Brekveld becomes third female OFA president

GUELPH — A Northern Ontario dairy farmer, who loves to sing in the barn, was elected president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture last month.
Thunder Bay-area Peggy Brekveld operates a 75-head dairy farm on more than 400 acres and is the third female president in the organization’s history. She was vice-president for six years. She and her husband Gert started the dairy farm after he immigrated from Holland. They have five children and in 2008, they were finalists in Ontario’s Outstanding Young Farmers Program.

She said that her priority is farm advocacy, specifically around land use and the environment, and “building the team that is the OFA.”

Pre-COVID, she said she spent 100 days a year on the road or in the air.
Brekveld was elected by the board of directors, rather than the delegates, for the first time in the organization’s history after a bylaw change to bring the organization into legal compliance. Waterloo County’s Mark Reusser was re-elected as vice president, Drew Spoelstra of Hamilton was elected vice president, and Crispin Colvin of Middlesex County was elected as the executive member.