Got organic milk?
Nova Scotia farmers will be certified by 2007


Herman Mentink with some of his Holstein cows, which he says have adapted well to organic dairy production.
(David Lindsay photos)

by David Lindsay
Roger Henry says certified organic milk is going to be produced and processed in Nova Scotia by the summer of 2007 ­ and he says it's high time.
Henry, of Breadalbane, Prince Edward Island, is the Maritime representative for OntarBio Organic Farmers' Cooperative Inc. The farmer-owned cooperative, based in Guelph, Ontario, retains 80 percent of the shares in a for-profit company called Organic Meadow.
Organic Meadow products ­ including cheese and yogurt as well as milk and cream ­ are processed under contract by conventional dairies in Ontario and Quebec. A portion of the company's production is shipped east, to be sold in Maritime supermarkets and health food stores. Shipping the product over such a long distance involves considerable expense as well as environmental consequences.
"Toronto could take it all," Henry says, noting that most customers in the city are shorted on their orders every week. But OntarBio has tried to develop markets wherever demand appears to be strong, and this has resulted in a wide distribution network.
"Halifax has become a very lucrative market," he says. "There's probably a million dollars of organic dairy products sold in Halifax each year. The university towns tend to be a good market for organic dairy."
Recognizing local production as one of the cornerstones of sustainable agriculture, OntarBio has made a commitment to helping the Maritime provinces become self-sufficient in organic dairy products.
"The first thing is to try and displace the fluid milk that is coming from Ontario," Henry says. "OntarBio is one option for producers to market their product. We are not trying to impose the Ontario system on the Maritimes. They might choose another model."
There are 45 certified organic dairy farms in Ontario and about 55 in Quebec, Henry says, but right now, there are none in the Atlantic region. However, in Nova Scotia there are at least two producers who will be ready for certification in time for the 2007 target.


Steven Harbers, a full-time employee on Herman Mentink's dairy farm, waits for the feed cart to fill with a total mixed ration (TMR) comprising silage from the bunker silos and corn grown organically on the farm, along with some purchased soybean meal and minerals.

OntarBio will accept any organic standard recognized by Agriculture Canada. Possible certifiers include MCOG (Maritime Certified Organic Growers), OCIA (The Organic Crop Improvement Association), and OCPP (Organic Crop Producers and Processors).
OntarBio has a memorandum of understanding with a dairy in Nova Scotia ­ Henry won't say which one ­ to process organic milk. It will be a segregated product marketed under the Organic Meadow brand. The labels could wear a sticker indicating the products are locally produced, but that's one of many details yet to be hammered out.
"We don't have a mass of farms that far along," Henry says. "Initially it probably won't be as efficient as it should be."
He says having a number of producers pooling their milk would be preferable not only for economy of scale, but for the sake of processing a consistent blended product, so consumers do not become accustomed to the unique taste of milk from one particular farm. Nonetheless, OntarBio is committed to getting the ball rolling in Nova Scotia.
"We'll start with one," says CEO Terry Ackerman. "You have to start with one to show the other producers that it can be done. We've had several offers from people to process it. From our experience, Maritimers are very entrepreneurial. We believe in local production, and we believe in local processing. We'd like to put as few petro-miles on our product as possible
As of this April, OntarBio is paying an 18 percent premium for organic milk. Though he is upfront about the technical challenges and the extra costs required for dairy farmers making the transition and ultimately being audited for organic certification, Henry says reduced inputs make it possible for the producer to pocket more than half of the premium.
A one-liter carton of Organic Meadow milk retails for just under $3 in the Maritimes, which is about double the price for conventional milk. The cost of trucking that milk from Ontario is probably more than 40 cents per liter, says Kelly, so the potential savings from local production in Nova Scotia are considerable.
"In theory, the price should come down a bit, but it's hard to say right now."
Henry points out that in the cooperative structure, extra revenue generated by OntarBio would make it possible to pay dividends to producers, though this has not happened yet.

