Now when I talk about sheep, I will explain the perspectives with particular regard to Canada. The 8,000 square miles of Wales would fit into each of the three Prairie provinces about 32 times — Alberta is 255,000 square miles, and each of the other provinces is just a little less than that in size.

Wales has essentially a mild, wet climate modified by the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, allowing farm animals to graze from March until December. The rainfall varies from 30 to 40 inches annually on the coastal areas with up to 150 inches just a few miles inland.

Wales today has a peak sheep population of around 10 million, counting both mature sheep and lambs. This conveniently works out to 2,000 sheep from March to October on each acre of the Welsh landscape. Let’s not forget the other livestock, particularly cattle, numbering more than one million, and horses, at 60,000 or more. That means 2,500 sheep per section or an average of eight sheep per useable acre. That number per acre could vary from four to 12 or more. Remember, over winter the sheep herd, primarily older ewes, from November to March drops down to just more than four million animals. Each early spring from March onward, each ewe averages 1.5 lambs per adult animal.

In the rest of the U.K. — England, Scotland and Northern Ireland — there are about another 12 million sheep. Canada, on the other hand has only around 830,000 sheep, primarily in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. Some 550,000 lambs and some sheep are processed for meat in provincially inspected establishments annually. Canada exports and imports sheep and lambs, but imports are by far the most, at around 28,000 tons of lamb and mutton valued at $347 million. Farm cash receipts in Canada for lamb and sheep total $224 million or 0.2 per cent of total farm cash receipts.

Most lamb imports into Canada come from Australia and New Zealand, which have some 75 million and 25 million sheep respectively. These numbers, though, are dwarfed by China’s 175 million sheep, giving that country 14 per cent of the world’s sheep population.

Demand for lamb in Canada is high, but it’s often unavailable in the big box stores. On the other hand, the potential for increasing Canada’s sheep herds is high, but I suspect some prejudice exists for nonspecific reasons. Canadian winters may be cold, but most sheep breeds are ideally suited for our cold weather. And if coyotes are cited as problems, how come Australia can manage its sheep-killing dingoes?

There are more than 200 recognized breeds of sheep, with perhaps some 10,000 distinct types, all the way from dual-purpose wool type to wool-free sheep to milk-producing sheep.

Milk sheep, very common in Europe, are unusual in that some lines can produce three to six lambs at one time. Milk production runs from 170 to 240 U.S. gallons (600-900 litres) in a milking interval (year). Much of this milk is made into up to 70 or more cheeses, perhaps the most familiar in Canada being the sharp-tasting blue French Roquefort.

Lamb as a prime-time meal centrepiece worldwide competes very well with quality beef, particularly on European tables. As with the meat from specialized beef-producing animals such as Kobe from Wagyu cattle, prime lamb roast has its own unique types. Where I grew up in Wales, we farmed on the edge of a huge estuary, second only to the Bay of Fundy in Canada. This estuary had some 5,000 acres of grass-covered salt marsh, traditionally grazed by sheep, horses and cattle. These grass salt marshes are periodically flooded many times a year by the incoming tides which in spring can rise as much as 32 feet. Sheep eating these very saline-tolerant grasses develop a distinctive meat, which, up until not so many years ago, was poorly regarded as off-flavoured. In today’s world, this lamb meat is now very highly regarded by the best of British restaurants as salt marsh lamb. The lamb meat from the salt marsh’s 5,000 acres is sold for up to three times the price of regular farm lamb — a prime example of a niche market.

Affluent consumers seem to be always ready for an unusual food experience. Remember, the world’s best coffee is made from coffee beans that have been previously eaten by wild jungle catlike creatures (civets) in Indonesia. Look it up if it sounds unbelievable.

