Farmers share their love for Canada

Jun 29, 2018

The country turns 151 on Sunday

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

On Sunday, Canadians will be draped in red and white to celebrate the country’s 151^st birthday.

So Farms.com asked members of the ag industry to share what they love about being a Canadian farmer.

Charlene Bradley, a director with the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission, is appreciative to work in an industry with global reach and live in a country with a good reputation.

“The best part about being a Canadian farmer is that you’re feeding the world,” she told Farms.com today. “The respect we get around the world just for being Canadian and what it means when people see the maple leaf is a great feeling.”

Farmers are also grateful of the freedoms they have within their own operations.

Having the ability to make independent decisions is sometimes an overlooked part of living in Canada, said Brett Halstead, a grain producer from Nokomis, Sask.

“We’ve got the freedom to run our businesses the way we want and set our own hours,” he told Farms.com today. “Some people don’t have those same rights, but we do and it’s something we should celebrate.”

Canadian farmers consider themselves lucky to live in a country with informed consumers.

Without that support, the ag industry would suffer, said Darlene Stein, a lamb producer from Barrhead, Alta.

“People in this country genuinely support farmers,” she told Farms.com today. “As a farmer that gives me a good feeling that the people I’m feeding believe in what I’m doing.”

While many will celebrate all things Canadian on Sunday, some farmers will still be out in the fields ensuring their crops and livestock are healthy.

“Being a farmer means you get to work during holidays,” Larry Wegner, a beef producer from Virden, Man., told Farms.com today with a laugh. “I’ll do my relaxing in the evening.”

Canada has experienced some agricultural innovations in its 151-year history, including:

Marcellus Gilmore Edson, a Bedford, Que. pharmacist, creating peanut butter in 1884
Three pediatricians from Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children inventing Pablum Mixed Cereal in 1930
Ag scientists Keith Downey (Sask.) and Baldur Stefansson (Man.) inventing canola in 1970
Charles Saunders, an agronomist in Ontario, invented Marquis wheat in 1904
Gary R. Johnston (Ont.) developed the Yukon Gold potato in 1966

baona/iStock/Getty Images Plus 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.