DUFRESNE, Man. – Jonothon Roskus doesn’t like spending a lot of time away from his farm.
It’s a beautiful place in the rich farmland just east of Winnipeg, where he, his wife Christine, and his three children, Chelsea, 6, Logan, 4, and Chloe, 6 months, have made a warm family home, regardless of the -30 C temperatures outside.
But Jan. 19-23 he was set to be in Brandon, with thousands of other farmers, at Manitoba Ag Days.
Unlike most farmers, however, Roskus won’t be able to relax and wander the rows of new machinery, check out the lines of booths and go to a few educational sessions.
Read Also
Well-being improvement can pay off for farms
Investing in wellness programs in a tight labour market can help farms recruit and retain employees
Roskus is co-chair of Manitoba Ag Days, so it’ll be a working holiday for him.
“It isn’t a huge commitment of time over the year, so I’ve been able to handle it,” said Roskus, sitting at his dining room table with Christine, Chloe and Logan.
“With a young family right now, it’d be pretty hard to be involved (with heavier commitments). My focus right now is my family and the farm. Try to do one thing well rather than a bunch of things badly.”
When Jonothon was introduced to Christine by a cousin in 1996, he was a young policy wonk. At 22 years old he was already a director of the Manitoba Canola Growers Association, a busy commodity organization.
He kept up that commitment until 2000, when he and Christine were married, then resigned to focus on ensuring the family farm was viable.
Both Christine and Jonothon appreciate the good sides of farm life: lots of time with the kids, lots of time with each other, lots of space in which to live their own lives.
Christine laughs when she thinks about how opposite this life is to what she wanted when she was a teenager.
“I always told my dad: I’ll never marry a farmer,” said Christine.
“But then I met Jonothon, and we hit it off.”
The life that hadn’t seemed so attractive to her growing up on the farm seemed a lot more attractive when she started thinking about having her own family, and how she wanted to raise her kids.
“I love the family time we have. I love seeing how the kids interact with Jonothon on the farm. He’s teaching them all he knows and they’re so interested in it,” said Christine.
“It’s great. I wouldn’t trade my life for anything.”
The Roskus’ farm is a straight grain operation of about 2,800 acres. It’s extremely busy in the growing season, and busy during the winter. Jonothon did some off-farm work in the winter when he was younger, but now he realizes that the down time in the winter is when he can focus on making the farm economically viable.
“It’s nice to have that off-farm job sometimes, to have that extra cheque, but when you look at the big picture, the time I’m spending away from the farm is time I’m not maintaining my machinery, it’s time I’m not in my office getting paperwork done, it’s time I’m not focused on profitability,” said Jonothon.
“I think it’s more important to focus on the farm and make that profitable.”
Paying attention to marketing opportunities, in particular, can pay off in a big way.
“If I can spend more time at the farm, making good decisions and watching the markets, paying attention to marketing, I can make more money in five minutes than I’d make in a month at an off-farm job,” he said.
Jonothon is the third generation of his family to farm this land. His grandfather, a Czech immigrant, settled here Sept. 20, 1929, a date Jonothon recalls because his father was born that very day. It’s also his birthday.
Jonothon’s parents moved off the farm in 2003 but live in Winnipeg, a 20 minute drive from the farm. His father keeps an active interest in the big iron.
“He’s always very eager to come and drive the tractor,” said Jonothon.
Christine’s parents live just outside Lorette, also a few minutes away, which helps when they need emergency child care.
“Mom’s just a phone call away,” said Christine.
With three small children, Jonothon has been keeping his horizons close to the farm, but he expects to get involved with commodity groups again when they’re older.
“Once things quiet down on the home front I’d definitely like to go back and contribute to those other organizations.”
He also knows in time there will be pressure to expand the farm, but he’s leery of getting too big.
“Agriculture’s getting bigger and bigger. The writing’s on the wall. But do I want to go there? I’m not sure. I’d rather be smaller and be profitable instead of being a big farm and taking on a lot more risk,” said Jonothon.
“It’s kind of a balance. We’ll take it as it comes. You never know what kinds of opportunities will be there tomorrow.”
