THUNDER BAY — Dairy processing plants, including facilities in the Thunder Bay area, are eligible to milk up to $200,000 in provincial funds to make their operations more efficient.
“Efficiencies realized through new technologies will play a key role in helping the sector continue to thrive,” Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Lisa Thompson said last week.
Milk produced at Thunder Bay-area farms is either trucked to the Lactalis dairy on the city’s Waterloo Street or sent to dairies outside the city.
Thompson, who is from southwestern Ontario, announced $8 million in total under the Conservative government’s Dairy Processing Modernization Initiative “to increase production efficiency and ensure food safety in (dairy) facilities.”
Funds “can be used to help cover the purchase and installation of new or refurbished equipment and associated costs, such as training,” a news release said.
The fund is open to cow, goat, sheep and water buffalo milk processors.
A worker at Neebing’s independent Slate River Dairy said the operation was aware of the announcement, but the owners weren’t immediately available for comment on Tuesday.
Slate River, which bottles its own milk, maintains 45 cows that produce 1,000 litres of milk per day, according to the dairy’s website.
In Ontario, there are about 170 cow and goat dairy processors licensed by the province.
The Chronicle Journal / Local Journalism Initiative
