The most common injury, according to OPP statistics, is rollovers when entering, exiting or crossing roadways. These accidents can also occur when vehicles veer off the shoulder.

According to the report Agriculture-related Fatalities in Ontario 1990–2020, produced by Workplace Safety and Prevention Services, from 2011 to 2020 there were 156 agriculture-related fatalities in Ontario, averaging 16 deaths per year.

WHY IT MATTERS: Recent statistics show that slow-moving vehicles are 3.8 to 4.8 times more likely to be involved in a fatal collision per kilometre than other motor vehicles.

The average annual fatality rate over that 10-year period was 8.5 fatalities per 100,000 farm population.

The report also shows the oldest age group (80+ years) had the highest fatality rate at 50.1 per 100,000 farm population.

The top mechanisms of injury accounted for 70 per cent of spring agriculture-related deaths.

To help reduce accidents and injuries, the Wellington County OPP is focusing on a collaborative approach, partnering with local organizations to promote farm safety through events and presentations. The detachment will also share safety information on social media and through local media partners.

“Equipment accidents are common for a variety of reasons. To reduce the risk, ensure you are properly trained to operate machinery, stay focused on the task at hand, and routinely check that all equipment is in safe working condition,” Carly McKeown, media coordinator for the Wellington County Ontario Provincial Police, told Farmtario.

She said officers regularly conduct proactive enforcement on rural roads to help protect both farmers and motorists. This can include laying charges or issuing warnings when appropriate.

Statistics show that eight out of 10 accidents occur during the day and seven out of 10 occur on dry road conditions.

McKeown encourages farmers to ensure their tractors are equipped with proper lighting and signage, especially when travelling at night.

“Motorists should give farm equipment plenty of space and avoid passing when it isn’t safe. Educating community members on safely sharing the road with slow-moving vehicles is an important part of our efforts to help reduce collisions,” she said.

On-farm safety

McKeown said accidents involving children are especially common because farms serve as both homes and workplaces. She said it is important to establish a designated area for children to play away from farm operations and ensure they are always supervised.

In his role with Wellington County Farm and Home Safety Association, Walter Grose has seen firsthand the consequences of ignoring farm safety guidelines.

In recent years, he said both experts and law enforcement have encountered growing challenges when it comes to safety compliance.

“They think they can use their cell phone and they think they can drink and drive the tractor,” said Grose, adding that some farmers believe that removing the slow-moving vehicle sign allows them to travel at any speed they want.

Grose said he has seen incidents involving farmers new to Canada who have not taken the time to learn local rules. He recalled a conversation with a farmer from the Netherlands who was spreading manure dangerously and said he believed Canadian rules were less strict.

A costly mistake

Grose reminds farmers that failing to follow the rules of the road can be expensive. He recalled a woman who was moving bales between farms without proper signage, travelling too fast and with an unsecured load.

The subsequent fines totalled more than $3,000.

“She said, ‘You’re just out looking for work,’ and he said, ‘We’ll see you in court,’” Grose recalled. “You don’t have a leg to stand on because every one of those things was wrong.”

ATV safety on the roads

With more farmers using recreational vehicles as part of daily operations, Grose says ATVs have become a growing safety concern, particularly among children.

A study published in Paediatrics & Child Health revealed 181 serious or fatal ATV-related injuries, including six deaths, over a 12-month period in 2017. Children aged 10 to 14 represented 45.3 per cent of cases, followed by youth aged 15 to 19 at 26.5 per cent. Most cases occurred in July and August.

“They’re creeping up to be the most dangerous thing on the farm,” Grose said.

He explained that ATVs must follow the same rules as other vehicles, including licensing and carrying separate insurance to cover injuries. He added that ATV operators should be mindful of dust and visibility hazards for other drivers.

Grose says his organization tries to reach approximately 3,000 people per year within Wellington County. He and his team visit schools, fairs and industry events to promote farm safety.

He believes there needs to be stronger industry-wide education through safety days, school programs and media outreach to prevent injuries and fatalities.

The post Spring surge in farm traffic sparks renewed safety warnings appeared first on Farmtario.

Despite early 2023 predictions that the Bank of Canada would curtail its two-year-long strategy of inflation-fighting policy rate increases, those rates have continued to rise. On July 12, its overnight rate – the driver for the prime rate by which lending institutions approve loans – rose to five per cent. Many economists predict an additional 25 basis points with the next announcement on Sept. 6.

The Bank of Canada has increased interest rates 10 times since March 2022.

Why it matters: Farmers need to be mindful of how increased interest rates will affect cash flow.

For farmers with variable-rate loans or who want to secure new financing for equipment, land, inputs or expansions, this means more available cash will go toward interest expenses.

