Goat farm corporation looking to local islands

Jeff Green | Mar 29, 2017

The British Columbia affiliate of a California based agricultural company is planning to expand into Eastern Ontario, and it has its sights set on Frontenac County.

“We are, at heart, animal lovers, and we hate the idea of keeping animals indoors all year,” said company President Halle Steubens in an interview from the Cardinal Cafe on Monday. Steubens spent three days in Frontenac County early this week, and stayed at the Sharbot Lake Country Inn while conducting meetings with financiers and political officials.

“We heard about the need for goat milk in this region from one of our contacts in China,” Steubens said, “and we knew it was called the County of a Thousand Lakes, so I jumped on a plane to see for myself and to see if there was any interest in our unique animal friendly intensive farming technology. And it looks like we have a perfect fit.”

Steubens said that Island Goat Farm Canada (International Inc) has developed its own breed of dairy goats that have a unique combination of attributes that make them ideally suited to living on islands.

“We call them Alpine Aquaphobe. They are very frisky, very good jumpers but they love coming in to the barn to be milked, and best of all they are terrified of water and ice. You could never fence them but put them on an island and they will never leave,” he said.

He said that Island Goat Farm US and Island Goat Farm Chile have developed large herds on islands in some large and smaller lakes. The engineering division of the company handles all of the details. Water is drawn from the lake and treated, as is the waste water, and both the milk and any excess sewage are pumped off the islands through separate deep underground tunnels.

“I know from talking to people this week that the residents who live on the lakes around here are very concerned about the environment, green algae blooms, phosphates, fish habitat, all that sort of thing. And so am I. That’s the beauty of our island farms, they are completely benign, there is no runoff. Our credo is ‘milk but no honey-wagon’ which we take very seriously.”

Steubens said that he realises he has an uphill battle convincing politicians, and lake associations, that humans and goats can share the lakes to mutual benefit.

“We plan to employ over 100 people, and use local contractors as much as possible, and we are happy to pay those waterfront taxes.” he said.

He said it is a long way off before any goats will be transported to their new island homes in Frontenac County but that Island Goat Farm engineers will be engaging the local conservation authorities and county and township planning departments in the coming weeks.

He would not say which lakes the company will settle on, but said they are looking at all of the Frontenac Townships.

“Wouldn’t it be great to have one 5,000 or 10,000 goat farm in each township,” he said.

He said lakes that are being considered are relatively large one ones with suitable islands. He named Loughborough, Dog and Verona Lakes in South Frontenac; Sharbot, Kennebec and Big Clear Lakes in Central Frontenac, and Palmerston, Mississagagon and Kashwakamak in North Frontenac.

He also said the company has contacted the Shabot Obaadjiwan about the possibility of using an island on Crotch Lake.

Steubens returned to his home base of Vancouver on Wednesday, but said “I’ll be back.”