Farmer needed in Kapuskasing, Ont.

Jun 19, 2018

The Town of Kapuskasing is seeking a producer for its Demonstration Farm

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

A town in northern Ontario is looking for a farmer to manage its research farm.

The Town of Kapuskasing will be seeking proposals to find a new tenant for the Demonstration Farm located within the Great Clay Belt.

The farm is the former site of an Agriculture Canada research facility. The Kapuskasing Economic Development Corporation purchased the farm from the federal government in 2015.

The research farm includes more than 850 acres of land suitable for cattle production, 5,000 square feet of office space, a laboratory with equipment, and 40 acres for crop trials and research. The soils in the area range from Class 2 to Class 4.

The previous farmer broke the agreement with two years left on the lease.

Prospective producers would bid on the right to lease the farm for the remaining two years. Details of the agreement would change after that two-year period.

“We want to continue to lease (the farm) for another two years to complete the five years that were initially set out,” Guylain Baril, chief administrative officer with the Town of Kapuskasing, told Northern Ontario Business today. “At the end of the five years, the lease would be a lease to buy, so the person would have the option to buy it.”

Officials have concluded an inventory of farm equipment and interested producers can include the equipment in their bids, Baril said.

Farms.com has reached out to Baril for more details on the bidding process and details surrounding the farm.

Francis Bouchard/Radio-Canada photo

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.