The Milk Producer - July 2010 - (Page 48)

Story By Sharon Laidlaw When duty calls District milk committee gave producers a strong voice and clout, says retired dairy farmer ocated along the southern edge of the Clay Belt area, near the Quebec border, the Temiskaming region is regarded as some of the most fertile land in northern Ontario. Although the landscape has remained relatively unchanged over the last 45 years, the same can’t be said about Ontario’s dairy industry. It has undergone significant changes during that time, largely due to supply management and orderly marketing, says retired dairy farmer Albert Gauthier. When Albert bought his father’s Temiskaming District dairy farm in 1964 in Earlton, he was milking Supply management has served producers well 35 cows and cultivating the years, says Albert Gauthier. just over 300 acres. He was also selling milk in an unstable marketing system. shipped whole milk to cheese plants “I was shipping 400 pounds of and others shipped cream to different milk daily to a dairy in Timmins. At plants in Temiskaming. Their prices that time, we had no pipeline in the and transportation charges varied, barn,” he recalls. Albert says. Some dairies Albert dealt with didTransportation was a major conn’t pick up on Sundays or Wednes- cern when the district milk commitdays. “If the end of the month fell on tee began, says Albert. that day, you’d lose. It was a no-win “We were asked to appoint one situation. Things like that couldn’t person from each milk outlet to repcontinue,” he says. resent whatever group of producers Temiskaming producers shipped to shipped to that plant. But that lasted at least five different local organiza- only a couple of years,” he says. After, tions which had no co-ordination committee members were elected by among them. A group of producers producers attending the annual dis48 | July 2010 | MilkPRODUCER L trict meeting. “That’s when I say the real milk committee started.” Albert got involved because he felt the producers weren’t getting good representation. The plant representative did not correct a problem with a processor returning milk to producers. So Albert organized a meeting with a transporter, the local fieldman and board member to have something done about it. “I remember calling on other producers to see if they were interested in installing bulk tanks on their farms. We went to the dairies and were able to hatch out an agreement with them to accept the over milk. It took a lot of work to organize that kind of thing.” By the late 1960s, Albert installed a pipeline in the barn. He gradually expanded and doubled his quota holding which let him ship 10 cans of milk per day, instead of five. “We eventually had to put another cooler in the milk house,” he says. Albert was one of 45 producers shipping fluid milk when the Ontario Milk Marketing Board (OMMB) was formed. “It created stability for fluid shippers,” he says. By 1968, about 40 producers in his area had bulk tanks installed in their milk houses. “It made a huge differ-

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Milk Producer - July 2010

The Milk Producer - July 2010
Contents
Editor's Notes
DFO Chair’s Message
Diary Update
DFO
National Policy
DFC Promotion
Thrill of the Grill
Farm Finance
Foundation for Our Future
Agriculture Minister’s Message
General Manger’s Message
Overview
Then and Now:
Notable Quotes:
Grant Smith
Gordon Coukell
Peter Oosterhoff
Vera Mitchell
Bill Simpson
Lew Dunk
Albert Gauthier
Gary Marshall
Stuart Steckle
Tom Kane
Pat McManus
Research
Applied Science
Ruminations
Markets
New’N’Noted
Back Forty

The Milk Producer - July 2010