It was more than a coming together of two families when Mélissa Bourdon and Andrew Vallance got married in 2015. Their union also started the process of bringing together two family-farm businesses.
“Our families always farmed across the road from each other, but there is five years’ difference between Andrew and I, so we never knew each other growing up,” Mélissa says. “One day, we were planting side-by-side and that’s how we met – and the rest is history.”
Both were very involved in their Maxville, Ont., family farms while growing up – Andrew in dairy and cash crops, Mélissa in poultry, cash crops and her family’s commercial feed mill. They also both studied agriculture and business after high school and couldn’t see themselves doing anything else.
And they’ve been on a rapid growth trajectory ever since.
Growth begets growth – and sustainability
The couple grows corn, beans and cereal crops and raise broilers in two new barns they built on Andrew’s family farm. They also completed a transition to take over Mélissa’s family operation, which is focused on egg and broiler production and cash crops.
As well, Mélissa and Andrew are involved in the daily operations of Bourdon Feed & Grain Inc., which her father Marc started in 1991. Mélissa serves as the general manager and Andrew as manager-operator.
Ambitious plans are in their future. They’re building another broiler barn and an additional layer barn this year to add another enriched system for egg production. A new solar project has begun in an effort to ultimately be self-sufficient and produce enough energy for their own needs, and more quota and land will be purchased as the opportunity arises.
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