GUELPH — Stewart Skinner and his wife Jessica Kelly grew up on hog farms. They met as volunteers on the Ontario Pork ‘pork mobile’ at the Royal Winter Fair, years before earning their masters degrees in agriculture economics at the University of Guelph.
In 2015, the couple took their own leap into the pig industry by launching Imani Farms Ltd. — named after the Swahili word for ‘faith’ — at the Listowel farm where Skinner was raised. Their efforts as specialty hog producers — sending 25,000 animals to market each year — recently earned Skinner and Kelly the title of Ontario’s 2023 Outstanding Young Farmers.
They produce hogs for the organic, certified humane and conventional markets. They also cash-crop 167 acres and employ 15 people to take care of their pigs at both owned and rented farrow-to-finish facilities. About half of Imani’s output relies on purchasing weaner piglets from a number of Mennonite suppliers.
Skinner and Kelly finished ahead of Derek and Jen Van Dieten of Van Dieten Dairy Farms in Seaforth for the provincial title.
Skinner is also a well-known farm writer and advocate for farmer mental health. Farmers Forum caught up with Skinner to discuss everything farming.
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