That from Dairy Farmers of Manitoba (DFM) Chair David Wiens, who took part in the group’s fall meetings which wrapped up last week.
Wiens notes the Manitoba dairy industry reached a new benchmark over the past year.
«We’re producing well over a million litres a day now and so where we were restricted before simply because we didn’t have a home for all the milk, we’ve now sent signals out to producers to produce more and we’re seeing that right across the province and this will continue into the future.»
He said one of the highlights from the past year was the opening of the Manitoba Dairy Ingredients plant in Winnipeg, which started to receive milk on October 5.
«We now are going to have a home for all the milk, all the time,» commented Wiens. «We’ve been moving milk west and east and that will all be pulled back into the province now for this plant.»
Another positive, according to Wiens, was the new Parmalat fluid plant that started processing earlier this spring.
He adds DFM has expanded its new entrant program to allow three new producers to come on board each year, compared to the previous single producer.
Currently, there are approximately 280 dairy producers in Manitoba.
