New Entrant Program (NEP) Results 2023-2024
The policy objective of a New Entrant Program (NEP) is simply to encourage and facilitate people to enter the dairy industry as new producers. The Board’s NEP program provides 15kgs of Continuous Daily Quota (CDQ) as incentive quota to start milk production, plus up to 8kgs of matching CDQ provided on a 1:1 ratio basis during the 10 years of the program.
As per the NEP policy, a Selection Committee was engaged to review the application packages, including proposed business plans, and conduct interviews of all nine candidates before making a recommendation to the Board. The Selection Committee must recommend a minimum of three candidates who they feel should be invited to participate in the program. For more information on the New Entrant Program Selection Committee (NEPSC) please see below and for complete details please visit New Entrant Program. Please note, 10 candidates were drawn, however only 9 candidates completed the process for 2023-24 dairy year. One candidate was disqualified due to not submitting an application package.
The committee interviewed 9 candidates over a two-day period to identify candidates that showed the potential to have long-term success in dairy farming and required the assistance of the New Entrant Program to enter the dairy industry.
Every candidate was asked questions that allowed the committee to conduct an evaluation of their skills and assessed their abilities for successful long term on farm operations and financial/policy administration. The committee selected four candidates to be invited to join the NEP program for the production year 2025.
The Board congratulates the four candidates (alphabetical order), who will now be invited to participate in the NEP program:
- Lindsey Dirks
- Clinton & Dionne Quesnel
- Jared Romeyn
- Jonathan Wouda
Next Steps
The selected New Entrants have until August 2, 2024, to formally accept entry into the program and pay to the Board a non-refundable deposit of $1000, which may be used by the entrant when the entrant first participates on the quota exchange. The New Entrants will have until December 31, 2025, to start production to qualify for the program and receive incentive quota from the Board.
NEPSC:
The Selection Committee was appointed by the Board and consisted of: one agri-business representatives; one financial services representative; one dairy processing representative; one BC Dairy Association nominated producer; one BCMMB staff member, one BCDA staff member, one observer, and one Board-appointed Chair. (The Chair and staff members were non-voting participants.) All 9 candidates were interviewed by the Selection Committee on July 15 and 16, 2024.