By Eric Jenks, Special to NEAFA
For April, NEAFA caught up with Aurelio Ferreira Henriques, President of Canadian based company Ontario Dehy Inc, located in Goderich, Ontario. “I’m from Portugal originally,” Said Henriques. “I came to Canada as an electronic technician in 1987, because I knew that there were opportunities here that I wanted to explore. I always liked agriculture; my parents lived in the countryside in Portugal. During school breaks, my mother would have us work the land with our own hands, just small tracts of land. That work, it stays with you. I loved the country, but I also liked the innovation that is part of technology. I wanted to become involved in an agricultural endeavor that involved technology, but I couldn’t find the right opportunity to do so in Portugal. In life, we just like to do somethings. I like farms, I like the bucolic thing, I have that in me, and that’s what I want to focus on. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”
After working with several companies in Canada, Henriques had the chance to open his own business, Ontario Dehy (dehy being short for dehydration), focused on hay cubing with alfalfa and later other pellet and cubed based forage products as well. “We started with joint ventures with other Canadian companies,” said Henriques. “First, we started working with a cubing plant in Saskatchewan, and then with another company in Ontario making pellets. After a while both companies started making products only for us. Instead of buying plants, we focused on joint ventures, including in Nebraska when we expanded to working in the United States. When the operator of the Saskatchewan decided to retire in 2015, we did buy the plant outright to continue operating it ourselves.”
Ontario Dehy is a long-time member of NEAFA as well. “NEAFA, they’re an organization filled with a bunch of good people,” said Henriques. “And good people bring good people in. It has good culture, they serve a good purpose, and organizations like this are important so that our voices can be heard louder by lawmakers and others.”
Looking at the future, Henriques tries to find opportunities when things become difficult. “These days, life is a lot about making the right choices,” said Henriques. “It’s always the case, but perhaps even more important now with the current economic landscape. I don’t like change, I’m very skeptical of it. Normally, I resist it to an extent to keep the status quo. That’s what I really like. But having said that, I like challenges, and they can become exciting opportunities to do things better and grow. The more challenges that we face, the more opportunities also open up. And I make sure that I look every time I see challenges – what are the opportunities that surround them? Because they always do. One never comes without the other. You just need to look at it from a different perspective.”
For more information, visit: http://www.ontariodehy.com/index.html