A secure perimeter

I believe there’s a lot of room for sheep farming in Canada, particularly on the Prairies. Until recently I kept around eight Shetland sheep for 15 years at my acreage. I fenced the outer part of the acreage with four-foot sheep fencing on top of four-foot sheep fencing so it was eight feet tall and essentially coyote-, deer- and moose-proof. The sheep were kept on an acre of land that was a mass of poplar roots, suckers and weeds. After five years all the poplars and weeds were killed off and replaced with a lawn grass mixture that I periodically seeded over this area. Within a few years this was an acre of good grazing land. I have always had a couple of energetic border collies within the acreage, and coyotes or foxes have never been a problem, despite having a few free-ranging chickens.

Back in 2010 on my five acres, next to my sheep pen, I came across the fully eaten remains of a large male white-tail deer. This happened in March, in deep snow that year. It appeared a cougar had chased a deer that jumped the eight-foot fence at the bottom end of my property, consuming the deer over many days and totally ignoring the sheep in the nearby pen enclosed only by four-foot fencing. Perhaps the cougar had an aversion to mutton or was discouraged by my border collie patrol.

So, if Wales can raise 10 million sheep on 8,000 sections, why can the Prairies, 100 times larger in area, only raise around 300,000 sheep? The demand for lamb is there, either for domestic or export purposes. As we say, I am not pulling the “wool” over your eyes.

Do not be hung up, so to speak, by so-called feuds between cattle ranchers and sheep herders. I have many times heard the word “pasture maggots” together with contemptuous descriptions about the taste of lamb. Old mutton may not be the best of meats, but there are many in this country who relish moose, deer, bear, ducks and geese, regardless of age or quality. Try Canadian prime lamb chops, Indian lamb curry or Italian/Greek prepared lamb. You just might like it.

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“When we level we normally need two machines, the first one to move the soil and the other machine to finalize (the surface) with a grader, with precision,” says Pascal Bedard, owner of Block Distribution, the Canadian distributor for Lacasse equipment.

“The peculiarity of the Pro-Level 16XL is it’s two machines in one. There is a lot of precision with the blade fixed, and it can carry a lot of soil in the rear bucket. This is a unique product. There is nothing else on the market that does both jobs. There are a lot of other soil carriers, but they’re not as precise.”

The Pro-level 16XL takes a 16-foot cut. It rides on eight rear-mounted wheels that are designed to allow large soil clumps and rocks to pass freely, for smoother, more stable tracking. With wheels at the rear, the hitch weight increases, boosting traction for the tractor. The bottom of the bucket has a rounded design, allowing soil to roll out more efficiently.

The scraper may also take less power to pull: the company claims the Pro-Level 16XL has a lower horsepower requirement than other designs, making it more fuel-efficient. The company says fuel savings can exceed 20 per cent, compared to competitors’ models, with demand as low as 30 litres per hour.

The company says those fuel savings come from the machine design, which uses a fixed blade relative to the scraper and a pivoting accumulation bucket positioned above the blade. The soil collected in the bucket is supported by wheels rather than dragged in front of the blade.

However, the Pro-level 16XL will still need a minimum of 400 horses up front to handle it.

Bedard says there really isn’t any other machine on the market that can directly compete with this unit’s capabilities, due to its ability to carry a large soil payload and still provide a very precise, graded finish.

“I have no direct competition,” he says.

The Pro-Level can be equipped with eight high-flotation tires as an option, although those would add $22,000 to the $99,500 base price of the unit.

Lacasse Machinerie is a small company that has been building products at Saint-Agapit, southwest of Quebec City, for about 10 years.

In that time, Bedard says, it has gained a reputation as a a high-quality manufacturer. He works exclusively marketing its equipment. If need be, Lacasse can customize a machine to precisely meet any buyer’s requirements.

“We are a small manufacturer at Lacasse,” Bedard says, “so we can easily customize product to the specific needs of the customer.”

The company has been building land levellers for almost a decade, he adds, and the Pro-Level 16XL includes a number of design updates that result from those years of field experience.