PRODUCERS
Herman Mentink is not greatly concerned with dividends and premiums for organic production. On his dairy farm in Grand Pré, just outside Wolfville, N.S., he started the transition after learning about organic methods at a conference in New Brunswick back in 1988.
"I thought it was the right way of farming ­ looking after the soil," he says. "We're not here to get everything out of the land and leave nothing for the next generation."


Herman Mentink's dairy farm in Kings County, Nova Scotia, is rich dykeland overlooking the Minas Basin. It's well suited for pasture management and organic grain production, but organic certification may require buffers if chemical sprays are used on adjacent conventional farms.

Mentink, who milks 60 to 70 cows, is the great hope for OntarBio's expansion into Nova Scotia. He's still buying some conventional roasted soybeans to boost the protein in his rations, because he had a poor forage crop in 2005, but he's prepared to give up that option in order to obtain organic certification in 2007.
In nearly every other respect, he's been producing organically for years, without any external incentive. He has been selling his milk to Farmers Dairy, which means it disappears into bulk tanks along with everyone else's milk.
"It's about time something happened," he says. "The consumers have been asking for this. People have been asking me, 'Where can I buy your milk?'"
If everything goes according to plan, next year he'll be able to tell those consumers to look for the Organic Meadow brand in stores.
The other Nova Scotia dairy farm ready to achieve certification in 2007 belongs to Frazer and Angela Hunter. They milk 60 cows and raise sheep as well on their operation in Knoydart, at the northeastern tip of Pictou County. They started making the switch to organic milk production about five years ago.
"It's primarily market-driven," says Hunter. "Where's the growth in the market? It's in organics."
But the Hunters have not signed up with OntarBio yet. They're also considering the option of building an on-farm plant to produce certified organic cheese.
"We've got to add value to our products," Hunter says. "We've got to control our destiny."
Hunter happens to be president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture, but he says his transition to organics has no political or symbolic significance. Though he has decided to move toward less intensive production, he respects conventional farmers who are trying to improve their bottom line by moving in the opposite direction.
"Everybody's in the business to make money," he remarks. "In the long term, we think it's more sustainable. It's not a soapbox. It seems right to us."

DEMAND
In making his case for local production, Roger Henry points out that organic dairy products from Denmark are already for sale in Prince Edward Island. The point is, consumer demand will be filled one way or another. OntarBio has taken steps toward filling demand on the Island in cooperation with Purity Dairy Ltd., in Charlottetown.
Tom Cullen, president of Purity Dairy, says there's no signed agreement, but over the past couple years he has been working with OntarBio to investigate the possibilities.
"Our interest is serious," he says. "One of the interesting things about organic milk processing is, because it is a small volume of milk, it lends itself to a small dairy. I think we would need something like 7,000 liters twice a week to make it work."
Cullen says few changes would be required. The main thing would be to schedule the organic milk as the first run of the day.
"We feel it could be additional throughput, and we could make some money at it. As well, it's a need that's not being filled. I think it's sad that consumers on the Island can buy organic milk, but it comes from Ontario or Quebec."


Having started out with a confinement system, Herman Mentink has put a lot of effort into rotational grazing, which is a central principle of organic dairy production.

