Book review: If you like agriculture and history and wanted to know more about the rise and fall of the Canadian Wheat Board, the new book by former CWB farmer-director Ken Motiuk is a good read.
Tag Archives Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers
New book reveals details leading to CWB’s exit
Lee Hart reviews Culture of Control by Alberta farmer Ken Motiuk
Quebec, Alberta producers named Outstanding Young Farmers
Meeting counterparts from across the country a great learning experience
An innovative market garden operation near Quebec City, and a progressive ranching operation in southeastern Alberta with a focus on direct meat sales to consumers, won the hearts and votes of judges in November as they were named Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers (COYF). Simon Plante and Alison Blouin, owners of Polyculture Plante from Sainte-Petronille, just […] Read more
Editor’s Rant: Doing their best to adjust
After reading through all the stories Lee Hart has compiled for you about Canada’s latest crop of Outstanding Young Farmers, I’m more convinced than ever of the OYF program’s value — not just to its immediate participants and alumni but to other farmers and everyone else. If you’d rather read them right away, I won’t […] Read more
COYF: Outstanding, young and (mostly) westbound
Alberta is set to host the national Outstanding Young Farmers 2024 event later this month
Seven farm and ranch families from across Canada will get a look at how agriculture works in southern Alberta in late November, as the regional nominees for Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers (COYF) make their way to Lethbridge for the national awards competition. The seven regional finalists, who represent agriculture enterprises ranging from fruit, vegetable and […] Read more
Geena Luckett
Outstanding Young Farmers 2024: The glamour in the wine takes hard work among the vines
Owning and operating a vineyard isn’t quite as glamorous as Geena Luckett imagined during her university days, as her dad was establishing Luckett’s Vineyard in Nova Scotia’s Gaspereau Valley, not far from the Bay of Fundy. After starting out as an events manager at the winery, then learning about all other aspects of the business, […] Read more
Simon Plante and Alison Blouin
Outstanding Young Farmers 2024: Its acres capped by geography, this market garden operation seeks to grow more per acre
Increasing production on the same land base, which in turn will help make more marketing opportunities possible— that’s the goal of a young Quebec farming couple heading up a second-generation fruit and vegetable operation near Quebec City. Investing heavily in new production technology on the family-owned Polyculture Plante, located at Sainte-Pétronille on Île d’Orléans, is […] Read more
DJ Wassenaar and Matt Bergman
Outstanding Young Farmers: How they put diversity in their rotations, cropping systems, equipment use — and growing regions
Watching for and developing diversification opportunities is certainly an important part of how partners DJ Wassenaar and Matt Bergman built their farm businesses in Ontario. Growing up on their respective farms in southwestern Ontario, they both started farm businesses at an early age. DJ grew up on a beef operation and started a custom farming […] Read more
Marcus and Paige Dueck
Outstanding Young Farmers 2024: Finding that work-life equilibrium involves some trade-offs — and new technology
With dairy cattle, cash crops and two young children, the days are still pretty busy for Manitoba farmers Marcus and Paige Dueck — but new technology introduced in recent years has helped them be more efficient and find balance in their lives. For the Duecks, who are the third generation on Four Oak Farms near […] Read more
Cyle and Erika Stewart
Outstanding Young Farmers 2024: Efficiency, sustainability and resilience are priorities when ranching during a long dry spell
Cyle and Erika Stewart say developing an efficient beef herd and managing pastures to optimize use of available forage during consecutive years of drought conditions has been the priority for their family-run ranching operation in southern Saskatchewan. The Stewarts, who own and operate Pine Ranch along with Erika’s parents Bill and Terry Strande, say they’ve […] Read more
Lorin, Barry and Daniel Doerksen
Outstanding Young Farmers 2024: The cattle’s performance on grass and forages becomes part of the beef’s story at retail
What started out as a plan to supply a niche market in the beef industry has over the past six years turned into the focus for a fourth-generation southeastern Alberta ranching operation. For the Doerksen brothers of Gemstone Cattle Company at Gem, Alta., about an hour north of Brooks, putting some of the efficient beef […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