The company builds six different models in its Pro Level line, with cutting widths from 14 to 20 feet and capacities from six to 30 cubic metres.

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Glacier FarmMedia reporters and contributors from Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and Manitoba asked farmers about their election priorities, how represented by the federal government they’ve felt — and finally, if there’s anything they’d like farmers from other regions to understand about the issues they face.

In part three of this series, farmers answer the question, “Do you feel represented by the federal government?”

Read part one and part two of the series, which look at farmers’ views on U.S. President Donald Trump, trade, the economy, and what the federal government can do to build a better business environment.

For more coverage of the 2025 federal election, visit the Western Producer’s election page.

Ontario

Ontario farmers Glacier FarmMedia spoke to felt generally well represented by their MPs. In all cases, those were Conservative MPs elected in ridings where agriculture is a significant economic driver.

“From Ottawa as a whole, though, I don’t feel the current government provides as much support as I would like to see for grain farmers across the country,” said Matt Underwood.

Brayden Older, a dairy farmer near Embro, says he “feel(s) like we’re rudderless right now.” He criticized former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for proroguing Parliament immediately upon announcing his intention to step down as Liberal leader. He also mused about the possibility that the nation could — if Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives win the election — potentially be led by three different prime ministers within a few months.

Pete Overdevest, who is on the Dairy Farmers of Ontario board, says the ruling Liberals made campaign promises in the past but failed to follow through once elected. He expects little better this time.

Overdevest and fellow dairy farmer Braydon Older shared the concern that if the Liberals secure a third successive victory the alienation due to lack of representation for farmers — particularly Prairie farmers — in Ottawa will rise to troubling levels.

Older wants to hear assurances from party leaders this campaign that supply management will be protected in any trade negotiations. But he admitted he worries that putting too much emphasis on poultry, eggs and dairy could leave voters in Western Canadian farm country feeling left out.

“We need to be united over the whole country,” agreed Overdevest.

Quebec

“The strongest element of a society is also its weakest link: its farmers,” said fruit producer and Bloc Québécois candidate Christian Hébert. His comments are translated from French.

“We can’t just pick up tomorrow and go. So, if farmers’ concerns are not prioritized in public policy, then we’ll be the first ones sacrificed. I find this very sad.”

Hébert said Quebecers unanimously support reciprocal norms — that is, that imported products sold in Québec must be subject to the same standards and requirements as Québec products.

“The federal government is not playing an adequate role in terms of control over products coming through the border,” he said.

Hébert said in recent years there have been several demonstrations in Quebec, other provinces and the U.S. about reciprocal norms.

Manitoba

Curtis McCrae said his biggest fear is that eastern voters will forget what has happened in the last ten years.

“We haven’t been represented as part of the country. We’ve just been where everything gets pushed to solve problems,” he said.

He said he’d love to see a government that understands the importance of primary industry, and the growth it can spur in the rest of the economy.

Scott Peters, who sits on the Canadian Pork Council, said representation has been okay at times. It can be difficult to get meetings with officials, but he understands they are very busy.

However, he said AgriStability has been toyed with too much, and programs have been cut — possibly because agriculture is poorly understood or forgotten.

Alberta

Hog and grain farmer Bryan Perkins said agriculture seems to get lost in the mix, while tariffs on other industries receive all the attention from the federal government.

“They’re spending a lot of time working on and being worried about tariffs and whatnot, but we’re here with 100 per cent tariffs on canola oil and canola meal and 25 per cent tariffs on pork going to China, and there just doesn’t seem to be a whisper on that,” he said.

“Yet, when there’s a 25 per cent tariff on automobiles or steel and aluminum — and those are all really important industries, for sure — all of a sudden there’s lots of government attention,” Perkins said.

China placed tariffs on agricultural products in retaliation for those Canada placed on electric vehicles, he said.