“People’s thought process with interest rates are going to be sharpened,” said Brenn, who grows potatoes, onions and leafy greens near Waterdown. “I think a lot of people are going to be surprised” once they have a good look at their numbers.

Farm Credit Canada acknowledged the looming financing squeeze with a pair of interest rate-themed announcements in May. The arms-length government lender cited “financial difficulties, including cash flow challenges, due to higher-than-average input costs and elevated interest rates,” in a May 24 news release announcing “an unsecured credit line up to $500,000 with loan processing fees waived” for farms and agribusinesses.

“While the current experiences of individual operations within the different agriculture and food sectors are varied, we hope those who identify with these challenges will use this credit line as an opportunity to work through their current position and build back stronger than before,” said FCC chief operating officer Sophie Perreault in the news release.

Specific to the hog sector, which is facing rapid declines in demand and Canadian processing capacity, FCC also announced in May that its relationship managers “will consider additional short-term credit options, deferral of principal payments and/or other loan payment schedule amendments to reduce financial pressures.”

“Hog producers may face a cash shortfall in addition to personal hardship and stress,” said Manon Duguay, FCC’s vice-president of operations for Quebec and the Atlantic, in the news release. “We’re monitoring the situation closely and have been in touch with our hog customers over the past several months.”

Brenn knows the financial and potential mental health strain caused by rising interest rates isn’t confined to hog producers.

“It really depends on how leveraged each farm operation is,” he said. Cash crop growers may have a lot of expensive equipment. If it’s financed or leased on a variable rate, “that rate can have a huge impact on your cost of production.”

In fruit and vegetable and other sectors like dairy, specialized infrastructure is often required when the farm undergoes technology upgrades, expansions or generational transfers. His own Brenn-B Farms is in the midst of an expansion first planned about four years ago. The interest rate is now 4.5 per cent higher than when they started planning.

Things have gone slower than hoped, as is often the case, due to delays in acquiring permits and securing contractors. This 4.5 per cent increase has added hundreds of thousands of dollars to the budget for financing the expansion. And Brenn knows his family is not alone in this experience.

“Every time there’s a delay, you know that by the time you need to go and get funding, it’s going to cost that much more in interest.”

Asked about the potential effects of rising interest rates on farms, FCC’s Montreal-based manager of economics Krishen Rangasamy said “rising rates translate to higher debt servicing costs, with the impact felt more acutely for those that have capex (capital expenditures) requirements, often financed via loans.

“Some farms may opt to accelerate repayment of loans, while others may want to stand pat and use cash flow to maintain operations,” said Rangasamy. “Either way, rising rates add to ongoing cost pressures for farms, which is not positive with regards to profitability and investment spending.”

The federal government has a list of strategies for anyone challenged by rising interest rates. These include:

• Reducing expenses so there is more money to pay down debt;
• Paying down debt with the highest interest rates first;
• Finding ways to increase income to help pay down debt;
• Ensuring there is an emergency fund to deal with unexpected expenses, including managing higher loan payments to avoid penalties.

Specific to the agriculture and agri-food sector, Rangasamy encouraged business owners to “talk to your lender for advice and products that can be tailored to your specific needs.”

And, as with the general advice from the feds, “find ways to keep other costs under control to support profitability.”

Brenn-B Farms hasn’t expanded its land base over the past two years. But Brenn agrees it’s impossible to ignore the trend across Ontario of rapidly increasing farmland prices. This has happened in an environment of continued interest rate hikes and he’s sure it will end soon.

Even now, he believes the trend has eased and he’s hearing of tightened criteria used by lending institutions to approve loans.

“A lot of people probably took out loans on one or two-year terms and planned to go back in and renegotiate, hoping the rates would settle or go back down,” he said.

That hasn’t happened and now they must renew loans at higher rates than the original.

In the countryside, Brenn still sees farmers breaking ground on expansions and farmland being sold at record or near-record levels. But he believes those activities have slowed and expects they’ll slow even more in coming months.

He added the half per cent or 1.5 per cent rates from more than a decade ago were “a luxury” that some people took for granted.

After raising the policy rate to 4.5 per cent in January, the Bank of Canada said it expected to stall hikes at that level due to a downward trend in inflation parameters. That expectation didn’t last long because inflation didn’t fall as far as expected – due in part, the Bank of Canada suggested, to a continued tight labour market and persistent consumer spending in both Canada and the US.

Rangasamy says those parameters, particularly in Canada, have since slowed.

The next scheduled policy interest rate announcement is Sept. 6 and, again, economists across the country predict one last hike to 5.25 per cent.

