Sudbury beef farm finds success in co-op business model
For the Day family, the road to cattle farming started out with the simple idea of buying some land on which the family's horses could graze.
About a decade later, Julie Day and her husband Shawn have almost 200 acres and a herd of about 50 cattle on their Indigo Acres farm in Dowling, a community on the edge of Sudbury.
Both say a passion for raising animals ethically got them into the beef business.
But they discovered they needed some help.
Indigo Acres is now one of several farms between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie that make up a business collective called Penokean Hills Farms.
"None of us are big enough to be able to supply meat year-round to customers when they want, how they want it, Shawn Day said.
Farms involved with Penokean Hills work together to produce and market a steady supply of local meat for the Sudbury and Algoma regions.
The CBC's Megan Thomas went for a tour of the farm:
More co-ops to come
According to Peggy Bailey with Eat Local Sudbury, it's a model that's a good fit for northern agriculture.
"We carry Penokean Hills and we also carry another co-op which is Golden Beef," Bailey said. "I don't think we would be able to carry them if they weren't working cooperatively. They just wouldn't have the supply to meet our demand."
Other northern Ontario food cooperatives:
Agriculture co-operatives could also be good for the future of the industry, Bailey said.
With more than half of the farmers in Ontario being older than 55, she said co-op ventures could help young people get into the industry with smaller financial investments.
- Each week through the summer, CBC Radio's Morning North is profiling more families in the northeast who grow and produce the local food that makes it to local tables. Listen in Sudbury at 99.9FM.