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Simon Plante and Alison Blouin, owners of Polyculture Plante from Sainte-Petronille, just east of Quebec City, and Lorin, Daniel and Barry Doerksen, fourth-generation ranchers and owners of the Gemstone Grassfed Beef retail outlet in Calgary, shared the honours of being named the national outstanding young farmers for 2024.

These two farming operations were among seven regional honourees from across Canada vying for the national title at the competition, hosted this year by the Alberta OYF committee and held in Lethbridge.

“It was certainly an honour for Alison and me to receive the recognition,” Plante says. “We really didn’t know what would be involved, but it exceeded our expectations. We met so many great people at the national event in Lethbridge.

“Our English isn’t perfect, but there were translation services, and everyone was very patient. It is interesting to note each of the honourees from across Canada all farm and produce crops, livestock or products in different ways, but at the same time we have so much in common.”

‘Quebec City’s garden’

Polyculture Plante was started as a fruit and vegetable operation by Simon’s parents Pierre and Huguette in the 1980s. Sainte-Petronille is on Île d’Orléans, a 75-square mile island in the St. Lawrence River, about 15 minutes from downtown Quebec City.

“With good farmland the island is sometimes referred to as Quebec City’s garden,” Plante says.

He joined the farm full time in 2009 while completing a technical degree in business management from Collège François-Xavier Garneau. Alison joined the farm after completing a program in agricultural business management and technology.

 Polyculture Plante’s land base today includes 327 cultivated acres, of which 172 are owned by the Plantes. The farm produces 100 acres of summer strawberries, 32 acres of fall strawberries, three acres of raspberries under tunnel, two acres of blueberries, 30 acres of apples, 32 acres of sweet corn, four acres of field tomatoes, an acre of onions and four acres of squash and pumpkins. The company also operates a maple grove with about 6,000 trees tapped annually to produce maple syrup and other processed products.

Produce is marketed through a number of outlets, including an on-farm store carrying a wide range of fruits and vegetables and other products. They also sell products through the Grande Marche of Quebec, a major farmers market in Quebec City — and, with three to four truckloads delivered daily, they supply products to more than 60 retail and wholesale outlets across Quebec. In recent years they’ve been selling berries into Ontario and northern U.S. states as well.

They have just started an ambitious program of covering the strawberry and raspberry acres with tall tunnels that will allow them to grow more plants per acre, extend the growing season and increase yield in a more controlled growing environment. The tall tunnels are metal-framed hoop-type structures, about 15 feet tall, covered in plastic. Outfitted with irrigation systems, the tunnels provide a similar growing environment as a greenhouse, although crops are not fully enclosed.

“I don’t know anything about ranching or beef production or growing grain or grapes, but it was interesting to talk to others and learn about their farming operations,” Plante says. “It was an awesome experience. You get to meet others who are also passionate about what they do and are willing to share their knowledge with others.”

Plante says he and Blouin made arrangements to stay connected with the other honourees.

A gem in Alberta

With a whole different farming enterprise in southeastern Alberta, the Doerksen brothers also agreed it was an honour to be recognized by the COYF program — and a great opportunity to meet many successful producers.

“It is humbling to meet and get to know so many progressive young farmers,” says Lorin Doerksen. “We were together for four full days and we got to know each other quite well. We had the opportunity to hear each other’s presentations and that stimulated a lot of conversation, which also expanded our knowledge and understanding about a wide range of agricultural enterprises.”

Along with their father and uncle, the Doerksens operate Gemstone Cattle Co. at Gem, about an hour north of Brooks. It’s a diversified farm and ranching operation that today includes a 600-head commercial cow-calf operation, a 300-head purebred beef operation producing both Red Angus and Hereford breeding stock, an on-farm feedyard, and cash cropping geared mostly to forages produced under irrigation for sale as hay and silage.

In 2018 they launched a program to produce grass-finished beef, and in 2022 launched Gemstone Grassfed Beef, a retail meat market that’s part of the new Calgary Farmers Market West.

