UPA Open House | Number of participating farms halved since pandemic

Some fifty Quebec farms will welcome the public during the popular Open House Day of the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) on September 8. This is 50% less than before the pandemic, as the UPA celebrates its 100th anniversary.^e anniversary this year.

So far, 49 farms have been announced, but the figure could still change, the UPA told us on Monday. Last year, there were 53.

This is much less than in 2019 (96 farms), or in 2018, when the event brought together “around a hundred” participating farms, according to the agricultural union.

In the MRC des Maskoutains, which includes Saint-Hyacinthe, the agri-food capital of Quebec, no farms will be open to the public, noted The Saint-Hyacinthe Courier.

Due to the pandemic, the open day was cancelled in 2020 and 2021, and spread over several weeks in 2022.

With 53 farms, the day attracted around 36,000 visitors in 2023, compared to nearly 100,000 with the 96 farms in 2019, according to UPA data.

Around fifty participating farms throughout Quebec is what was desired this year, assures the agricultural union.

Welcoming a large number of visitors to a farm that is not usually open to the public “requires a lot more preparation than 20 years ago,” explains the UPA president on the phone.

“Whether it’s a dairy, poultry, pig farm or whatever, there is a whole aspect of biosecurity. Even in market gardening, because we have come to terms with specifications and standards,” says Martin Caron.

“It requires more and more volunteers, who are, among others, UPA administrators in the region, to ensure that risks are minimized. In a breeding operation, someone is needed to ensure that people are compliant with biosecurity, if there are footbaths or plastics to be used, for example.”

Volunteers are also needed to manage parking and register visitors, in addition to the farm owners who explain their production to the public.

“And then, the producers are proud, there is a lot of cleaning, washing and preparation beforehand!”

“A lot of energy”

In Saint-Valérien-de-Milton, near Saint-Hyacinthe, the La Rabouillère farm and country table, which participated in the open house last year, and a few times before, decided to pass on its turn this year.

“It draws a lot of energy,” summarizes one of the co-owners, Jérémie Pilon. The company, which has about twenty employees, must have had “between 40 and 50 volunteers […] because we have a great animal diversity and several activities, including tastings.”

This agritourism farm makes most of its revenue from events, including weddings. Participating in the UPA open house helps to get the word out and can bring “tourism spinoffs for several years.” But when the weather is rainy, windy and cold, like last year, attendance can “drop by 300%,” with “fewer than 1,000 visitors instead of 3,000 to 4,000.”

In addition, the event takes place on a Sunday, a day that already represents “large sources of revenue” for La Rabouillère. That said, the company “does not rule out” participating in the event in the future, notes Mr. Pilon.

“The open house is a day, we talk about it, it’s good, [mais] “There has been an evolution, among other things with the application Mangeons local,” says the president of the UPA. The application, which uses geolocation, lists hundreds of farms open to the public during the rest of the year.

Visit the Let’s Eat Local website

Glass chicken coop

In Sainte-Anne-de-Sorel, La Ferme du Barbu is preparing to welcome more than a thousand visitors for a second year in a row.

“We’re preparing our site for pumpkin picking, so we’re already going to be ready for the open house, which is only a week before,” summarizes the bearded chef, François Lecours, owner of the farm with his partner.

It is especially the glass-enclosed chicken coop, set up when the farm received a quota of 500 laying hens from the start-up assistance program of the Fédération des producteurs d’oeufs du Québec, which is likely to attract the crowds.

“Five hundred chickens is 500 eggs a day, that’s a lot of dozens of eggs. In our business plan, we said that if we want to succeed in selling them, people have to have a reason to come,” says Mr. Lecours.

With biosecurity rules not allowing the public to enter the building, “it’s very, very rare that people can see how a laying hen house works.” The glass helps “dispel myths,” such as “hens, when they’re in a hen house, it’s closed, they’re not pretty,” the producer believes.

“There are some who just come to get their dozen eggs with their children and stay for half an hour to watch the chickens!”

For the open house, the couple has enlisted their employees, a dozen volunteers, their four children (the eldest of whom, 11, will be at the cash register) and two buses to shuttle between the municipal parking lot and the farm.