Last year was a “veally” busy year for the Ontario Veal Association (OVA) Board of Directors and staff. OVA appreciates the opportunity to collaborate with OCA on a number of important issues on behalf of the Ontario cattle industry. This report provides a snapshot of some of our 2009 highlights.

“Vealing” Great with Ontario Veal

OVA launched and very successful consumer education campaign targeted at specific segments of Ontario’s population. Combined with funding from OAFE’s “Healthy Eating” program as well as funding from veal’s share of the Toronto Stockyards Land Development Fund, OVA promoted the nutritional benefits of eating Ontario Veal. The campaign was targeted to our ageing population of boomers and zoomers. As well, OVA targeted fitness professionals, dieticians, nutritional counsellors and consumer pursuing a healthy lifestyle with the messages about veal’s superior nutritional properties. The program included participation at the CanFitPro conference as well as advertising and public relations activities.

OVA Partners to Form Canadian Veal Association

OVA, along with our Quebec counterparts, have come together to create the Canadian Veal Association (CVA). The mandate of the CVA will be to work on veal issues of national importance and to ensure that the veal sector has the opportunity to advocate for its industry with government and industry partners. The Ontario and Quebec veal sectors, combined, account for over 95% of Canada’s veal production.

Regulations Changed to Ensure Compliance of Veal Carcass Weights

In October, amendments to provincial regulations came into effect that effectively ensured that the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) staff would have the necessary legislative tools required to enforce the maximum veal carcass weight of 180kg, hide-off. For the past few years, OVA has worked very hard to lobby OMAFRA for these changes so that “overweight” carcasses could no longer be labelled nor sold as veal. This issue had long plagued the Ontario veal industry as many of the “overweight” carcasses were being slaughtered as beef but sold as veal. OVA is now working with OMAFRA to ensure that significant resources are dedicated to compliance and education efforts to target both provincially- and federally-inspected plants.

Pursuit of Marketing Board Status Update

This past year, OVA has finalized its proposal to the Farm Products Marketing Commission. With the help of Mr. Rob Wilson of Wilson & Spurr, LLB, OVA has developed some proposed draft regulations that would seek powers to licence all veal producers, collect a licence fee on the sale of all veal calves, establish an electronic auction for the sale of grain-fed calves, implement a grading program for veal carcasses and establish a price grid to be used in conjunction with the grading and electronic auction. This past year, based on the advice from Commission staff, OVA actively pursued the support of dairy farmers. With a targeted mailing to all licenced dairy farmers, OVA was able to obtain a substantial number of signatures for a required producer petition that will form part of the submission. 2010 Annual Report

OVA Partners with Rabbits and Goats

Thanks to funding from the Growing Capacity Initiatives program administered by the Agricultural Adaptation Council, OVA has partnered with the rabbit and goat sectors to hire additional staff and build on the organizational resources available to our collective members and producers. Together, the three groups hope to find efficiencies in operations that will ultimately save producers money and put more funds back into projects. OVA is lending its resources and expertise to assist the rabbit and goat organizations to transition into governance boards with financial self sustainability models.

For more detailed information on OVA’s accomplishments and activities or to receive a copy of our 2009 Annual Report, please contact OVA Executive Director, Jennifer Haley, at 519- 824-2942 or jhaley@ontarioveal.on.ca.