Doerksen says one of the key messages heard during the four-day COYF program was the importance of farmers sharing their stories with consumers.

“With a meat retail outlet in Calgary, that is certainly something we try to do and we know we can probably do a better job of,” Doerksen says.

“At the Calgary market customers are always asking about where the products come from and how it was raised. More recently there has been a great deal of interest in the nutrient density of foods.”

(“Nutrient density” refers to foods’ content of beneficial micro- and macronutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, protein, fibre and healthy fats such as omega-3 fatty acids.)

Consumers ask about the quality and want assurance they can get their nutrients from the food they buy, he says. “We’ve been adopting more regenerative agricultural practices on our farm in a bid to produce high quality meat products with high nutritional value.

“Research has shown that grass finished beef is more nutrient-dense than beef finished on a high grain diet,” he says. “We have people calling from all over looking for grass-finished beef, asking for assurance that it is indeed finished on grass.”

A forage-based diet produces very flavourful beef as well, he adds.

All cattle from the commercial cow-calf operation — steers, heifers and good-quality open heifers that meet specifications — are channelled into the grass finished beef program to be finished on grass, then processed as early as 21 months and up to 30 months of age. The Doerksens also source calves for the grass program from other nearby producers following a similar program with similar beef genetics.

“As farmers we can sometimes get sidetracked in our farming operations, so getting out and being part of the OYF program helps you connect with more of the world,” Doerksen says. “You begin to appreciate the value of being part of, and helping to support, industry organizations and help give the industry a voice to consumers, and to the government at various levels.

“It does take some time to collect the information about your farm a program like COYF is looking for and then prepare presentations,” Doerksen says.

“But it is also a great opportunity to make you think about your farming operation and reflect on your business accomplishments as well as objectives. It has been a very worthwhile experience.”

Along with the national winners, the other regional honourees for 2024 were:

• Geena Luckett, Luckett’s Vineyard, Wolfville, N.S.;
• Matt Bergman and DJ Wassenaar, Haybury Farms, Ont.;
• Marcus and Paige Dueck, Four Oak Farms, Man.;
• Cyle and Erika Stewart, Pine Ranch, Sask.; and
• Tristan and Aubyn Banwell, Spray Creek Ranch, B.C.

Celebrating 44 years, Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers program is an annual competition to recognize farmers who exemplify excellence in their profession and promote the tremendous contribution of agriculture.

Open to participants 18 to 39 years of age who make the majority of their income from agriculture, participants are selected from seven regions across Canada, with two national winners chosen each year. The program partner is Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

The program is sponsored nationally by CIBC, John Deere, Bayer, Sollio Agriculture, CN and Meridian Manufacturing, plus media sponsors Glacier FarmMedia and WS and video sponsor Bamboo Shoots, and is supported nationally by BDO.

For more information on the program, visit the COYF website.

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Investing heavily in new production technology on the family-owned Polyculture Plante, located at Sainte-Pétronille on Île d’Orléans, is an important part of the plans Simon Plante and Alison Blouin have for the farm started by his parents about 40 years ago.

Their commitment to quality fruit and vegetable production, along with a keen business sense, earned them recognition earlier this year as Quebec’s Outstanding Young Farmers for 2024.

“We are on an island so the opportunities to increase the size of our farm are somewhat limited,” says Simon, who along with wife Alison own and operate the well-established market garden.

“With two of our most important crops — strawberries and raspberries — we have introduced technology that is perhaps more commonly used in Europe.”

Polyculture Plante has just started to install tall tunnels over the two crops, which will allow them to grow more plants per acre, extend the growing season and increase yield in a more controlled growing environment.

The tall tunnels are metal-framed hoop-type structures, about 15 feet tall and covered in plastic. Outfitted with irrigation systems, the tunnels provide a similar growing environment as a greenhouse, although crops are not fully enclosed.

