Ontario Sheep Farmers (OSF) are increasing their licensing fee to $2.20 per live animal. The 40 cent raise is the first such increase in 13 years.
OSF says rising costs is a component in the decision. It says that it will be “committed to using the valuable license fees to support programs and services that help our farmers.”
Why it matters: Farm organizations are having to deal with increasing costs and many of them haven’t raised fees for years.
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OSF Executive Director Erin Morgan said that the inflation of the past few years is partly responsible for an increase in costs.
“Thirteen years is a long time to go without raising your rates,” said Morgan. “The last few years of inflation, greater inflationary pressure, definitely played a role.”
OSF launched a five-year strategic plan in 2021 which aimed to create new programs and initiatives, many of which require funding. Morgan said that much of the money gained from the increased licensing fees will be going toward supporting them.
“A lot of that work requires an investment in market research, just investing in the data collected through the data chain, making sure that it works for everyone.”
“There’s a bunch of things that we’re working on,” she said, “we have a couple of new key research projects.”
She mentioned the recently announced living lab, in which OSF wanted to be include.
“Our participation in the program is included in the license fees,” she said.
“We’re also going to be working more closely with our processors and our auctions over the next little while to address some system upgrades needs that are required across the entire value chain.”
She said OSF also plans to invest in a new part-time staff member, to increase communications to grassroots.
She added that the strategic plan called for educational programming, something else which the fee increase will help fund.
“As of the strategic plan, we’ve created an educational component, it’s called the Sheep Institute. It’s a separate educational arm of the organization.”
Another educational endeavour is a course for producers interested in grazing for hire.
“Grazing solar fields, grazing hydro corridors, grazing other farmers’ land after crops, offering that as a service.”
OSF chair John Hemsted said in a release announcing the increase that the “new strategic plan prioritizes the relationship between the board, the districts and the members,” and that “the budget increase will increase our engagement with our members and improve our market knowledge to prepare for future initiatives to grow the sector for all producers.”
