Prince Charles will not visit farms amid foot-and-mouth fears, but he will meet with four organic producers in Assiniboia, Sask., on April 27.
Dwayne Woolhouse was looking forward to bouncing around with the Prince of Wales in a pickup on his Readlyn area farm. He will now settle for tea and pie with him in a town hall.
“It’s a disappointment, it’s something that’ll never happen again in our lifetime, (but) I don’t want to jeopardize the livestock industry over it.”
Foot-and-mouth disease, which has led to mass slaughter of animals in Great Britain, prompted the change in an itinerary that will bring the prince to Saskatchewan, the Yukon and Ottawa for a six-day visit beginning April 25.
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Woolhouse, president of his local chapter of the Organic Crop Improvement Association, was planning to showcase his 2,000-acre organic operation and bison herd, teepee rings and his English grandfather’s 1907 homestead site.
The hall meeting is expected to be informal, said Woolhouse, who has arranged to serve the prince organic tea and saskatoon pie. He expects there will be few formal preparations needed for the meeting, other than a briefing on proper protocols and attire.
“Better have a shower and put on clean clothes,” he said.