With strawberries, which will be produced in hanging baskets, rather than in the ground, Simon expects to be able to grow 20 per cent more plants per acre under the domed structures, which should in turn increase production by up to 50 per cent.

In other words, “for every acre of berries we grew before, by now growing in tunnels, we should be able to have the same production as if it was 1.5 acres,” he says.

Converting these crops to tunnel production requires a sizeable capital cost. The tall tunnels for raspberries cost about $120,000 per acre, while the tunnel system for strawberries is about $140,000 per acre.

The farm already has three acres of strawberries under tall tunnels and hopes to have between 30 and 40 acres covered over the next five years. They have about two acres of raspberries under tunnel production and hope to increase that to 20 acres by 2029.

Polyculture Plante was started as a fruit and vegetable operation by Simon’s parents Pierre and Hughette in the 1980s. Île d’Orléans is an island in the St. Lawrence River, covering about 75 square miles, about 15 minutes from downtown Quebec City.

“With good farmland the island is sometimes referred to as Quebec City’s garden,” says Simon.

 He joined the farm full-time in 2009 while completing a technical degree in business management from Collège François-Xavier Garneau. Alison recently joined the farm after completing a program in agricultural business management and technology.

While Simon and Alison are the principal owners, they are also joined in the farming operation by his parents and his brother and sister-in-law, as well as an uncle. The objective in recent years has been to significantly increase the farm’s income so it can provide for the needs of four families.

Polyculture Plante’s land base today includes 327 cultivated acres, of which 172 are owned by the Plantes. The farm produces 100 acres of summer strawberries, 32 acres of fall strawberries, three acres of raspberries under tunnel, two acres of blueberries, 30 acres of apples, 32 acres of sweet corn, four acres of field tomatoes, one acre of onions and four acres of squash and pumpkins.

The company also operates a maple grove with about 6,000 trees, tapped annually to make maple syrup and other products.

Produce is marketed through multiple outlets. An on-farm store carries a wide range of fruits and vegetables and other products. They also sell products through a large farmers’ market, the Grande Marche of Quebec in Quebec City. And three to four truckloads per day supply products to more than 60 retail and wholesale outlets across Quebec. In recent years they have been selling berries into Ontario and northern U.S. states as well.

Simon says he has worked hard over the years to expand markets for farm produce. He says it’s important to produce high-quality products to meet customer expectations, and with new technology to help increase yields of berry crops, they will be able to supply more and larger markets as well.

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“This decision comes against a backdrop of falling production volumes, which has led the plant to operate at only 40% of its operational capacity,” the company said in an April 19 news release.

Operations at the plant will be “redeployed” to other Olymel facilities.

The closure will affect 135 employees, including 30 temporary foreign workers. The company said workers would be given the option to relocate to neighbouring plants.

Olymel has seen a spate of losses in recent years. It dialed back hog production in Alberta and Saskatchewan last year, and closed several processing plants in Ontario and Quebec, including at Vallee-Jonction, Sainte-Hyacinthe and Princeville.

Earlier this year, Olymel’s parent company, Sollio Cooperative Group, said it was back in the black after 2023’s losses, with Olymel posting a surplus of $138.3 million after a loss of $446.1 million in 2022.

The company said it achieved this via improved performance in fresh pork, reduced slaughter volume, consolidating plants and distribution centres, disposing of “non-strategic assets,” recruiting foreign workers to offset local labour shortages and focusing on value-added products.

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The species, Macrosaccus morrisella — now officially named the soybean tentiform leafminer — was detected feeding on soybean crops in eastern Minnesota in 2021 and has since taken its newfound appetite north, according to Minnesota extension entomologists.

The new leafminer was spotted in soybeans in two counties in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area in 2021, then spread as far west as southeastern South Dakota the following year, University of Minnesota entomology professor Robert Koch said in a recent post.

In 2023, however, the pest was spotted in 77 soy fields in 44 Minnesota and North Dakota counties — as far north and west as Traill and Griggs counties in North Dakota, south of Grand Forks, and in Minnesota as far north as Marshall county, northeast of Grand Forks.

