Local dairy farmers fear the worst

PM pledges dairy farmers will be compensated for any losses from trade deal

Andrew Mann is an eighth-generation dairy farmer in Bridgenorth who says he always thought the ninth generation would carry on the family business — but now he’s not so sure it will happen.

Mann, 31, says he’s concerned that a renegotiated trade pact between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico could hurt the industry. He thinks it might spell the end of the longtime family business.

“It’s always been the plan to continue to a ninth generation,” he said in an interview Thursday. “But this is a really bad deal for Canadian dairy farmers…. It really looks like there will be a long, painful death of supply management — and maybe of the whole dairy sector. It’s serious.”

Dairy farmers across this country panned the new agreement, according to a Canadian Press report, saying it will undercut the dairy industry in Canada by limiting exports while opening up the market to more American products.

Dairy Farmers of Canada issued a terse statement almost immediately after the agreement was announced late Sunday, following 14 months of difficult negotiations between the parties.

The new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, will give American farmers an expanded 3.6 per cent of the Canadian market.

Meanwhile the agreement will also eliminate competitive dairy classes, which Dairy Farmers of Canada says will shrink the Canadian industry.

Mann is particularly concerned about the elimination of Class 7 dairy products — skim milk powder and milk proteins, which are used in production of dairy products such as ice cream and yogurt.

Canada has an oversupply of these products, and Mann said dairy farmers across the country had plans for extensive exports — but that will no longer be possible.

Jeff Leal, the former Peterborough Liberal MPP and provincial agriculture, food and rural affairs minister, said the export of those milk proteins were ramping up, only to be curbed.

“We were looking at that as a way to grow the industry,” he said.

Leal participated in trade talks in Mexico City and in Montreal toward this agreement, last year when he was still in office.

Leal said the U.S. produces an oversupply of milk; it was

looking to Canada as a marketplace, though he wasn’t ready to cede any of that market at the time of the talks.

But now a share of the market is being given away to American producers, said dairy farmer Will Vanderhorst, and he thinks it’s the start of a wave of American exports to Canada.

“It will eventually push Canadian products off the shelf,” said Vanderhorst, a dairy farmer in Norwood and a board member of Dairy Farmers of Ontario. “It’s very serious.”

Justin Crowley, a dairy farmer in Hastings, said it’s “very disappointing” for farmers to watch the government “give away” any portion of the market to the Americans.

At Crovalley Holsteins, his family installed $2.5 million in automated technology last year. Crowley said that was based on production levels that are no longer sure to hold.

Any dip in business will take a toll on the supply chain, he added, mentioning feed companies and tractor dealers, for example: “Our bottom line affects their bottom line.”

Meanwhile Crowley also said Canadian milk is higher quality than American milk, in part because the U.S. allows the use of certain hormones that are illegal for use in Canada.

“I definitely encourage all Canadians to buy milk with the little blue cow on it,” Crowley said, referring to the Dairy Farmers of Canada logo. “That’s 100 per cent Canadian milk.”

On Thursday Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met privately with dairy representatives in Montreal and pledged to compensate dairy farmers for their expected losses from the new trade agreement.