The Rural Voice, 2001-01, Page 43a
Gay Lea declares
dividend again
More than 400 members and guests
attending the Zone 1 annual meeting
in Brussels, December 4 heard that
Gay Lea Foods Co-operative
Limited has declared a membership
dividend for the 24th straight year.
Though net earnings for the year
were down to $2,344,000 in 2000
from $3,402,000 in 1999, the co-op
will still pay a $788,500 membership
dividend and $477,500 patronage
dividend.
Membership equity in the company
also increased by 10.5 per cent this
year and some 125 people were
honoured for joining the 100 -share
club, adding $1.4 million to the
shareholder equity of the co-op. With
the increase in both equity and
retained earnings, the company now
has 58 per cent of its $75 million
assets in shareholder investment, said
Tom McGee, outgoing chairman of
the board of directors.
The company's sales increased to.
$232,286,000 for the year but higher
expenses for utilities and
transportation brought about by
increased energy costs, plus
absorption of some one-time costs
associated with a move to an
expanded warehouse in Weston,
reduced the profit level.
The shortage of butter fat increased
the amount of butter solids the
company had to purchase to maintain
Gay Lea's first place position in
butter sales and this cut margins. A
shortage of milk, due to a 1.6 per
cent decline in Ontario's milk
production, also hurt powdered milk
production at the company's Guelph
plant. Cottage cheese sales increased
from 10.8 to 11.3 million kilos and
the company's Nordica brand is far
and away the number one brand, said
Paul McGowan, vice-president of
production.
Sour cream saw a huge increase in
sales from 6.7 to 11.1 million litres.
Gay Lea has also recorded strong
sales as far away as California for its
non-dairy whipped topping, sold in
Canada and the U.S. under the brand
names of various retail chains.
News
The company plans on spending
$39 million in building a new milk -
drying plant in Guelph on the site of
the former Growmark feed mill next
to the current Gay Lea facility.
Company president Charles McDaid
said members would be asked to take
part in that investment, though he
couldn't say at this point how much
member investment would be sought
and in what form.
John Ellison of Listowel was re-
elected as a director of the co-op by
acclamation. Acclaimed as delegates
to the convention were Roger
Harrop, Don Moddison, Hugo
Rentsch and Morley Trask from
District 1; Eldon Bowman, Robert
Martin and Larry Pletsch from
District 2 and Margaret Hern, Fred
Meier Jr., Margaret Hern, and
Rowena Wallace from District 3.0
Farmers can meet
medicated feed
regulations
Will farmers be able to continue to
farm -mix medicated feed under
controversial new Medicated Feed
Regulations? Yes, says Martin
Clunies of Grand Valley Fortifiers.
Clunies told pork producers at a
conference in Shakespeare,
November 29, that it will require
some additional paperwork and
putting policies in place, but farm
mills can meet the regulations by the
deadline, April 2003 to 2004,
depending on the kind of medication
farmers use.
"You'll have to say what you do
and document it, and do what you
say and prove it," Clunies said.
Farm feed manufacturers will have
to have written procedures related to
how they manufacture medicated
feeds, Clunies explained. The idea is
that if the person who regularly
makes the feed isn't available for
some reason, someone else can step
in and have precise instructions of
how to do the job.
Farmers will have to keep records
to verify that these procedures have
been adhered to. They'll have to keep
records of daily feed production.
Regulators will "hone in" on exactly
how you handle medication in the
feed, he said.
Farmers will also need corrective
action plans: if you put the wrong
medication in a feed, what do you do
to deal with it. "You have to set in
place some sort of instructions," he
said.
As well as the paperwork, the key
to proper proportions of medication
in the feed will be the accuracy of
measuring equipment, Clunies said.
All scales should be calibrated at the
time of installation and at least once
annually or as frequently as
necessary to ensure proper
functioning. New scales must be
within one per cent accuracy while
older scales will be allowed two per
cent variation. For each scale there
must be a written set of procedures
for validation and checking for
accuracy.
For metering devices and
volumetric proportional mills,
calibration should be done as often as
needed to ensure the mill is
consistently producing feeds
accurately.
The mixing process is a critical
point in the manufacture of
medicated feeds because poor mixing
uniformity will result in variability of
the drug in the final feed, Clunies
explained. Mixer validations should
include a mixer evaluation test to
determine the variability of the final
feed produced. Mixers should be
validated when installed and at least
once annually as well as after any
major change such as changing a
mixer paddle or an auger in a
proportion mill.
All medicated feeds made by a
licensed manufacturer must be
produced in a predetermined
sequential order to reduce the risk of
drug cross -contamination, Clunies
advised. Small quantities of feed
from a previous batch of medicated
feed can, if left in the mill,
contaminate non -medicated feed
intended for market pigs.
Sulfamethazine from pig starter diets
can contaminate hog finisher rations
and can result in the condemnation of
hog carcasses for sulfa residues.
Because of those dangers, Clunies
advised adopting the following
schedule:
JANUARY 2001 39