Until now, Koch and post-doc associate Arthur Ribeiro said in their post, Macrosaccus morrisella had been known to feed on two plant species, American hogpeanut and slickseed fuzzybean.

(Both are vining plants native to North America; the hogpeanut is seen in Canada from Manitoba through to Nova Scotia, according to the University of Wisconsin.)

Now, however, the tentiform leafminer moths’ larvae have been seen feeding inside soybean leaves, creating leaf injuries or “mines” visible first on the leaf’s lower surface and eventually the upper surface, Koch and Ribeiro wrote.

The adults of the species are tiny and “unlikely to be observed in the field,” they said.

The damage done by leafminers was first observed in soybean crops in Quebec over several years, Koch, Ribeiro and Quebec provincial specialist Joseph Moisan-De Serres wrote in a separate paper in 2021.

Damaged and infested leaves from Quebec soybean fields were taken for identification in 2016, and again in 2019 and 2021. The species has also previously been reported in Ontario.

Up here on the Prairies, the soybean tentiform leafminer has been recorded in Manitoba but hasn’t yet been documented in soybeans, according to provincial ag entomologist John Gavloski.

“There is always the possibility that it may have been present in soybeans at low levels, but nobody has seen or reported it yet,” he said via email.

The new species isn’t the first leafminer pest to feed on soybeans in North America, the researchers noted. Three species — the soybean leaf miner, locust leaf miner and Sumitrosis rosea — are known to feed on soybean plants, but their feeding is “rarely of economic significance to soybean production.”

However, they added, “because the leaf-mining niche in North American soybean appears underutilized, the potential adaptation to soybean by a leaf-mining lepidopteran like M. morrisella requires further examination.”

But not much is yet known about how to manage the newer species — except that it’s known to have two parasitoids that attack it.

What’s known about other leafminers “could provide a foundation for development of management plans” should infestations of the new pest become worse.

This year, Gavloski said, he plans to publish information on the species early in the season, so farmers scouting Manitoba’s soybean fields can watch for it.

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“By increasing our production capacity, we have been able to supply many more distributors, who are fond of our high‑quality product,” said Dany Deshaies, CEO of Sherbrooke-based SoyXpert Inc in a federal news release today.

SoyXpert was founded in 2019 and uses traditional Japanese techniques to produce its certified organic, firm tofu, its website said. It received the $400,000 “repayable contribution” through Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED), the news release said.

It recently built a new production facility and installed digital equipment, including a highly automated production line, which has allowed it to increase production and develop its flagship product ‘Soykei,’ the release added.

Quebec is home to multiple producers of the soy-based curd product, including Soyarie, Horium Foods Inc., and Unisoya.

Even so, local manufacturers haven’t always been able to meet demand in the province.

In early 2019, La Presse reported that Unisoya, unable to fill all customer orders, had voluntarily stopped selling to Costco. It was in the midst of expanding its facility.

At the time, Soyarie reported a 25 per cent or more increase in sales over the past few years, the La Presse report said.

The report attributed the increase in tofu demand to factors like the rising cost of meat, interest in reducing meat consumption for health and environmental reasons, and rising interest in vegetarianism.

In 2019, Quebec residents were more likely than other Canadians to eat tofu.

“In fact, 26 per cent of Quebecers will eat tofu on a regular basis versus 16 per cent in the rest of Canada,” said Sylvain Charlebois, professor of food distribution and policy and Dalhousie University, in a Jan. 31, 2019 report from CTV.

At the time, the province was experiencing a shortage of tofu.

—Geralyn Wichers is associate digital editor of AGCanada.com. She writes from southeastern Manitoba.

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Production Lareault, based on just over 450 acres at Lavaltrie, Que. — about 40 km northeast of Montreal, in the province’s Lanaudiere region — has been acquired by investors Antoine Casimir and Andrea Borodenko for an undisclosed sum.

