New funds to help relieve deadstock backlog

Ontario has announced funding to address a deadstock handling backlog across the province. 
The $700,000 Increasing Deadstock Capacity Initiative is a 50 per cent cost-sharing program where successful applicants can receive up to $25,000 per business to increase capacity.
“The overall intent is to have multiple locations with increased deadstock capacity,” said Dan Carlow, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) regional manager for the west region.
The first-come, first-served program opened Nov. 18 and will close Dec. 18 or sooner if all money is allocated. Approved projects must be completed by Sept. 30, 2022, and all claim paperwork submitted by Oct. 30, 2022.

Why it matters: Insufficient capacity to remove and handle deadstock is an environmental hazard that farmers and the province want to address.

OMAFRA has been working with livestock organizations to address concerns in underserviced areas to deal with the backlog. 
“We hope municipalities will come forward with a centralized composting plan as well,” said Carlow. “That will help not only one farm but a bunch of livestock farms all in that municipality.”
Rob Lipsett, Beef Farmers of Ontario president, said he’s pleased to see quick action by government to earmark funding while working towards long-term solutions. 
The BFO hosted a virtual town hall information session Oct. 21 where Carlow presented several on-farm deadstock mitigation options. 
Lipsett anticipates the funding will prompt producers to consider investing in on-farm deadstock mitigation to avoid the cost and inconvenience of calling a deadstock collector or storing the animal for days until it’s picked up.
The initiative is open to livestock producers, waste management facilities including privately owned and municipal landfills, municipalities, and agri-businesses, including livestock auction barns, assembly yards, deadstock transporters, collectors, renderers and veterinary clinics.

Eligible expenses qualify under two streams:

1. Assessment and planning with operation plans provided by a third party.
   “The cost (of a deadstock management plan) would be an eligible expense under this program, assuming that plan meets all of the regulations,” Carlow said. “For example, health and safety, the setbacks, if it’s composting it will help them outsource the substrate and probably give them a guide on the process. So that planning is an eligible expense.”

2. Establishing facilities to manage deadstock, which covers the purchase, modification or construction of a deadstock management system and associated runoff management equipment or systems. “If they had a concrete pad for that design and maybe even walls to go with that, that’s an eligible expense under this program,” Carlow said. Berms or runoff management would also qualify. “And we do expect a number of farmers to show interest in that area.”Every application reduces stress on the overall system even when dealing with smaller numbers, said Carlow.

If a livestock producer has three farms and builds a deadstock mitigation system on one farm, they can transport and compost animals from those farms under existing regulations. 

However, if a producer wants to create a centralized system to take animals from other farms, applications fall under a different regulation and would require a permit. Both are eligible under the funding scheme.

Individual on-farm mitigation is expected to have good uptake, but Lipsett doesn’t anticipate livestock producers will take advantage of the Reg. 105 commercial application.

“Given some of the livestock propensity to disease, there will be some concern about bringing deadstock onto an operational farm,” he said. “There will have to be some strategic placement of those larger on-farm commercialized businesses.”

Some areas of expansion would not qualify, including modifications related to increasing production or health and safety requirements, because it doesn’t increase capacity, said Carlow.

However, if a business such as a landfill or a rendering facility wanted to install a composting stream, that would be eligible.
The ministry will work with farm organizations to field questions and clarify application concerns, he said.
“The planning part is critical, and it’s something that sometimes producers struggle a wee bit with,” said Carlow. “This program is designed to help them, so I would strongly encourage people to look at the planning and assessment part of it.”
Additionally, OMAFRA will ask municipalities through the Rural Ontario Municipal Association to consider investing in a centralized deadstock mitigation plan or centralized storage to relieve pressure on underserviced areas, especially in northern and central Ontario.
“We’d like to see increased capacity come from those areas, and frankly, every location would assist, but those are the ones we’re hearing are having challenges at the moment,” Carlow said. “We’re hoping that some of those municipalities step forward with a centralized plan or even centralized storage.”
Lipsett said he would like to see municipalities work with livestock groups to develop centralized compost sites that would also utilize yard waste gathered within the community. “They could use that as a composting agent,” he said. “I’m sure they could figure out other ways and systems to add on to that. They could even make it an income-generating facility for the municipality.”
Lipsett said commodity group collaboration has brought much-needed attention to critical issues within the agricultural industry in the last two years.
“We’ve had great cooperation and effort out of all of the livestock commodity groups, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and OMAFRA,” he said. “And I think it would be wrong not to acknowledge that this affects all of agriculture, not just livestock producers.”
While the new program will help bridge the gap for underserviced deadstock areas, there is a need for systems that can use as much of the carcass as possible, Lipsett said.
“I know that it drives every farmer around the bend to see things go to waste, and so this program is going to provide some short-term relief.

“In the spirit of farming and betterment for the community, we’ll need to continue the conversation and build some more capacity to turn that deadstock into usable products for the consumer.”