“They might still go with a (25 basis point) hike,” said Rangasamy. “The question mark is, will the Bank of Canada take that slower growth into account” and opt to stay at five per cent or “will they continue to look at the inflation parameters” that have not yet reached the two per cent target and institute another rate hike.

Either way, “the consensus among the big banks is that we’re very close to peaking.”

Earlier this month, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada sent a news release explaining programs that could assist producers who face interest rate challenges. Among those is the farm debt mediation service, a “free financial counselling and mediation services to farmers who are having difficulties meeting their financial obligations.”

Information on how to manage debt is available at: agriculture.canada.ca/en/programs/farm-debt-mediation-service.

The post Cost of borrowed money continues to rise on farms appeared first on Farmtario.

It delves into the challenges of parenting, farming, and life’s transitions from both sides of the Canada-United States border with humour and soul-baring honesty. 

Why it matters: Farm life can be isolating, and the pandemic intensified the need for an understanding and non-judgmental support system amid farm and parent-related demands. 

Arlene Hunter and Caite Palmer, long-time farmers and first-time podcast hosts, have powered through many topics around parenting, farming, infertility, eating disorders, animal welfare and diversity in the agricultural sector since the inaugural episode launched on Aug. 16, 2021. 

“The words community and connection are what we’re always focusing on,” said Hunter. “We want this to be something people can relate to, and hopefully a community can be created.” 

Between them, Hunter and Palmer are raising six children ages five to 17, which provides a wide breadth of experience to draw on for the parenting aspect of the show. Hunter and her family farm full-time on an Ontario dairy, while Palmer and her husband run a beef and sheep operation in Iowa and have off-farm jobs. 

“That’s a good dynamic, too, because sometimes I forget other people are coming home at the end of a workday and doing another workday,” said Hunter. “I think the international thing works well for us, too, because we can all get narrowed in too far into our own industry. We’re always finding things out about each other’s countries that we didn’t realize were a thing.” 

Barnyard Language seeks guests who don’t necessarily reflect the stereotypical farmer or parent because, said Hunter, agriculture is more than what is represented in most media. 

“The diversity of the workforce (goes) beyond who owns the property, (it’s) also who works with us because they’re very much part of agriculture, too. They also have different versions of isolation.” 

The women tackle complex subjects like finances, livestock care, stress, sexuality, farm safety, and kids working on the farm, to name a few. 

A recent episode explored rural childcare options and the stigma attached to farm families who use that service when they can. 

“There’s this vision of the farm family where everyone stays home and the kids help or tag along,” said Hunter. “Sometimes that works and sometimes it really doesn’t. To be able to figure out childcare that works for people – there’s a lot of different factors to that.” 

Barnyard Language explores the many transitions of parenthood and agriculture and the expectations people carry into those events. 

Before the pandemic, Hunter’s children were in school, giving her time to invest in personal growth. Once the lockdowns hit, she had a full house and yearned to offset feelings of isolation and maintain a connection to people outside the farming community. 

“(In the early days of parenting) finding spaces and friendships at a time where you were barely keeping your head above water was definitely a challenge. The pandemic kind of brought a lot of those feelings back around that I thought I had dealt with or left behind, maybe.” 

Hunter was hesitant when Palmer approached her about launching a parenting podcast with an agricultural lens. Now she is grateful she took a chance. 

She said the podcast expanded her sense of self outside of being a parent and farmer while providing other parents, farmers and non-farmers with an online community to share experiences and cultivate an agriculture knowledge base. 

“Every single person we’ve talked to, I felt a connection with and felt like we were able to have a common language and learn from each other,” she said. 

“It’s just been mind-blowing to think each of these conversations has added something to my life, and I hope when people are listening, they’re getting something out of it too.”

The post Podcast takes on parenting through agricultural lens appeared first on Farmtario.

On March 31, the Lindsay Agricultural Society hosted its annual Kawartha Lakes Spotlight on Agriculture award night and Thursthill Farms was handed the 2023 Farm Family Award.

Why it matters: The Spotlight on Agriculture event is an annual celebration to recognize agricultural excellence and achievements across the Kawartha Lakes region.

The program described the Thurstons as “a multi-generational family with deep roots in our community (that has) made outstanding contributions to agriculture and the community.”

“It was a great surprise for us,” Jeff Thurston told Farmtario, noting the award is based on nominations from the community and deliberations of a three-member panel.

“We don’t know who nominated us, but we were thankful and humbled to be nominated and that (the Lindsay Agricultural Society) chose to recognize our family with this award.”

Recognition is nothing new for Thursthill Farms. It has repeatedly achieved top annual production numbers among Kawartha Lakes dairy producers, but Jeff said being honoured by neighbours and friends is especially rewarding.

