by DAVID SCHMIDT
ABBOTSFORD – Judging from the initial turnout, B.C. Young Farmers have a bright future. Over 70 people attended the BCYF’s inaugural event in Abbotsford, April 8. While the new organization is open to farmers aged 19 to 40, most who turned out were in their mid to late 20’s to early 30’s. “We started this so we can network and learn from other young farmers,” said Kerry Froese, president of the B.C. Chicken Growers Association and the night’s emcee.
“It’s awesome to see such a turnout,” Langley dairyman and former B.C. Agriculture Council (BCAC) chair Dick Klein Geltink told the group, saying it was one of BCAC’s goals to start a young farmers group.
He noted he put each of his seven children on the payroll since kindergarten but had them buy their own things in exchange. When each graduated, they were asked to “go away for at least three years” before joining the family farm. “Two came back” and now farm with their parents. While that led to an adjustment (“some decisions once made by just me and my wife now have to go through a screening committee of my two sons”), Klein Geltink said the result has been positive. “It’s a way for them to get into farming a little faster and a way for us to get out a little slower.”
Farm management consultant Reg Ens of Meyers Norris Penny noted most of the people in the room were second or third-generation farmers.
“You are young farmers but you are not start-ups,” he said, stressing that brings a lot of challenges. “You’re taking over a big business with a lot of history and making a small mistake can have big consequences.”
Unlike their parents who often did everything themselves, today’s crop of farmers are as much people managers as hands-on farmers. Ens therefore urged them to develop or seek out management expertise.
“Find out what you don’t know,” he told them, admitting it is difficult for people to admit what they don’t know.
Greenhouse vegetable grower and BCYF chair Ravi Cheema of Aldergrove said farming was always a passion for him but it took some time before he joined his parents in the farm. Given the current state of the greenhouse sector, he openly wondered whether his decision was a good one. As a result, his goal is to diversify the operation, saying that’s the “only way to make it these days.” Likely the oldest person in the room, Bob Brandsma of Avenue Machinery Corporation told the group that farming in the Fraser Valley has changed dramatically since Avenue was formed 61 years ago.
“We’re still farming the same valley but we’re doing it a lot differently.” The big change has been in the technology involved.
“When Avenue started, they had only one or two tractors. Today we have an inventory of 150 tractors.”
Brandsma said Avenue continues to grow, meaning farming in the valley also continues to grow, as farmers use their land better and more productively. “We in the valley have a way of producing product that no one else can or will,” he told his audience.
B.C. Young Farmers will be part of the Canadian Young Farmers Forum. Initiated by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture in 1997, the CYFF now stretches across the country and has an annual budget of $350,000. While B.C. was the last province to hold its first meeting, CYFF director Leona Dargis of Alberta complimented the group, telling them theirs was “the largest initial meeting in a province.”
In contrast, Saskatchewan’s initial meeting held earlier this year attracted less than 20 people.