we’ve got to make sure everyone is participating in what’s going on and has a say in what’s going on – and that’s what the person in this position will help do.”