22 Follow us on Twitter @BetterFarmingON Better Farming | November 2023 EMILY CROFT Emily lives on a beef farm, raising Red Angus and Simmental cattle. She holds a Master of Science in Animal Biosciences from University of Guelph, with a focus on ruminant nutrition. 22_0470_FM_PailGrid_HalfHoriz_US Mod: September 25, 2023 10:52 AM Print: 09/25/23 page 1 v2.5 ORDER BY 6 PM FOR SAME DAY SHIPPING 1-800-295-5510 uline.ca πLAWN AND GARDEN ESSENTIALS OFA Revive Fund says David Bolton, past-president of Middlesex Federation of Agriculture, about how the federation got involved in the project. “ ere were people from the Children’s Museum on the same committees as her, and she got wind that they wanted an agricultural section so she brought it to our board to see if we wanted to sponsor a section in the new museum.” is presented a good opportunity for collaboration between federations. “ ere are way more than just Middlesex residents that use the museum, so we went around to other federations in the area. We were overwhelmed with the response,” says Bolton. “We’ve put them in touch with other commodity groups too, including the dairy farmers and grain growers, so they’ve gone out and beyond what the federations have supplied.” e local federations have seen concept drawings and have had opportunities to discuss, but with COVID the project has been delayed by two years. e exhibit now targets an opening date of fall of 2024 or spring of 2025. “I think between the ve federations, we are in that range of $55,000 to $60,000 that we’ve put into the project,” says Bolton. “We wanted to make sure that the right message is sent to the children from our perspective, so that there wasn’t a lot of urban in uence that might be o side. We also wanted some input in the programs to make sure it wasn’t from a specialty or niche perspective, but rather depicted an overall image of the ag community.” Bolton says that Middlesex Federation of Agriculture has been happy with the designs for the exhibit so far. “ ey were pretty good and had our mission in mind when designing the exhibit.” Looking forward e projects created from the Revive Fund demonstrate how the fund has supported collaboration, education, and community among Ontario farmers, and has allowed them to share their passion with other area residents. OFA’s Spoelstra says that the fund has been renewed for 2024. “I think it will keep going as long as uptake is good in the program for county federations, and as long as we have the budget to keep it going,” says Spoelstra. “For us, it’s about getting members engaged and giving back to the membership. We have 38,000 members that support us and it’s important to the board and organization to give back. “We think this initiative is a pretty good way to do that and we anticipate continuing on with it.” BF
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