The governments of Canada and Ontario are helping farmers and other businesses in the province’s broiler chicken egg and hatcheries sector enhance traceability of its products.
With cost-share funding of up to $141,450 through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (the Partnership), the Ontario Broiler Hatching Egg and Chick Commission (OBHECC) will upgrade its systems that track egg and chick production. This upgrade will reduce costs by further automating data inputting processes and allow other systems, such as on-farm sensors, to seamlessly connect and upload new data.
Since June 2018, both the federal and provincial governments have committed cost-share support to approximately 2,500 projects through the Partnership to help eligible Ontario farmers, processors, businesses and sector organizations innovate and grow.
Quick facts
- The Partnership is a five-year, $3-billion commitment by Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial governments that supports Canada’s agri-food and agri-products sectors.
- In Ontario, cost-share programming to agriculture and value chain organizations is provided through the Place to Grow: Agri-food Innovation Initiative. The next application intake will be from January 6 to January 27, 2020. Program details including the program guide are available online.
- The Ontario Broiler Hatching Egg and Chick Commission is a membership group comprising Ontario Broiler Chicken Hatching Egg Producers Association members and Ontario Hatcheries Association members.
- Ontario’s broiler hatching egg farming sector generated $15.4 million in farm cash receipts or about 26 per cent of Canada’s total in 2018 (Statistics Canada).
- According to Ontario government estimates, approximately 40 direct jobs and $3 million in direct GDP can be attributed to Ontario’s broiler hatching egg farming sector in 2018.
- The governments have supported around 2,500 projects through the Partnership, including an initiative by the Chicken Farmers of Ontario, working alongside the Ontario Broiler Hatching Egg and Chicken Commission and the Association of Ontario Chicken Processors. The project will build and strengthen the capacity for the province’s chicken industry to effectively and humanely manage chickens during emergency situations such as disease outbreak or barn damage from fire or extreme weather.
From: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
