July 10, 1998
(Development and Rural Renewal)

Minister impressed with new goat farm co-operative on the Bonavista Peninsula

Minister of Development and Rural Renewal Beaton Tulk, was impressed by what he saw at a new goat co-operative on the Bonavista Peninsula this week. The nine operators have started eight goat farms and a dairy to create a new goat farming industry in Newfoundland. All but one are former fisheries workers.

"I fished for a couple of years then worked in the fish plant for about 20 years. Now that's gone," says Tom Stead. Today he is finishing construction of a new barn which has a dozen goats.

The Cabot Caprine Co-operative began three years ago with Stan Hussey of Bonavista who decided to turn his hobby goat farm into a business. At the time he was taking courses on goat husbandry from the University of Guelph under TAGS.

Bonavista area development agency Cabot Resources Inc. helped the group organize, raised $60,000 through the federal-provincial Strategic Regional Diversification Agreement, and sent farmers on fact finding missions to Vermont and New Hampshire.

The Newfoundland - Labrador Federation of Co-operatives assigned field-worker Jim Winter to work full time on the project. The Department of Development and Rural Renewal provided business advice, $200,000 in term loans and bridge finance. The Department of Forest Resources and Agrifoods provided $130,000 through its Safety Nets program.

The three-year project came to fruition this week when the co-operative received certification of registration from the provincial government at a reception in Bonavista.

Minister Tulk said that he was pleased with what he had seen because as many people had realized, Newfoundland is at a cross roads. "For years we have looked towards the sea for a living, now if we are to survive we must look at other options." What he liked about this project was that people, government and community development agencies were all working together, co-operatively, in the truest sense.

Because of the need for a number of farms to be created simultaneously to justify the building of a dairy, a co-operative approach was chosen. The farmers send their milk to the dairy which is then sold to the co-operative to be marketed.

There is an enormous market for goat meat and dairy products in the U.S. and Canada. Ontario, which consumes two million pounds of goat meat annually, imports 75 percent of its meat from South Africa, New Zealand and Texas. Goat dairy products are also low in fat and cholesterol and ideal for people allergic to cow's milk.

"I want to commend these eight people," said Minister Tulk. "They are saying, `I can do it, I can make this work here.' They have had the patience and have put in the hard work to create what is a new industry for Newfoundland and Labrador."

Contact: Scott Reid, Communications, (709) 729-4570.

1998 07 10                10:30 a.m.