The deVos family of Vosbrae Farms in Manilla received the Farm Family Award at the Kawartha Lakes Spotlight on Agriculture gala and awards event held last Friday (March 25) at the Lindsay Exhibition.
More than 450 guests gathered in the Commonwell Exhibition building for the third annual event, last held virtually in 2020 due to the pandemic, to celebrate food, farming, and agri-business in Kawartha Lakes.
Jack and Erkie deVos began farming north of Manilla in the mid-1950s with their family of six boys. with son John and his wife Fern (under the watchful eye of Jack) now leading the cash crop farm of 1,200 acres of corn, wheat, beans, and forages and 165 Holstein cows.
Vosbrae Farms is truly a family operation, with more than 10 family households within a two-kilometre radius of the farm and around 20 family members participating in the operation of the farm when needed.
The farm also includes a 30-cow beef herd and chickens, and recently expanded to open Vosbrae Dairy, an on-farm cow, goat, and sheep milk cheese processing plant.
Vosbrae Farms is well known in the community, hosting public events at the farm including the Twilight Meeting, forage days, barn open houses, and Kawartha Farmfest.
Simcoe Street Meat Packers, a provincially inspected abattoir located just north of Manilla, was also recognized at the Kawartha Lakes Spotlight on Agriculture gala and awards event with the Excellence in Agriculture Award.
Now led by Wahab Zamani, taking over from his father who purchased the operation in 2003, the business provides custom slaughter and processing of beef, veal, and lamb, and also purchases directly from around 20 local farmers to supply local products to independent butchers as well as their own two retail outlets in North York and Newmarket.
Simcoe Street Meat Packers is also a partner in the ownership of Farmers Butcher Shop in Lindsay with Matt Devries, which they opened to complete the full local supply loop within the community.
VIDEO: Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP Laurie Scott recognizes award winners
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to rise in the House and congratulate the Spotlight on Agriculture Award recipients and milestone recognition recipients from 2020 and 2022.
Posted by Laurie Scott on Thursday, March 31, 2022
The Batty family was honoured in the Milestone Recognition Program, which recognizes farming families that have surpassed the milestones of 150, 175, and 200 years of farming in the community.
They were recognized as being an Ontario farm family for 200 years and a county farm family for 150 years.
Allison Brown received the Agriculture Leadership Scholarship to support her participation in the Rural Ontario Institute’s Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program.
