EFO announces winners of 2013 entrant program

Nov. 14, 2013, Mississauga, ON – Congratulations to Luc and Marloes Mulder, of Chatsworth, Ontario and Kelly and Lisa Linton, of Lakeside, Ontario who were chosen as the recipients of the 2013 New Entrant Quota Loan Pool (NEQLP) program. The announcement was made at the Egg Farmers of Ontario’s (EFO’s) Annual Egg and Pullet Farmers’ Workshop at the Airport Marriott Hotel in Mississauga, Ontario on November 12th.

The Mulder’s currently farm about 200 acres in a cash crop operation and now plan to expand by building a layer barn with an enriched housing system. The Linton’s currently operate a 400 acre cash crop and hog operation with 500 sows and 1,000 finishing hogs. They plan to expand into egg production by building a new layer barn beginning in the spring of 2014.

The NEQLP is designed to encourage new farmers into the Ontario egg farming business. Each year, up to 10,000 units of quota will be loaned to the successful applicant(s). The quota will be loaned based on a 1:2 ratio (1 unit
purchased, 2 loaned). After 10 years, the loaned quota will be returned into EFO’s NEQLP in 10 annual installments (10% each) and will be loaned to future participants in the program at that time.

“We had an excellent field of 26 applicants,” said selection committee Chair Laurent Souligny. “It was a real challenge for the committee because of the high quality of all of the applications,” he said.

The selection committee was comprised of Laurent Souligny, past EFO Director and former Chair of Egg Farmers of Canada; Daryl Ball, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs; Craig Bremner, TD Canada Trust; Robert Loree, Ward & Uptigrove; and Shannon Kelly, former President of Junior Farmers’ Association of Ontario. The committee selected six applicants for face-to-face interviews with the committee before selecting the two successful candidates.

This is the third year of the NEQLP program, which will continue to be offered annually.

“We have two new egg farm families already in operation from the first two years of the program and we are very proud to expand the program in 2013 to now be able to choose two applicants annually,” said EFO Chair Scott Graham.

Egg Farmers of Ontario is an association that represents approximately 440 egg and pullet farm families. EFO works to ensure that consumers have access to safe, reliable and reasonably-priced eggs with fair farm pricing ensuring adequate returns to egg farmers.