Haymaker, Haven't done any business with whiteface, but I sure would like to at some point. She has a very good looking bunch and seems to have a management system that jives with what I am aiming for.
nr, I don't know. I saw them all looking to the North for some reason, so I decided to swing around and grab a few shots.
TXTibbs, the Ontario Set-Aside program is an incentive program to keep Ontario producers from marketing last year's calves until additional packing capacity is available...to avoid a marketing backlog of fats. The program offered $200 a head on a maximum of 40% of your calf crop. It was a nationwide program offered with different conditions in each province. In Ontario, I believe we can't sell them until September 2005, and can't have them slaughtered until January 2006....but I can't quite remember.
We are in the midst of re-fencing an abandoned farm yard for pasture for them. In hindsight, we wish we hadn't went into the program, as it puts extra physical pressure on us to get pasture space for them and have enough hay to keep them through the winter. If the border opens before January 2006, the contract with the province gets torn up, and we can keep the money and sell them whenever we wish. If we have to keep them to January though, the $200 doesn't mean much by then....as I don't think it will have been worth the extra hassle.
