Ontario's veal industry to examine how it shares information

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

Ontario’s veal industry is looking into how it can improve the flow of information between the various players in the supply chain.

On Monday, the organization announced that it had secured $140,000 in provincial and federal funding to study how those in the industry share information, what’s missing and what could be done.

“Making sure that we get everyone’s input,” will be the biggest challenge says Jennifer Bullock, Ontario Livestock Alliance’s project manager. Ontario Veal is a member of the alliance. Ontario Rabbit and Ontario Goat are its other members. “It’s definitely a critical factor for this project,” she says, explaining the solution will have to work for everyone involved.

December 2012 is the completion target for the study. Bullock says the organization is deciding whether to use in-house resources or someone else to do the study. It’s expected to get underway shortly.

“We’re going to be working with a few different farms; we’re definitely holding some focus groups to work with our supply chain folks - the veal industry obviously, probably some dairy farmers, kind of thing,” she says.

Ontario Veal’s news release announcing the study notes that insight into current industry practice will enable the provincial industry “to develop, implement and utilize traceability systems more effectively.” Industry stakeholders can expect to make better business decisions and gain efficiencies from making improvements in tracking and tracing animals, the release says, “as seen in the UK, the Netherlands and other jurisdictions.”

The results of the study will be shared at the organization’s annual meeting in 2013, Bullock says. BF