Government MPs are also among those demanding the Agriculture Minister to reconsider the closure of Nappan Farm.

Two Nova Scotia politicians, including a Liberal MP, are among those calling on Ottawa to reverse the decision to close seven federal. Agricultural research farms including a site dating back more than a century in the Maritimes.

In January, Agriculture Agri-Food Canada said layoff notices were issued to 1,043 employees as part of eliminating approximately 665 positions. At the time, a spokesperson said it would result in the closure of a facility in Nappan, N.S., and six others across the country.

Milton Dyck, president of the union representing 2,500 workers at Agriculture Agri-Food Canada, said Nine people’s jobs at Nappan Research Farm are at risk due to cutbacks, Which opened in 1887 and is one of the five original experimental farms in Canada.

“So research has not been stopped yet, but the plan is to stop it. So we have this window where we are calling on the government to reverse the decision to close the research centers,” Dyck said in an interview.

Dyke said he expects some employees to remain on site through the summer to care for the beef herd until it can be sold. He said researchers and those supporting their work should go first.

“The sites cannot be closed immediately, as this involves a complex series of decisions that must be approached carefully,” Agriculture Agri-Food Canada said in a statement to CBC News, responding to questions about the Nappan facility.

“We will take the time necessary to engage with research partners on the future of active projects, preserve the findings, and pursue these collaborations through our other centers.”

beef revenue

Kent MacDonald, MP for Cardigan, PEI, said at a meeting of the standing committee on agriculture and agri-food on Tuesday that the department told him that more than 60 per cent of costs at Nappan were related to maintenance. However, some say that the revenue from beef sales outweighs the costs.

“I have to ask the government, have they seen the books?” Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin, independent MLA for Cumberland North, said at a committee meeting in Ottawa on Tuesday.

“Last year alone he made over $400,000 from the beef he owned Grew up there. Which they were researching.”

Alana Hurtle, Liberal MP for Cumberland-Colchester, has also called on Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald to provide more information and reconsider the decision to close the site.

“However, if this is not possible, the assets of the Nappan Research Farm should not go to waste without benefiting the broader agricultural community,” Hertel said in a letter Tuesday.

He also asked Macdonald to engage with stakeholders including the neighboring Maritime Beef Test Station in Nappan and meet with his counterparts in the Maritime provinces.

Reynolds Bergen, science director for the Beef Cattle Research Council, said the Nappan site was closely linked to other sites across the country, including Quebec City and Lacombe, Alta., which were also closed.

“They weren’t independent. They all worked really, really closely together. There was a really strong network across the country,” he said in an interview from Calgary.

‘head scratcher’

Bergen said that while the beef industry is heavily concentrated in Western Canada, research is needed in different climates, etc.IL type. He said the decision was also a “head-scratcher” because the research that ended was in areas considered high priority for the industry.

Bergen said the two researchers previously based in Nappan are expected to remain with the federal department, but it remains to be seen whether they will have access to areas where research has been conducted since the 19th century.

“Losing those plots at Nappan Station is the loss of a lot of knowledge and a lot of material that is just in its infancy,” he said of multi-year research in areas such as soil carbon sequestration.

Heather Bruce, dean of the Dalhousie University agricultural campus in Bible Hill, N.S., was asked at Tuesday’s standing committee meeting whether it was possible for post-secondary institutions to do the work.

“In a word, no, we are currently facing our own financial realities and challenges,” Bruce said.

Agriculture Agri-Food Canada says forage breeding research will continue at the research farm in Kentville, N.S.

“We will focus on maintaining and building on our cooperation with our many partners in the region,” the statement said.

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