Dairy farmer near Brockville, Ont. says uncertainty lies ahead after Trump’s latest tariff threat

Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats focus on Canada’s lumber and dairy industries. Dairy farmers in eastern Ontario are reacting. CTV’s Jack Richardson reports

Locus Lane Farm is a dairy farm just east of Brockville, Ont. that has been owned by Scott Connell’s family since 1901.

“We’ve been feeding Canadians with quality milk for that period of time,” Connell tells CTV News Ottawa. “It’s our way of life here on the farm.”

But the latest tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump have caused uncertainty for Connell and other dairy farmers in Canada.

On Friday, Trump said Canada will “be met with the exact same tariffs, unless they drop it,” referring to Canadian tariffs on dairy products.

“Canada has been ripping us off on for years on tariffs for lumber and for dairy products,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump says the tariffs could come as soon as Monday.

Trump signed off on those tariffs five years ago as part of the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade that stated there would be no tariffs for products crossing North American borders.

One exception in that agreement was Canada’s tariffs on dairy products to protect domestic farmers.

Connell is concerned about U.S. farmers taking some of the dairy market in Canada, impacting local farms.

“They think that’s the way to provide more income for their own farms,” explains Connell. “We’re feeding our Canadian population and that’s what we want to do.”

Life at Locus Lane Farm has been busy in recent years. According to Connell, they have increased their production by nearly 40 per cent since 2017.

“We have grown to meet the demand,” he says.

That growth has resulted in milking more cows and milking them more often. But with this latest threat from Trump, Locus Lane may be forced to alter the way they operate.

“Everything is uncertain, and it’s hard to digest how somebody can put those things out in the open and want everybody scrambling to figure out what they’re going to do.”