Chantelle Leslie and Eric Leach are fighting against long odds to save their dairy farm.
They have lost their milk board licence after repeated high somatic cell counts and freezing point infractions.
Their case is now before the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal which will likely issue a decision before fall, although chairman Glenn Walker said the arguments presented by lawyers for the farmers and the Dairy Farmers of Ontario marketing board are complex and will take time to deliberate.
Lawyer Andrew Paterson pleaded for another chance to establish that they can meet quality standards.
They are both children of dairy-farming families and have 20 years of dairy farming experience of their own.
And he argued that the stresses involved with their situation have affected their mental health and the milk board could grant some form of accommodation.
Lawyer Geoffrey Spurr for the milk board argued that they were granted fair hearings and that they did not raise mental health as a factor until reaching the appeal tribunal stage. He said at best they should only expect a referral back to the milk board so it could deliberate over the issue of mental health and potential accommodations.
But he said there is no guarantee they would be satisfied by what the milk board would decide and the issue might end up as another appeal to the tribunal.
One relief they seek is to farm in a shared facility until they can get back on their feet, but Spurr said they have not applied to the milk board for that accommodation.
Tribunal member and dairy farmer Judy Dirksen questioned how they can recover because they have sold off quota and are now down to 16 kilograms and still face the challenges of meeting milk quality standards.
They have had their equipment repaired twice to address the freezing-point penalties and might face another issue in the future which would be a third milk quality infraction resulting in the loss of their licence.
Dirksen she knows from experience that maintaining a perfect somatic cell count quality standard record is challenging.
Pederson drew attention to tribunal testimony by a milk inspector that about 15 per cent of the province’s 3,600 producers every year fall short on milk quality standards such as somatic cell counts.
The milk board has a three strikes and you're out policy for failing to meet Grade A milk standards.
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