BFO’s Northern Ontario Proposal Gets Government Attention

Sep 30, 2014

Beef Farmers of Ontario says there’s more potentially farmable land in the Ontario section of the Great Clay Belt than is now being farmed in the entire province.

Executive Director Dave Stewart says they’ve been crunching the numbers on putting cow-calf operations in that part of northern Ontario for the past year.

Because of technological advances and climate shift, Stewart says their research has found it’s feasible.

BFO says the Premier and the Agriculture Minister have now committed to working with farmers to bring significant amounts of Crown and private northern land into agricultural development.

Stewart says farmland in Southern Ontario has become too expensive for cow-calf operations.

He says that’s one of the reasons the province’s beef industry has been facing a shortage of cattle.

BFO feels a cow-calf sector in northern Ontario would help resolve that shortage, would create opportunities for new farmers and could create a new source of stable jobs in that part of the province.

Stewart says they’re in discussions now with the province on how to make a cow-calf industry in northern Ontario a reality.

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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.