Rob Vanden Hengel lost roughly $3,000 in milk after having to dump it to free up space for fresher product. (@rjvandenhengel/Twitter)
Farmers in Ontario will lose thousands of dollars because of a big winter storm that started on December 23 and shut down roads, making it impossible for drivers to pick up milk and forcing farmers to use up their stock.
Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO), which represents the province’s 3,300 licenced dairy producers, put out a statement on December 24 telling farmers about dangerous road conditions and asking them to get rid of milk that wouldn’t be picked up by drivers.
“A cow gives milk no matter what the weather is like. She makes milk all the time, and that milk has to go somewhere “Andrew Campbell, a farmer in Strathroy, Ontario, who lost about 5,000 litres of uninsured milk worth about $4,000 on Saturday.
In Ontario, there are a lot of rules about the dairy industry. DFO buys all of the fresh milk, and then transports, processes, pasteurises, and distributes it.
Campbell said that every 48 hours, refrigerated trucks come to farms to pick up milk. This is because most farms don’t have enough space to store more than 48 hours’ worth of product.
Because the snow got in the way of the supply chain, farmers had to drain what they already had to make room for the milk their cows kept making.
On Christmas Eve, farmers from as far north as Thunder Bay, Ontario, used social media to show what it looks like to get rid of thousands of litres of milk. Twitter posts showed cow’s milk going down drains from the tanks that are usually used to store the milk and move it into trucks.
Rob Vanden Hengel got up early on Saturday to clear the snow off the driveway of his farm so the milk truck could get there. By 12:30 p.m., he heard from another dairy farmer that DFO was telling producers to dump their product if their truck hadn’t arrived.
“We think, “Well, that stinks.” I probably said a few other words that I can’t really say on the radio, “Vanden Hengel, whose dairy farm is just north of Seaforth, Ontario, in Huron County, where all roads were closed because of the storm, said.
About 3,400 litres, or close to $3,000 worth, of milk was lost by Vanden Hengel. But he has insurance.
He said, “I’ve been milking cows since 2005, and I’ve never had to do that before.”
Another farmer who is being affected by the storm is Bernie Kamphof. Near Thunder Bay, he has a farm with 400 animals, 250 of which are dairy cows.
Kamphof said that the storm didn’t have as much of an effect on driving in northern Ontario as it did in southern Ontario. However, his pickup day was still late because a truck was stuck behind a closed road hundreds of kilometres from his farm.
Kamphof had to drain milk not only over the Christmas holiday, but also on Tuesday. Because of this, 24,000 litres of milk, worth almost $20,000, were lost.
He says that his farm has never dumped milk since 1953, when his family bought it.
“It was something this farm had never seen before,” Kamphof said. “As farmers, we make something that can be eaten. I think I can speak for every farmer when I say that we’re proud to feed people, and it’s not a good feeling to have to throw away our food.”
A statement from DFO to CBC News says that even though most routes in the province are open, there are still delays in some remote areas. Farmers who don’t have insurance are likely to lose tens of thousands of dollars, but the DFO is looking into ways to help them.
“It is good business to have insurance, but the DFO Board will look into the issue of compensation in the coming weeks,” the statement said.
Kamphof wants the business world to work together to make up for losses.
“If you use your insurance, you’ll have to pay more in premiums if you have to make a claim. We’re big enough that we can pretty much cover ourselves against risks like this. I think it’s something we should look into and think about as a possibility, “he said.
DFO says that shoppers probably won’t notice any changes at the grocery store because of the last few days of trouble.
