The Rural Voice, 1996-01, Page 31i
While agriculture in Canada
since World War II has often
meant dealing with the
problem of declining
numbers, John Maaskant has spent
the last few years dealing with the
problems of a rapidly expanding
industry.
Maaskant has been chairman of
the Ontario Chicken Producers'
Marketing Board during a time when
Ontario producers went head to head
with producers elsewhere in the
country to open up the supply of
chicken. Ontario's win has brought
dozens of new producers into the
industry as farmers geared up to
supply greater numbers of broilers to
meet processors' demands.
Maaskant is optimistic about the
future of chicken production in
Ontario. It's a dynamic industry, he
says. Consumption is growing. The
number of products arc growing.
There are changes in breeding,
processing and further -processing.
The current optimism seems to
reward the faith the Maaskant family
has had in the Chicken business.
John's father Cornelius got into
chickens in 1956 and was one of the
organizers of the marketing board.
He sat as a director on the marketing
board until he died in a car accident
in 1965. He left his wife, and his
young sons John and Hugo to
continue the farm. John was just 16
at the time. He still managed to
graduate from Guelph in 1969 and
Hugo graduated in 1972.
Today John and Hugo are partners
in an incorporated farm near
Holmcsville, between Godcrich and
Clinton. They grow about 85,000
birds at any one time, filling the
barns on their two farms every nine
weeks. They also crop 350 workable
acres.
The family history in the business,
the knowledge of the reasons the
marketing board was started in the
first place, is very valuable,
Maaskant says. "Not everyone in the
business now remembers where we
came from. History is valuable to
understand because there are issues
then that could come back.
Sometimes we take short-sighted
views of things but we have to
remember some major principles."
Generally there is a good
Dealing with growth
For John Maaskant, chair of the Ontario Chicken
Producers' Marketing Board, dealing with a
dynamic, growing industry is a challenge
Story and photo by Keith Roulston
awareness of the history of the
industry and the issues involved at
the level of the board of directors, he
says. They are very aware of the
value of co-operative action and the
value of the legislation marketing
boards work under. "It's extremely
important that we realize the value of
the opportunity that farmers have in
Canada to represent their sectors
because world-wide, it's a rare thing
for farmers to have as good an
opportunity to represent themselves
as we do in Canada."
The commitment to board work is
a commitment by the entire
Maaskant family. With John off at
board meetings and other producer
business for 175 to 200 days a year,
it's up to Hugo and the rest of the
family to pick up the slack. Some
days, John says, this works better
For John Maaskant, a busy schedule
on behalf of producers makes it hard
to get work done on his own farm.
than others. There arc times when
getting away on board business
conflicts with the needs of the farm
but usually they manage to make it
work.
aaskant's three-year term has
seen him involved in a
number of interesting issues.
1.LEarly on there was the work
to change the penalty system. Next
came the allocation debate (perhaps
battle would be more apt) at the
Canadian Chicken Marketing
Agency.
"We knew for a long time that the
national allocation system wasn't
working properly," he recalls.
Demand for chicken was growing
briskly but mostly in Ontario. The
JANUARY 1996 27