Seminars C & D – 1:15pm – 4:15pm

Each seminar: $30 advance - Jan. 6/$50 at door (pick only one if attending at 1.15 pm or if more than one person, please declare the idividual selections on the registration form)

Seminar ‘C’ – Advanced
WHOLE FARM – Part 2 of the Successful Agriculture Stream of 2 workshops running a.m. & p.m.
The whole farm approach to managing crops and livestock. Two well-known organic farmers share their work from their large acreages in west-central Ontario. Hack farms 1000+ acres at Kincardine/Lake Huron and Boettcher farms 600 acres in Huron County. This is a fully advanced presentation from two growers skilled in biodynamic ideas.

Trainers: Ulli Hack & Chris Boettcher – (Manager’s note: these are 2 of the most experienced organic growers in Ontario with deep family connections to the movement)

Seminar ‘D’ – Advanced
FINANCIAL VIABILITY OF SMALL-SCALE FARMING.
Continuation of 2011′s seminar, providing solutions to multiple challenges. Topics: management (bookkeeping, office operations, record keeping); scale of operation (managing diversity/complexity); land (rent/own); CSA; communicating with clients; marketing issues (small farm synergies). Four farms will share their successes while helping attendees with their own operations.

Presenters: The New Farm (Brent Preston & Gillian Flies), Meeting Place Farm (Tony & Fran McQuail), TourneSol Farm (Daniel Brisebois), ManoRun Farm (Chris Krucker).

In this study, poultry houses like this, that transitioned to organic practices and ceased using antibiotics, had significantly lower levels of drug-resistant and multi-drug resistant enterococci bacteria. (Credit: Amy R. Sapkota, University of Maryland)

ScienceDaily (Aug. 11, 2011) — Antibiotic use in conventional animal food production in the United States has created public health concern because it has been shown to contribute to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can potentially spread to humans. A new study, led by Dr. Amy R. Sapkota of the University of Maryland School of Public Health, provides data demonstrating that poultry farms that have transitioned from conventional to organic practices and ceased using antibiotics have significantly lower levels of drug-resistant enterococci bacteria.

The study, recently published in Environmental Health Perspectives, is the first to demonstrate lower levels of drug-resistant bacteria on newly organic farms in the United States and suggests that removing antibiotic use from large-scale U.S. poultry farms can result in immediate and significant reductions in antibiotic resistance for some bacteria.

MORE…

Organic dairy case study: somatic cell count management from 38 Quebec farms – François Labelle

The presentation is about a three year technology transfer project on improvement of organic milk quality, more specifically on somatic cell count (SCC). 38 organic dairy farms in Québec were evaluated under the supervision of the expert in organic dairy production, at Valacta (the Dairy Production Centre of Expertise, in Québec). This project was in two parts: at first we compared the management of the farms regarding levels of SCC to find out what the best farms were doing differently. The second part of the project was to assess the impact of recommendations made for each farm to improve management. A best management practices guide to improve organic milk quality will be presented.

The target of the workshop is organic dairy farmers and their advisers.

This project was developed using a global approach that included all the management factors related to milk quality on organic dairy farms. The results we obtained are based on the reality of organic dairy farms and on the experience of farmers and advisers working together.

To our knowledge it is the first project of this kind to happen in Canada and probably in North America.

Information on the speaker and Valacta: François Labelle, agrologist, expert in organic dairy production in the Valacta R&D team.

As soon as he graduated from Macdonald Campus of McGill University in 1989, François was involved in organic dairy production. First, he acquired several years of field experience with organic dairy producers. Then he worked as an adviser to a technical support club in organic dairy farming. From 2004, he was lecturer, farm manager and in charge of the transition to organic dairy production at Alfred Campus of the University of Guelph. At Valacta, he is in charge of various technology transfer projects and of the technical support of the organic dairy production advisors team.

To have more information on Valacta, visit our web site: www.valacta.com

To reach the speaker directly, please contact – flabelle@valacta.com

Manager’s note: this is a one-hour workshop with a huge compression of info in that very short time-period. If you wish to contact François prior to the Conference to arrange a meeting or consultation, this would be an excellent way to get a more detailed presentation. He will also be in Guelph on the Friday.

Some workshops have been confirmed for the 2010 Conference.
Saturday:

Sunday:

For more information please go to the Schedules page.