Dairy farmers pleased with provincial investment CORMACK KATHERINE HUDSON The Western Star

Andy Rideout is a milker on Rideout’s Dairy farm in Cormack. — Star photo by Katherine Hudson

Local dairy farmers are pleased they will have the means to develop greater amounts of land to grow forage for their cows.

On Thursday, the provincial government announced a three-year, $12-milion land development initiative that in turn will help the dairy industry become more self-sufficient and produce more forage locally.

Leslie Brophy has run Brophy Dairy Farm in Daniel’s Harbour for about 26 years. He said this development for the dairy industry has been “a long time coming.

“It’s a very important thing … The industry has been trying to get support from the government for a number of years and I think they finally got it to work,” he said.

Forage, made up of hay and plant leaves, is about 40 per cent of a dairy cow’s daily feed. Brophy said his farm buys about $100,000 worth of forage per year to feed his 440 dairy cows.

“We import some from outside the province but for the last three years we’ve been lucky enough that we’ve been able to buy it locally in the province, on the west coast,” said Brophy.

In a prepared release, Natural Resources Minister Kathy Dunderdale stated the dairy industry currently important about 22,000 metric tonnes of forage at a cost of more than $4.4 million each year.

“We want to be able to produce more of that forage within the province, lowering the transportation and fuel costs for farmers,” she stated.

Brophy’s main concern with the initiative is where the land is planned to go.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to avail of some of that funding ourselves. But it’s very hard for us to get land up where we’re to. Availability of land is scarce up this way,” he said of the Daniel’s Harbour area.

Ian Richardson of Cormack is chair of the Canadian Young Farmers’ Forum.

He has owned a dairy farm in the area for eight years and said it’s great to see Newfoundland agriculture receive continued support from the provincial government.

“It’s very positive for the industry. It’s come at a time when it’s really needed and it’ll provide us with a great opportunity to try to grow the industry to meet our industrial milk quota that we’re trying to fill by 2016,” he said.

The quota is targeted at 31 million litres of industrial milk produced annually from 2001 to 2016. If this goal is achieved, the province’s dairy industry is expected to double its size from 2001 to 2016.

The dairy industry employs more than 1,200 people and is valued at move than $125 million according to Dairy Farmers of Newfoundland and Labrador. The initiative plans to create approximately 360 seasonal jobs as the land is developed.

The provincial government will invest $6 million under the Agriculture and Agrifoods Development Fund.

Individual dairy farmers will match this funding, creating the total $12-million initiative.