The Lareault business produces multiple varieties of early-, mid- and late-season strawberry plants for commercial-scale, greenhouse and U-pick growers and garden centres as well as for backyard and balcony use.

The company also sells various varieties of raspberry, high- and lowbush blueberry, blackberry, cherry, haskap and other berry plants as well as asparagus and rhubarb, among others.

Owner/operators Luc and Lyne Lareault plan to retire from the business that’s been in family hands since 1953.

Casimir and Borodenko are the husband-and-wife operators of Greenlore, a Montreal venture capital and private equity firm with a focus on businesses in the agriculture, food and e-commerce sectors that are seeking partnerships for their growth or succession-planning phases.

Casimir was also previously a principal in Quebec private equity firm Novacap, with a focus on companies seeking either growth or exit strategies, while Borodenko previously worked for Montreal digital marketing firm Mediative.

The acquisition was backed with loans from Quebec pension fund Fonds de solidarite FTQ, financial co-operative Desjardins Group and Farm Credit Canada (FCC).

“The support of our financial partners was crucial to the deal’s success and to keeping the head office in Quebec,” Casimir and Borodenko said jointly in Thursday’s release.

“We are also delighted that all the employees will remain and that we can count on the support of Luc and Lyne Lareault to facilitate the transition,” they said. “Lareault is an excellent platform for our future projects, which will leverage the company’s enviable reputation for quality and innovation.”

Business transfers are a “major challenge” for small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Fonds de solidarite FTQ CEO Janie C. Beique said in the same release, adding that “solutions exist for entrepreneurs who want to ensure the future of the company they’ve built and for buyers who want to contribute to our local economy.”

Desjardins vice-president Jean-Yves Bourgeois, in the same release, described the deal as
“excellent news for the agri-food sector,” adding that “a good plan, developed well in advance, helps owners anticipate how they will transfer the business to the next generation. But beyond purely financial matters, buyers and sellers need to be guided on a human level during this critical period.”

Luc Lareault, who will remain with the company through the transition, described the new owners as “dynamic Quebecers who know the market very well” and have “several meaningful projects in mind for the future.”

— Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Provincial Agriculture Minister Andre Lamontagne on Thursday announced the passage of Bill 28, which amends legislation governing organization of farming activities and the accreditation of UPA.

The bill allows the UPA to launch a review of its funding structure and begin consultations with farmers on new regulations that would change how farms are categorized and represented — and, in turn, the annual UPA dues those farms pay, the province said.

Said new regulations would then be submitted to the Regie des marches agricoles et alimentaires du Quebec — the province’s marketing regulator for farm production — for its approval.

EN FRANÇAIS: Plus d’équité entre les producteurs agricoles et l’UPA

The province’s current Agricultural Producers Act allows only for flat-rate annual fees for UPA membership, at either a fixed single or double rate depending on a farm business’ legal structure.

The bill is meant to give UPA greater flexibility in setting farms’ annual dues through parameters such as a farm’s volume of production or its acres under cultivation as well as the size of the farm’s operating company.

Such a move, the province said, will result in “greater equity” given the diversity in farm businesses in all four corners of Quebec.

“It will be possible from now on to develop a more equitable formula, as producers have demanded for several years,” UPA president Martin Caron said in the association’s release Thursday, thanking Lamontagne and politicians from multiple parties for both the quality and speed of the discussions leading up to the bill’s passage.

More flexible and equitable contributions to UPA in turn will encourage new small farms and start-up farm businesses, Lamontagne said in the province’s separate release, noting the bill meets a 2022 election campaign promise by the governing Coalition avenir (CAQ).

The bill applies to all 42,000 UPA-represented farmers in the province and to related farming and ag industry stakeholder organizations, the province said.

UPA noted the bill will also allow those other associations more flexibility in funding their operations. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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