Stamp Family - Alberta's 2023 Outstanding Young Farmers

Aug 08, 2023

Stamp Seeds & Stamp Farms, helmed by siblings Greg, Sara, Nathan, and Matthew Stamp alongside parents Richard and Marian, secures the prestigious title of Alberta's Outstanding Young Farmers for 2023.

This second-generation grain-producing family operates on 5000 acres of irrigated land and 2000 acres of dryland farming in the Bow River Irrigation District.

Their diverse production includes pedigreed seed varieties like wheat, barley, spelt, faba beans, peas, lentils, flax, hybrid rye, grass, and hybrid seed canola.

The family's dedication extends beyond cultivation, as they retail and wholesale seed, offer contract growing services, and multiply stock seeds for a loyal customer base of 1500.

Greg's role as seed sales manager, Nathan as farm manager, and Matthew as business operations manager synchronize their efforts, ensuring the production of high-quality seed.

This impressive operation engages nineteen full-time and nine seasonal employees.

Stamp Farms is well-known for giving back to the community, they are active in Canadian Foodgrains Bank harvests and have undertaken wildlife habitat restoration, planting trees around fields and enhancing wetland and grassland areas to foster biodiversity.

Their community involvement and family of six children underscore their commitment to a balanced agricultural ecosystem.

With their unwavering dedication, the Stamps are set to represent Alberta and Canada in the National event this November.

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.