The 2020 Tommy Cooper Award winner is Joan McKinlay from The Town of the Blue Mountains.
McKinlay worked for Ontario Ministry of Agriculture for nearly 20 years starting in London, then Walkerton and then at the Grey County ministry office in Markdale.
She grew up on a Dundalk area farm and graduated from the University of Guelph with a BSc. in crop science.
These days, McKinlay runs a successful beef and cash crop operation — Silver Springs Farm — with her husband James in the town of Blue Mountains.
McKinlay has been involved with countless agricultural organizations over the years since starting her career in 1977. Among those are the Grey County and Ontario Soil Crop Improvement Association, beef improvement groups, Ontario Forage Council, Ontario Forage Crops Committee, Canadian Forage and Grassland Association, Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Ontario Canola Growers, Ontario Cereal Crops Committee. McKinlay has a supporter and regular contributor to the Canada Food Grains Bank.
The Tommy Cooper Award has been given out annually since 1959 by Bayshore Broadcasting and the Owen Sound Sun Times. It goes to a person who has contributed to the betterment of agriculture and rural living in Grey and Bruce counties.
Normally, the award is given out at a celebration held each year in Elmwood. However, this year because of COVID-19 the annual award dinner was cancelled.
Tommy Cooper died in 1981. He is well remembered for his 39 years as a provincial government farm extension worker in Grey County. Cooper is credited with helping area farmers adapt to new scientific and mechanical innovations in the first half of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the founding of the Grey-Bruce Livestock Co-operative, and was active in many community organizations.
McKinlay joined The Great Paul Hill on 560 CFOS and discussed her activities in the world of agriculture.