Responding to the announcement with an off-the-cuff acceptance speech, Thurston told approximately 450 attendees that community is definitely important for the family. Also important is keeping up to date with developments in agriculture, such as reducing tillage in cropping operations and using data-gathering capabilities from two milking robots.

But of the criteria mentioned in the award program, Thurston said family is the most important.

The family was also recognized for farming in the county for 175 years. It has actually been 188 years since Jeff’s ancestors moved to the Lindsay area, and the family has been at its current location near Dunford for 110 years.

He has a brother, Jeremy, and a sister, Jessica, who aren’t farming now but always helped parents Keith and Sandy guide Thursthill Farms.

“We all grew up learning all those valuable life lessons. There would be some difficult times — like when you lose livestock — and you could see the stress and the toll it took on your parents, but they were still there for you and you helped each other get through it,” said Thurston.

Now, Jeff and his wife Nicole have four children — sons Kyle and Sam; daughters Grace and Taylor — and they’re the sixth generation of the family on the farm. Kyle, the oldest at 22, has been taking a greater role in the past couple of years.

From the home base of 100 acres, Thursthill encompasses approximately 1,200 acres. The dairy was a tie-stall operation when Thurston was a kid, then converted to free stalls and a milking parlour when he returned to the farm from post-secondary education. In 2015, two milking robots were installed and Thursthill now milks about 100 Holsteins.

Keith Thurston started the Pioneer dealership in 1973 and it’s still going strong, with Jeff managing the business and Keith in an active role.

“This time of the year, with seed deliveries and getting all the orders figured out, we’re starting to get busy making sure all those things are done before the big push of planting comes along,” Jeff explained.
While the family is the top priority, contributing to the wider community comes a close second.

The Thursthill name is synonymous in Kawartha Lakes with putting forth a positive message about agriculture. The farm has hosted visitors on numerous occasions as part of school tours or other outreach programs.

“The accomplishments and contributions of this family include 4-H leadership for both agricultural and homemaking clubs, interprovincial 4-H exchanges and hosting international students and other delegations on the farm,” said the Spotlight on Agriculture award program.

Family members have been involved with Soil and Crop Improvement, the county milk committee, Environmental Farm Plan Peer Review and the Kawartha Lakes Agricultural Development Advisory Committee.

Jeff serves the local minor hockey organization as a coach and at the Association level. Family members volunteer at their church and Sandy Thurston has spent a lifetime serving the Women’s Institute organization at various levels.

“There’s a little WI hall right across the road from us that we all help out taking care of,” said Jeff. “It’s just the way it is when you’re across the road. You clear the snow, you cut the grass. Whenever someone wants to use the hall for an event, they drop in to get the key.

“It’s all part of being in a community and living with your friends nearby.”

The post Thurston family honoured at Kawartha Lakes event appeared first on Farmtario.

“Stop procrastinating and avoiding conflict,” she says. “To create solutions, you have to talk about tough issues.”

Froese recommends three key topics for discussion that will create clarity within the family and move the planning process forward. What are the income streams? Where are people going to live? What does fairness look like?

Why it matters: Farm transition can be a difficult subject for many farm families but it needs attention.

She urges farmers to analyze their financial data to determine what they require for family living and then hire a fee-for-service financial planner to examine their income stream for the next three decades.

“I want there to be financial transparency between farm founders and the younger generation and between partners of the same generation,” she says.

Housing is a unique issue in farm families because someone’s home and the main yard for the farm business are often co-located. Froese advises families to discuss where people are going to live and when, and what the housing expectations are as the founders age.

She reminds young farmers that when the founding generation is being clear, they are being kind.

“If you talked to your father and he said he’s not moving off the home farm, that means your house is going to have to be somewhere else.”

If a new home will be needed, the discussion should include where the cash flow is going to come from and whether the farm business will be involved in funding the purchase.

Froese says it’s important to define what fairness looks like within the culture of a family business.

Fairness should mean helping everyone be successful, she advises.

It is likely not realistic for farm successors to buy the family’s farmland at today’s market value. While there are situations where founders want to give land to their non-farming children or the non-farming heirs are asking for land, keeping the farm intact may be best for the future of the business.

Froese explains that farm litigation is exploding, especially in the Prairies, because people are not talking about expectations.

“The crux is that your farm is not a piece of pie. Fair is not mathematical so you need to get clear on what it looks like to you.”

Transition starts with conversations, and making the first move is a positive planning behaviour, Froese advises.

“I see farming parents waiting to see the passion in their sons and daughters, and children who say they have no idea what their parents are thinking because nobody will make a move, but this is not chess.”

