Diversified farmers top the field in Saskatchewan

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Grain farmers Lauren and Ryan Maurer of Grenfell will represent Saskatchewan at the national Outstanding Young Farmers event in November.The couple, who seed 11,280 acres of grains, pulses, oilseeds and spices in the Qu’Appelle Valley, was selected as provincial winners at the Western Canada Farm Progress Show in Regina last week.Operating as Land and Sky Grains Inc., the Maurers have been farming since 1992 on the farm founded by Lauren’s grandfather. They bought 320 acres initially and now own about 9,300 cultivated acres and rent additional land.About 75 percent of their crops go into dedicated identity preserved markets, Lauren said.“Our hard red spring wheat goes to the Warburton bakery in the U.K.,” said Ryan.“We do malt barley for Canada Malt (and) a collaborative farming agreement with Sapporo Breweries out of Japan now. The spice markets are interesting and entertaining, to say the least, let alone the crops.”They also ship into micro forage markets in the United States.This year, they have been able to seed only 85 percent of their crops because of rain but they are viewing that as an opportunity.“We may put winter cereals in. We may put more forage acres in,” Ryan said.Lauren said they focus on the business aspect of their farm and have developed a strategic plan with the help of experts, including Larry Martin at the George Morris Centre.“That pulls things together for us on a day to day basis and (has) given us our action plans and allowed us to make those daily steps toward what we want to achieve,” she said.They have increased on-farm storage to 370,000 bushels from 50,000 and are doubling their grain drying capacity.They employ six full-time and many part-time employees and are active in their community.The couple has four children: Cassandra, 12, Danyka, 11, Levi, eight, and Mariah, six.The OYF program recognizes farmers under the age of 40 who derive at least two-thirds of their gross revenue from farming and make the majority of farm management decisions.Seven honourees from across Canada will be recognized at the national event in Victoria, B.C.