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2010 Annual General Meeting Results in
Two New Leaders and Two New Faces
March
2, 2010 (Guelph) – Over 500 beef farmers and industry
representatives from across Ontario congregated in
Toronto last week for the Ontario Cattlemen’s
Association (OCA) Annual General Meeting, themed
“Progress Starts with Partnership”. Guest speakers
at the meeting included: Peter Chapman of GPS Business
Solutions, [Connecting with Consumers] and Al Mussel of
the George Morris Centre [Cost of Production]. Other
presentations included a report from the Canadian
Cattlemen’s Association, an update from the Ontario Farm
Animal Council and a report on environmental issues.
Again
this year, the AGM included a special panel discussion:
“The Power of Partnerhsips”. Panelists included:
Lambton County producers, Murray Shaw and Ralph Eyre;
Steve Loshaw of the Rainy River Regional Abattoir; and
Barb Smith of the Foodland Ontario program. The focus
this year was on how various sectors of the value chain
leverage partnerships in order to stay profitable.
Elected
as President of OCA for 2010 is Curtis Royal of Simcoe
County. Royal operates a feedlot near Creemore,
ON. Royal has, for the past two years, served as OCA
Vice-President and is well-used to speaking on behalf of
producers.
“There
is a tough job ahead of the beef industry in this
province, because there are many factors affecting our
profitability” says Royal. “The sooner we figure out
that working together is the only way forward, the
better. Government wants to hear solid, well-thought
out requests coming to them through OCA and we intend to
do that, so that progress is not jeopardized. I thank
Ontario’s producers for putting their faith in me over
the next 12 months and also thank Gord Hardy for his
service over the past two years.”
Another
new leader, Dan Darling, was elected as the 2010 OCA
Vice-President. Dan and his family live and farm in
Castleton, in Northumberland County. Darling has served
on a number of OCA Committees and he also brings a
wealth of lobbying knowledge to the position.
Re-elected to the Board was Paul Sharpe of Wellington
County, representing feedlot producers. Also re-elected
was Bob Gordanier, of Dufferin County this time
representing the cow/calf sector rather than serving
“At-Large” as he did with his first term. He replaces
Kim Sytsma who had completed the maximum three
consecutive terms. Tom Wilson of Corunna in Lambton
County was elected as Director from the South, replacing
Gord Hardy who stepped down this year. John Lunn of
Peterborough County was elected as Director-at-Large.
John farms in Norwood, ON.
Continuing to serve out their terms are cow/calf
producers Rick Hobbs from the Ottawa District and Dan
Darling of Northumberland County. As well, Feedlot
Directors Curtis Royal of Simcoe and Doug Kaufman of
Oxford continue to sit on the Board. Matt Bowman of
Temiskaming continues to serve as Director from the
North and Gerald Rollins continues as Director from the
East. Finally, rounding out the 2010 OCA Board are
Director-at-Large, John Gillespie of Waterloo County and
Bill Herron of Grey County, representing the
Backgrounder sector.
The Ontario Cattlemen’s Association represents the
interests of 19,000 Ontario beef producers. Following a
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.
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For
Further Information:
Lianne Appleby, OCA Communications Manager: 519-
824-0334
Dave Stewart, OCA Executive Director: 519-824-0334 |