Expressing emotions in a healthy way, delaying responses to calmly collect thoughts and being adaptable are also positive behaviours.

“Agriculture needs a huge shift in its thinking,” Froese says. “We need to get back to understanding the culture, which is the invisible glue that keeps our farms and families together.”

She teaches farmers that there are three aspects of culture — what you believe, how you behave and how decisions are made.

Froese was a speaker at the 2023 Ontario Agricultural Conference in January.

The post Three ways to advance farm transition planning appeared first on Farmtario.

That was the message to attendees of the Beef Industry Conference from Alicia Rainwater of the Center for Generational Kinetics.

“Understanding generations gives us three things,” she said. “It helps us build trust, connection and influence with people who are older or younger than you. (Those three things) are key to generating the outcomes you’re looking for.”

Why it matters: Gen-Z and millennials have different approaches to employment, and prospective employers must realize that if they want to make successful hires.

“Young adults today are entering the workforce anywhere from one up to five years later in life compared to previous generations when they statistically started their first job,” Rainwater said. “No one’s talking about this but it has some interesting effects.”

For example, a newly hired 22-year-old might be in their first real job and need more skills training than someone from a previous generation needed at the same age.

“There’s some real training and onboarding to be had here,” she said. “We know the differences between generations can cause some tension, and we must overcome these differences.”

Parental influence can be reflected in a generation’s attitude toward money, whether it’s spending, debt or education expectations, said Rainwater.

The relationship, or lack thereof, to technology has a strong but often invisible impact on how generations communicate or relate, which can cause tension between generations.

“(Technology) is only new to you if you remember how it was before. Otherwise, it’s all you’ve ever known,” she said. “And we want to recognize that all of us are coming to the table with different experiences around technology.”

For example, 40 per cent of Gen Z uses YouTube as a job search tool.

“We found out the No. 1 highest conversion technique to get a Gen Z jobseeker into an applicant was to show them real videos, testimonials of people saying what it’s really like to work on the job,” Rainwater said. “It’s fascinating. Visual learners for sure.” 

The pandemic and the recession’s impact on parents shaped Gen Z’s choices and behaviour around money, education and workforce entry.

“Twelve per cent of this generation, which includes kids and teenagers, is already saving for retirement,” said Rainwater. “Many have emergency savings accounts or (financial) apps on their phone.”

In the next five years, Gen Z, those 8 to 27 years old, will be the fastest-growing generation of employees and consumers.

They are focused on entering the workforce with little or no post-secondary debt, the ability to save, and the freedom to take a job offering stability, benefits and flexible schedules instead of sacrificing those priorities to pay off debt.

Millennials, who range in age from 28 to 46, are the largest group in the workforce today. Most have children, a mortgage and a career, Rainwater said.

As a millennial, she admits that within her generation there’s a small, entitled percentage known as mellennials. However, millennials are most of the managers and leaders in the current workforce.

“(Millennials) are tech-dependent and that dependence has radically altered our communication profile, our preference for things like email and texting or video platforms.”

Workplaces would be wise to harness a millennial’s technological dependency as a strength to solve issues rather than dismiss it as a shortcoming, she said. 

As non-linear learners, Gen Z and millennials were taught to skip steps, which can create tension in a process-driven workplace.

“They’re outcome-oriented thinkers and very visual learners and thinkers, so we know you need all those important steps you can’t skip over or toss out.”

Rainwater suggests working backward by showing the end goal.

“Show us what step five is first, and then walk your way back through the other steps, and we will follow you every step of the way,” she said. “We’re simply understanding we need to show them the direction we’re heading, what’s the end goal.”

Engaging and empowering these generations begins with giving them more responsibility and incorporating them into the workplace through stretch projects. 

A stretch project has three components, said Rainwater. It offers support, is realistic and challenges people. It must have a beginning, middle and end, and involve tasks that employees can accomplish with some support.

“They have to believe they can actually accomplish this project or this objective you’ve given them.”

Stretching abilities by challenging employees will create value at the project’s end. Quick and ongoing on-the-spot feedback is also essential. 

For many older generations, it runs against the “no news is good news” thought process, the idea that if the boss talks to you, it’s because you’ve done something wrong, she said. 

Parenting and education has taught the younger generations that something is wrong if someone in authority isn’t talking to them.

“We need to show people how they can improve, what’s working, what’s not working. It’s not just compliments,” explained Rainwater.

“It doesn’t always have to be in person. It could be a quick text message or email. But frequency is more important than the amount of feedback to these two generations.”

The post Bridge generation gaps to attract, retain labour: researcher appeared first on Farmtario.