“The goal of the open houses is public education because a lot of people do not live on farms anymore, so It’s opportunity for people to see a working dairy farm,’’ said Keena Judd-Kelly, co-owner of Gladcrest Farms, along with Scott Judd.

Gladcrest Farms is a freestall dairy farm and has been open for 19 years, according to Keena.

Keena described the general day-to-day operations at the farm and provided a brief tour of the facilities.

While the rain may have driven away some potential guests, the dairy barn still had a lot of visitors, especially locals and fellow farmers.

“It’s been a good mixture of a lot of people that have just moved to the area who always drive by and wonder what’s going on in that dairy barn,” said Scott.

Scott mentioned that MP Sophie Chatel was also present at the event and took some time to learn ways the federal government could improve the accessibility and delivery of programs aimed supporting farmers.

According to Judd and UPA representative Cynthia Guindon, Chatel said that many countries have subsidized their agricultural sector because of the war in Ukraine and related food shortages, but not Canada, so she wants to know how she can help with that.

While the attendance at the open house may have not been what they hoped due to the weather, it did give them an excuse to clean the barn.

“That is the main reason you have open houses, just to clean the barn,” joked Scott.

Across the street at the Little Red Wagon Winery, guests were treated to food samples, listened to live music and could take a tour of the winery from owner Jennifer Judd, which included an explanation on how the wine was produced and a demonstration of the equipment used in the process.

Also present at the open house was a booth set up by Écoute-Agricole, a nonprofit organization that gives free confidential and bilingual, psychosocial services to anyone in the agricultural community, according to Audrey Arcand, who works with the service.

The group offers prevention and counseling services to farmers, their family, their employees, veterinarians, and other individuals associated with agriculture. They can also be reached via phone, video call or in person.

“With Écoute-Agricole basically people can ask for help, for many reasons, often related to stress, anxiety, or sometimes for mental health issues,” said Arcand. “We also do a lot of suicide awareness.”

The organization has been around in the Outaouais for two years and has existed since 2015 in the Laurentian region. The Écoute-Agricole currently has two workers for the Outaouais who are available all over the Pontiac.

The group receives some support from the government of Quebec but receives the biggest share of funding from donations.

“If anyone feels the need to talk to someone in the agriculture community, do not hesitatel to give us a call,” said Arcand. “There is no bad reason to call us. And if we cannot help, we’ll refer you to the professionals.”

You can find them online at ecouteagricole.com, or call 873-455-5707 between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday to reach their Outaouais office.

Jennifer Judd, owner of the Little Red Wagon Winery, operating the crusher/destemming on the ground floor of the winery during the open house. This machine is a part of the process of making wine.

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