Systems used to track broiler hatching egg and chick production in Ontario will get upgrades using federal-provincial cost-shared funding.
The federal and Ontario governments on Monday last week announced up to $141,450 through the Place to Grow: Agri-food Innovation Initiative, a Canadian Agricultural Partnership program, for the Ontario Broiler Hatching Egg and Chick Commission (OBHECC).
The upgrades, they said, are expected to reduce costs by “further automating data inputting processes” and allowing other systems, such as on-farm sensors, to “seamlessly” connect and upload new data.
“This progressive solution will reduce overhead and increase the overall efficiency of the hatchery supply chain while building value and serving the chicken industry’s needs of sustainable, safe and high-quality products,” OBHECC executive director Bill Van Heeswyk said in a joint release last week.
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“This investment ensures chicken farmers are equipped with up-to-date and efficient traceability tools, which are essential to maintaining strong businesses and to strengthening public trust in food safety and quality,” federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said in the same release.
The OBHECC project is one of about 2,500 in Ontario to receive Canadian Agricultural Partnership funding since June 2018.
In Ontario, cost-share program funding to agriculture and value chain organizations via the partnership flows through the Place to Grow program, whose next application intake runs from Jan. 6 to 27.
Place to Grow, the governments said, “encourages greater collaboration to identify opportunities and address challenges in the sector.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network
