It was only two months into 2005 but British Columbia had already picked its finalist for this year’s national Outstanding Young Farmer contest.
At a B.C. agricultural industry gala held Feb. 18, Derek and Rhonda Janzen of Bordercreek Farms in Aldergrove were named the top farming couple.
B.C. moved its nomination process into the winter from late spring and early summer to make it easier for the nominees to prepare. The other three western winners are picked during the summer.
The national winners will be determined Nov. 16-20 in Halifax in a competition among seven regional winners. British Columbia has won the Canadian OYF competition for the last three years.
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Although Derek Janzen grew up on a Fraser Valley poultry farm, he spent his first adult years in Vancouver working for B.C.’s largest poultry processing organization.
In 1993, he branched into trucking, purchasing Corrie Transport, which now has two trucks hauling live broilers from farms to processing plants.
Three years later, he bought a small broiler farm in the north Okanagan Valley.
In 1998, he left the processing plant and sold the Okanagan farm to begin full-time farming in Aldergrove. Bordercreek Farm now includes a broiler business with a capacity of 125,000 birds per cycle, a layer business with 20,000 birds of leased quota and a facility producing 10,000 replacement pullets at a time.
Recently Janzen has also taken over management of his father’s broiler farm, which produces 100,000 birds per cycle.
Janzen calls last spring’s outbreak of avian influenza in the Fraser Valley “the greatest challenge I have faced during my farming career.”
Although he was able to avoid the complete depopulation of his farm, his position of chair of the Fraser Valley Egg Producers Association threw him into a leadership role during the crisis.
The Janzens were one of three finalist couples for the 2005 award. Other finalists were dairy producers David and Lisa Taylor of Courtenay and organic fruit and vegetable growers
Kevin and Annemarie Klippenstein of Cawston.
To be eligible for the Outstanding Young Farmer award, farmers must be between 19 and 39 years of age, derive at least two-thirds of their annual income from farming and demonstrate progress in their agriculture careers.
