Jason Kehler had a fitting nickname while growing up on the farm near Carman, Man.
He constantly talked about farming, so friends and family started calling him Farmer.
Many found his fixation with farming admirable or charming, but his high school teachers didn’t share those feelings.
The fall of 1993, Jason’s Grade 12 year, was a difficult harvest on the Kehler farm with soaked fields and crops.
Consequently, Jason was out of school for part of September and October. He was busy combining canola and wheat and working the land, while his dad, Harv, focused on the potato harvest.
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“I was just all about the farm. My teachers … had a hell of a time with me in high school because all I wanted to do was farm…. The teachers didn’t have the same appreciation for (the farm work) as I did,” Jason said. “I think I got a bit ahead of myself (in high school). I got the distinct impression that the farm wouldn’t survive without me.”
Jason’s devotion to the family farm and his love of agriculture hasn’t dissipated since he graduated from high school.
In late February, his passion was formally recognized, when Jason and his wife, Laura, were crowned Manitoba’s Outstanding Young Farmers for 2016.
Jason and Laura run a 5,600 acre farm, growing potatoes, corn, canola, oats, edible beans and soybeans on owned and rented land.
Laura was raised on a mixed farm in Ohio and received a masters degree in meat science from Oklahoma State University.
She then worked for a dozen years in research and product development for Tyson Foods and Nestle.
Like many modern couples, Jason and Laura met online.
“We met on a website called Farmers Only,” Laura said. “We tell everybody who asks because they (say) how and the heck did you meet?”
After maintaining a long distance relationship, Laura made the decision in 2008 to move to Manitoba and join Jason on his family’s farm.
Laura took a job as a senior scientist with the Food Development Centre in Portage la Prairie but gave up her position after her second child was born. Their daughter, Paisley, is four and Wyatt is two.
“It was just way too much,” Laura said. “To be working off the farm, working for the farm and having a couple of kids.”
Since 2013, they doubled their potato acres and increased total farm acres by nearly 50 percent. They employ six full-time workers and that number increases to 25 people during the potato harvest.
The Kehlers have farmed around Carman for about 27 years. Before that, Harv farmed near the family homestead at Rosetown, Man.
In the late 1980s, Jason, with his younger sister and parents, relocated to the current farm with a plan to grow potatoes. Harv be-lieved the Carman property would provide better prospects over the long term.
“He told me back then, he was doing it so I would have more opportunity to farm,” Jason said.
Harv and Jason farmed together during the 1990s and the 2000s, with Jason taking control of the operation in the last five years.
Harv allowed his son to participate in the farm at an early age because Jason was constantly riding in the tractor and doing every possible farm job. Jason is following that model with his kids.
“I would say four out of six days I’ll have one of my kids with me for a few hours of the day…. I like to expose them to plants and (talk about) how they grow,” he said.
“You don’t get to be a farmer when you’re 25 years old. You can’t create interest at 25. You can create that at five.”
His efforts must be having an impact because Paisley is already on board. When Laura and Jason told her they were attending the OYF banquet, Paisley asked to come along
“I said it’s kind of for farmers. She said, ‘Dad, I’m a farmer too.’ ”
For Jason, the OYF award recognizes his and Laura’s work to ex-pand the operation over the last several years and is a tribute to previous generations.
His ancestors immigrated to Canada from Ukraine in the late 1910s and early 1920s, settling at a homestead in southern Manitoba.
“Could you imagine people 25 years old… in Montreal with literally $5 in their pocket, three little kids and a box of their worldly belongings. And (they’re) off to the Prairies to farm,” Jason said.
“I’m so proud that none of them gave up. They all persevered…. Laura and I standing up there and taking that award was the culmination of all the efforts of my family over the last 100 years…. It really validated the effort my family has put into the farm over the generations.”
The Kehlers will represent Manitoba in the national OYF event in November in Niagara Falls, Ont.
robert.arnason@producer.com
