Better Farming - October 2016

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14 Farm News First > Better Farming October 2016
(intensive) business,” she said.
Brittain acknowledged the expense
involved for “equipment, buildings,
everything.”
His farm is not only in the midst
of transition but also expansion
– with the addition of a silo and a
new barn for finishing cattle. The
Brittains have accessed government
funds, including Growing Forward, a
federal/provincial cost-sharing
program for market development, to
assist in this process.
Brittain credited his mother, Carol,
for obtaining the grants, and noted
she handles the farm’s business
operations.
They’ve also made good use of
workshops hosted by industry
organizations. “Ag organizations out
there will have grower information
days, tours to show you all the
up-and-coming technologies,” Carol
Brittain said. “There’s always new
sprayer technology to help us become
more environmentally friendly.”
Resolving different visions
Nikki Brittain said she believes
keeping up on new technologies and
new techniques will be critical to the
farm’s future.
“Farming has changed,” she said.
“And the way society views farming
have changed.”
Differing visions for the business
present another challenge in farm
transition.
“All farm families have to change
the way they do things as they move
Brantford area cattle farmer
Sandra Vos is living proof that
someone with no connection to
the farm can still get into the
business. Vos bought her land 15
years ago using her own savings to
finance the venture.
She grew up in Toronto and was
a nurse by profession. She never
lived on a farm, but visited a
relative’s Brant County farm with
her brothers when she was young.
“But being the girl, I didn’t get
a chance to drive the tractor,” she
said. “I was in the kitchen drying
dishes.”
A cousin acquired an 80-acre
package of the farm and “asked
me if I’d like to buy it. It was
about five minutes from Brantford,
so I said, ‘yes.’ That’s when the
learning curve started.”
She said she wouldn’t have
been able to buy the farm today.
“I bought it before the land
bankers got active around
Brantford. Today, farm land is
$10,000 to $14,000 an acre; I
paid a fifth of that.”
She has 30 to 35 pasture-fed
cattle and serves the direct-to-
freezer market. It’s a niche mar-
ket, and she said such markets
provide the greatest opportunity
for farmers starting out.
“My target is middle-aged
families,” she said. “I have
customers from Toronto to Lon-
don, and it’s all word-of-mouth. I
don’t sell half animals or quarters;
I might sell 20 pounds in a variety
of cuts, and I don't kill an animal
until I have an order.”
Her kids have no interest in the
Making the leap to agriculture: one farmer's experience
farm – “it’s a ‘Mom’ thing,” she
said – and she shudders for young
people trying to get into the
business. “I’d hate to be a kid
starting out in this economy.”
“The capital intensity even over
the past 10 years has maybe
tripled,” said Ken McEwan,
University of Guelph Ridgetown
campus director and a specialist in
agriculture production economics.
Despite farming’s rising costs, it
continues to attract young people,
many of whom don’t have a family
connection to the industry, McE-
wan said.
“Increasingly we’re seeing
students coming from non-rural
Ontario,” he said.
“It’s increasingly happening
because agriculture right now is a
great place to be. There are more
jobs than we have graduates. Let’s
say you’re a young person from
Chatham looking for employment.
Agriculture is a great place to be if
you want a job,” he said. BF
Much was by trial and error in the early years of production for Brant
County beef farmer Sandra Vos. She finishes some of the cows her herd
produces but also sells some calves, noting that the farm’s 80 acres
limits the number of animals she can finish.
Sandra Vos
GENERATIONALTRANSITION