An emergency happens. What do you do first? Who do you call? Are you prepared?

Ontario Pork is in the process of producing an on-farm emergency preparedness guide for Ontario pork producers. The guide, including fillable templates, will be designed to help farmers plan for and manage disasters that can occur on their operation such as power outages, drought, flood, severe snow or ice storms and also catastrophic events like tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, disease outbreaks, etc.

An emergency guide for the farming operation also helps inform others on how best to assist during an emergency, including family members, farm staff, neighbours, and first responders.

Working through the process of writing an emergency response plan will help producers assess potential risks and identify where they can improve practices or mitigation efforts. A little time spent adopting some proactive measures now may save a lot of time and money should the farm experience an emergency in the future. 

Ontario Pork will also develop an information transfer program to engage farmers in using the guide. Past experience suggests that target users will understand and appreciate the risks and be more likely to complete a plan if they have attended a workshop.

“Ontario Pork’s goal with this emergency preparedness guide is to encourage farmers to take a critical look at their agricultural operation,” explains Ontario Pork General Manager Ken Ovington. “This way they will be better prepared for any event that could disrupt their farming operation.”

This project is being funded in part through Growing Forward 2 (GF2), a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. The Agricultural Adaptation Council assists in the delivery of GF2 in Ontario.