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Cattlemen Re-elect Proven Leaders at 2006 Annual
General Meeting: “Strength in Numbers”
February 25 (Toronto) -
The OCA Board of Directors re-elected Ian McKillop,
Director from Elgin county as 2006 President of the Ontario Cattlemen’s
Association (OCA), last week. The OCA Board of Directors, representing
50 County and District Cattlemen’s Associations across Ontario, also
elected Gord Hardy as Vice-President, for a second term. McKillop and
his family operate a cow/calf to finishing farm near Dutton, while Hardy
operates a feedlot near Lucan. The elections took place at the Annual
General Meeting of the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association which ended
Thursday, in Toronto.
Speakers at the meeting, themed “Strength in Numbers”
included Ms. Jessica LeCroy, U.S. Consul General, and Ontario Minister
of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, The Honourable Leona Dombrowsky.
A special panel discussion entitled “Managing for Profitability” took
place on February 23 – that included Dr. Vern Pierce of the University
of Missouri-Columbia, Paul Knudsen, a livestock producer from Minnesota,
and OCA Directors Dale Pallister and Jim Martin. As the industry emerges
from the BSE crisis, many speakers mentioned new opportunities that are
available to the industry.
“With the mid-December opening of the Japanese border
Japan will require age-verified beef from cattle less than 20 months of
age,” said McKillop. “With our national ID system in place, we have a
terrific opportunity to get ahead of our export competition because of
our ability to age-verify cattle. It is critical that we do this ASAP.”
Following the 2003 restructuring of the organization,
OCA’s Board of Directors consists of 12 elected officials – three from
the cow/calf sector, three from the feedlot sector, one from the
backgrounder sector; three representing geographic regions of Ontario
and two elected on an At-Large basis. Directors are elected for
three-year terms on a rotating basis. Each year, voting delegates to the
AGM elect three members to the Board.
This year’s re-elections to the Board included Jim
Martin (Manitoulin), representing producers from the North; Doug Kaufman
(Oxford), Curtis Royal (Simcoe) and Dale Pallister (Grey), represent the
feedlot sector. John Gillespie of Waterloo Region was re-elected as
Director-at-Large. Cow/calf director, Ron Wooddisse stepped down this
year and Dan Darling of Northumberland County was elected to the Board
for 2006.
Continuing to serve out their terms are cow/calf
Directors Ian McKillop of Elgin County and Kim Sytsma of Leeds County.
Gord Hardy of Middlesex County serves as Director from the South and Jim
Martin of Manitoulin Island as Director from the North. John Newman of
the Ottawa District remains as Director from the East and Dianne Booker
of Haldimand Region is Director representing backgrounder producers.
Rounding out the Board of Directors is Director-at-Large Roger Griffiths
of the District of Kenora.
The Ontario Cattlemen’s Association represents the
interests of 21,000 Ontario beef producers. After March 6, the complete
2005 OCA annual report can be viewed on the association’s website at
www.cattle.guelph.on.ca
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For further information:
Ian McKillop, OCA President, (519) 762-6484
Dave Stewart, OCA Executive Director, (519) 824-0334
Lianne Appleby, OCA Communications Manager (519) 824-0334
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