Fellow Farmers,

I will try to give you periodic updates after major events, or when warranted.

DFNB had their requested policy session this week in Fredericton. We had approximately 40 delegates who attended the two-day meeting March 17 & 18th.

A lot of positive feedback was received regarding the whole atmosphere of the meeting. It was described as less formal than our AGM and delegates felt more relaxed.

A big thank you goes out to Fundy Agricultural Services and Grant’s Feed Mill/Custom work for hosting a hospitality suite at room 717.

Hanna Conroy and Mike Bouma were introduced as this year's DFNB leader participants.

Lots of discussion took place over a variety of topics. We had several presentations informing the delegates of the latest market info and other relevant information.

We also included a thought-provoking questionnaire of some topics that the board is not currently looking at but might potentially come down the pipeline.

Some of the topics discussed, however, were topics that initiated this policy session in the first place.

Delegates had the questionnaire emailed to them so they could vote during the evening of the first day, at their convenience without outside pressures.

There were a few small IT hiccups that happened with the questionnaire. Some delegates were not able to receive the email with the survey information. Once we were made aware of these IT issues, we set up a secure computer so that those who hadn’t yet completed the questionnaire could do so over breakfast on the morning of the second day. Despite these issues, I believe this way of voting was well received.

In a short board meeting following the policy session the board review the feedback received from producers and took the following actions:

Quota Exchange: The April 2022 quota exchange, and subsequent exchanges, will be done with full Iteration.

Credit Exchange: After Aug 2022:  When you want to sell credits, you need to be below zero days, if you want to buy credits, you need to be above zero days and you cannot buy or sell yourself lower than zero. The max of 8 days trading (25%) will not change. There will be no black out days.

Sleeve Modification: DFNB will do it's very best to ensure that all producers are aware of the change of the sleeve from -30 to minus 15 day by Aug 1, 2022. You have 4 CE left to sell your credits if you're lower than  -15 days. If you are lower than minus 15 days on July 31, 2022, your days will reset to -15 on Aug 1, 2022. Those lower days will be gone.

DFNB will not entertain any producer requests asking for an exemption when it comes to selling more credits, more than the maximum eight days, or extending the timeline past Aug 1, 2022.

Mileage Compensation: A motion was made and carried, to adopt the annual CRA mileage recommendation starting April 1, 2022. For this year, this will mean an increase based on that recommendation from $0.45, to $0.58/km.

Promotion: DFNB approved its NB Promotion budget for calendar year 2022, as part of this budget DFNB will be sending each local milk committee the sum of $10,000. Locals can use these funds to support events in their community that they believe will increase the recognition of the dairy industry as well as the consumption of Canadian dairy products.

Spring Area meetings:  Virtual. Hope we can meet as a group in our respective areas, have a nice lunch and lots of conversation.

Fall area meetings: We will do in person, with DFNB staff and some DFNB exec present, just like we used to do it years past.

As of right now, our AGM will be the same format as years past, but it's subject to change.

One more thing that was brought up at the post DFNB board meeting: Some producers have difficulty accessing the secure DFNB portal, and/or having difficulty reading their milk statement, and might not be sure where they are in their credit day situation.

You need the portal to partake in the CE or look at your milk statement.

Again, staff at DFNB office is there to help you. Phone: 506-432-4330. It's all very confidential. Luke, Delaney, Ashley, any of them can answer your questions, or will find the answers for you.

Sincerely, 

Wietze Dykstra

Chairman, Dairy Farmers of New Brunswick 

Mobile: 506-325-8192

Email: wietze.dykstra@nbmilk.org