"Right now we are cooperating with Organic Meadow. Our first interest would be to custom pack milk for them. One of the toughest parts is the marketing side, and they already have an impressive track record on that."
On the farm side, however, Prince Edward Island has a way to go. The dairy producer most closely aligned with the organic movement is Steve MacKinnon, in New Argyle, but he doesn't want to make the leap until he sees what kind of system is in place.
MacKinnon milks about 30 cows. He stopped using antibiotics and chemical fertilizer 15 years ago, but he still does selective herbicide applications on some fields to get good grain crops. He figures his farm is two-thirds certifiable.
"There has to be a little more incentive," he says. "The farmers are the ones who are taking all the risk. The consumers aren't taking any risk. There's a market there, so the stores aren't risking anything.
"When you're dealing with milk cows, it's not like putting on a different colored shoe. It's not something you can just change tomorrow. If farmers are already debt-ridden, I'd be really cautious about doing anything that would reduce their production."
The last time he did the math, MacKinnon figured the hypothetical organic market would give him an extra 10 cents per liter. Maybe the new premium would be a bit better than that, he says, but it's still modest compared to the 100 percent premium at retail.
"Where's the rest of it going? I think never before was it as important for people to have complete transparency in the food system."
Despite his cautious attitude, MacKinnon remains hopeful a viable organic milk processor will one day operate on the Island. "It would be nice if we could produce it here," he says. "It would be a great move for everyone."
New Brunswick dairy farmer Frank Jopp takes a similar stance on organic production. "I got interested in 1989," he says. "I started buying a few books and reading about it. I liked the approach. I liked the idea of having a closed system. I'm trying to get as close as I can."
Two years ago Jopp bought more land to expand his Sussex-area farm, with the goal of growing his own grain. He also built a granary. He has not expanded his milking herd of about 70 cows, but he has more control over his inputs.
"I'm setting the infrastructure up," he says.
Jopp already has some of his grain acreage certified organic. He continues to experiment with growing high-protein feed. There were lodging problems with last year's mixed crop of peas and oats ­ that is, the ripe peas were too heavy and pulled down the grain stalks, which made harvesting difficult. The previous year, peas mixed with barley worked relatively well.
"I think the long-term solution is high-quality forages," says Jopp.
If there were a New Brunswick processor buying organic milk, he would like to pursue certification. "The question would be, what would the premium be."
Jopp says he would need a considerable financial incentive, because during the transition period the change in the composition of his milk would result in reduced revenue.
"If I start pasturing, my butterfat will go down, and I pay quite a penalty," he says, noting that the dairy board in New Brunswick is more rigid than other provinces in its requirement for consistent milk quality.
"As long as that's not changing, that's my biggest challenge," he says.
New Brunswick is no closer than Prince Edward Island to having local production, but there is growing interest in the province's organic milk market.


Though he is mostly satisfied with his Holstein cows, Herman Mentink has recently experimented with some crossbreds, such as this Brown Swiss calf.

Saputo Foods Ltd., which now owns the former Baxter Foods dairy in Saint John, has plans to import organic dairy products produced and processed in Quebec. And Northumberland Dairy Ltd. in Miramichi is working on its own initiative to import organic milk.
Meanwhile, this winter the New Brunswick Farm Products Marketing Commission ordered retailers in the province to stop selling Organic Meadow products by the end of March, because the company did not have a milk dealer's license.
Bob Goggin, the Commission's general manager, says that kind of action generally occurs only when there is a complaint from the dairy industry. In this case, products from the unlicensed company had been sold in New Brunswick for some time, but no one saw Organic Meadow as a threat.
"We brought it to the attention of processors several years ago, and they said it was miniscule," Goggin says.
More recently the Commission drew attention to the fact that larger companies from outside the province were looking to enter the New Brunswick market, and the industry agreed that the licensing requirement for milk dealers should be enforced across the board. Goggin says with Saputo and Northumberland getting into organics, New Brunswick consumers will not have to do without these specialty products.
Western Creamery, the Ontario dairy that has been distributing Organic Meadow in New Brunswick, has applied for a license so that it can continue to do so. The Commission was to hold a public hearing on this application on April 5.
"It has to do with whether it's going to be in the best interests of the dairy industry as a whole, and that includes consumers," says Laura Poffenroth, regulations analyst with the Commission. "They look at everything."
Angelo Eleusiniotis, director of sales and distribution with Western Creamery, says he expects Organic Meadow will be shut out of New Brunswick after building customer loyalty in the province for eight years.
"They've made it next to impossible," he says. "It's very disappointing. We came in and established the business and established the brand. Because there's a regional player, they get preferential treatment."
"It's unfortunate. The interest was, and always has been, looking to get farmers involved in organic production."
"If we're in a free enterprise system, why can't both products be there? Competition is not a bad thing."
Terry Ackerman, the OntarBio CEO, says in addition to free market principles, New Brunswick should consider whether it is in the best interests of consumers to be reliant on organic milk from Quebec ­ a supply he describes as highly variable.
"We are one of the largest users of Quebec milk. We have a standing order for it. We can't get it."

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