Ontario farmers appreciate risk management program funding increase

Feb 04, 2025

Ontario farmers are expressing their support for today’s announcement that the provincial government is expanding risk management funding for farmers.

Over the next three years, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness is phasing-in a $100 million increase to the Risk Management Program (RMP) for beef, pork, sheep, veal and grain farmers and the Self-Directed Risk Management Program (SDRM) for fruit and vegetable growers.

RMP and SDRM help provide financial protection for farmers against unprecedented challenges beyond their control, including inflation, supply chain disruptions, market downturns and climate risks.

“This additional investment by the government comes at a critical time for Ontario farmers as we are making key decisions for the coming growing season,” says Drew Spoelstra, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. “This increased funding will provide Ontario farmers with confidence to continuing making critical investments in our farm businesses and in Ontario’s agri-food sector in such uncertain times.”

Increased funding for risk management has long been a key advocacy priority for the OFA, and it was one of the organization’s top three budget asks of the provincial government for 2025. This ask also supported efforts by the Ontario Agriculture Sustainability Coalition (OASC), who have long been urging the province to enhance its investment into RMP and SDRM.

Ontario’s agri-food sector is a key part of the provincial economy, contributing more than $50 billion in annual economic activity, $26.2 billion in agri-food exports, and employing 11% of Ontario’s workforce by supporting more than 870,000 jobs.

“We appreciate the government’s recognition of the importance of our sector to the provincial economy and we thank Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness, Rob Flack, for his leadership strengthening this critical risk management tool for our sector,” adds Spoelstra.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) represents 38,000 farm families across the province and serves as the leading advocate and strongest voice of Ontario’s farmers. As a dynamic farmer-led organization, the OFA represents and champions the interests of Ontario farmers through advocacy and government relations, research and farm policy recommendations, media and public relations, community representation, and more.

Source : OFA

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.