Showing 227 results

In 1932 over 50 milk producers met in Stamford, Ontario, and formed the Niagara Falls Milk Producers Association. Mr. Chris Houck acted as chairman and R.R. Flemming assisted in forming the association. Gordon Mitchell was the first President of the association while, Bill Houck was Vice-President and Roy Brown Secretary-Treasurer. In 1967, after 35 years of existence, the group dissolved and donated its remaining monies to the Niagara Falls Milk Foundation. The last president of the association was Russell Youngblut.

In 1856 in Ingersoll, Oxford County, Ontario, brothers James and Samuel Noxon opened a foundry under the name of Noxon Brothers to make stoves and ploughs. They were later joined by three other brothers – Stephen, Freeman, and Thomas – and became known for manufacturing Standard seeding and harvesting machines, including mowers, reapers, horse-powered sawing machines, sulky rakes, grain drills, cultivators, field rollers, and feed cutters. The company was incorporated in 1872 as the Noxon Brothers Manufacturing Company Limited, and operated the Noxon Brothers Implement Works, also known as Noxon Brothers Agricultural Works. The Noxon Brothers sold their agricultural implements all over Canada and the world, including in Great Britain, Germany, France, New Zealand, and Australia. Although the office and factory remained in Ingersoll, the company opened branch warehouses in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, London, and Guelph.

The Noxon family lost control of the company in 1898. By 1914, the company was known as the Noxon Company Limited. After economic downturn during the First World War as well as a devastating fire in 1916 rendering the company unable to fulfill a major deal with Russia to supply agricultural equipment, the Noxon Company formally ceased operations in 1918.

The Oil Well Supply Company was founded in 1865 by Hector McKenzie. In 1870, James Joyce founded his own company, and in 1890 they amalgamated their firm and named it Oil Well Supply Company. The company grew out of a need for specialized equipment and developed and perfected the tools for drilling and pumping oil wells. The company grew and began to be known all over the world, shipping their equipment to Austria, Russia, Sumatra, Java, Egypt, and Persia. The company is currently the oldest manufacturer of cable drilling tools still in operation.

The Oliver Farm Equipment Company was founded in 1929 as a result of a merger of four companies: The Nichols and Shepard Company of Battle Creek, Michigan (established in 1848), the Oliver Chilled Plow Works of South Bend, Indiana (established by James Oliver (1823-1908) in 1853), the Hart-Parr Tractor / Gasoline Engine Company of Charles City, Iowa (established 1897), and the American Seeding Machine Company of Richmond, Indiana (established in 1903). Tractors manufactured by the new company carried the Oliver-Hart-Parr name for some time, but were eventually known simply as Oliver tractors. The company also manufactured graders, forklifts, road rollers, crawlers, and power units incorporated into products by other companies.

In the proceeding decades, the Oliver Farm Equipment Company continued to acquire other companies, including the McKenzie Manufacturing Company of La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1930, the Ann Arbor Agricultural Machine Company in 1943, the Cleveland Tractor Company (Cletrac) in 1944, and the A. B. Farquhar Company in 1952.

In November 1960, the Oliver Farm Equipment Company was purchased by the White Motor Company of Cleveland, Ohio and became a wholly owned, separately operating subsidiary of the company. Its name changed to the Oliver Corporation. In 1962, White also acquired Cockshutt Farm Equipment of Canada, and it became a subsidiary of the Oliver Corporation. The following year, in 1963, the White Company also purchased Minneapolis-Moline, whose tractor line was blended with Oliver. During the 1970s, FIAT tractors were also marketed under the Oliver name. White tractors are now produced under the AGCO name.

The Ontario School of Agriculture and Experimental Farm opened on May 1, 1874. A provincial government initiative, the new school was situated in Guelph on a 550-acre farm purchased from Frederick William Stone (1814-1895), the present site of the Guelph Campus of the University of Guelph. Moreton Lodge, the Stone residence, became the first school and administrative building. In 1880, the name of the school was changed to the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) and Experimental Farm. Affiliated with the University of Toronto until 1964, the OAC began offering bachelor’s degrees in 1887 and graduate degrees in 1926. Short courses on a variety or agricultural and rural topics began being offered to the general public in 1891.

A Provincial Act of 1962 created the Federated Colleges of the Ontario Department of Agriculture, comprising the Ontario Agricultural College, the Ontario Veterinary College (formed in Toronto in 1862, moved to Guelph in 1922), and the Macdonald Institute (established on the OAC campus in 1903). These three colleges formed the nucleus of the University of Guelph, founded in 1964.

The OAC continued to expand after 1964. A Landscape Architecture degree program was established in 1965, with Commerce and Environmental Science programs beginning in 1988. 400-acres featuring plant collections, gardens, walking trails, natural woodlands, wetlands, and meadows, known as The Arboretum, was established on the Guelph campus in 1970 to support teaching, research, and outreach at the University of Guelph. In 1997, the provincial government amalgamated agriculture education across the province, with agricultural colleges in Kemptville, Ridgetown and Alfred becoming affiliated with the OAC and the University of Guelph. The OAC now offers programs and conducts research on the Guelph and Ridgetown campuses.

In 1979, the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame Association was incorporated. The Hall of Fame opened on June 1, 1980, with the induction of nine pioneer agriculturists who represented more than 100 years of combined efforts and initiatives to build a better agricultural system for Ontario. There are currently 262 individuals who have been inducted into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame (OAHF).

The Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame’s mission is to acknowledge, record, and preserve the contributions made by leaders to the growth and development of Ontario’s agriculture and agri-food industry.

The Ontario Beekeeper’s Association (OBA) is one of Canada’s oldest agricultural organisations. It was founded in 1881 to represent the interests of Ontario beekeepers. In Ontario, beekeeping is a diverse industry, ranging from small-scale beekeepers who have a few hives, to those who manage commercial scale apiaries that can consist of thousands of hives. The organisation aims to support the beekeeping industry in Ontario by advocating for beekeepers, supporting honey bee health research, and providing training and education. Between the years 2013-2023, the OBA’s membership grew by 114%, due to a variety of factors including the COVID-19 Pandemic, inflation, and other world events.

The first gathering of the Ontario Branch of the Jardine Clan Society was held on April 15, 1978. It was the first branch formed outside of Scotland and continued for 22 consecutive annual gatherings before disbanding in 1999.

The Ontario Corn Committee replaced the Hybrid Corn Committee in Dec. 1941.

The Ontario Farm Women’s Network (OFWN) was a provincial association formed in 1988 to assemble and disseminate information from various rural women groups, including Women for the Survival of Agriuclture, Concerned Farm Women, Catholic Rural Life, the Christian Farmer’s Federation, the Junior Women’s Institute, and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. The OFWN kept various farm women’s organizations in touch with each other through a bi-monthly newsletter and also helped to develop programs for the betterment of rural life, including, for example, The Farm Line Support Service in 1999. A national organization, the Canadian Farm Women’s Network, was formed at the Fifth National Farm Women’s Conference in 1991.