Solar power, GPS, biodiversity projects | Wheatcrest Farms uses management practices that are sustainable and environmentally friendly
LOMOND, Alta. — An array of construction and farm equipment toys are lined up outside the office of Wheatcrest Farms, where the next generation of farmers, still pint-sized, often plays.
Glenn and Marie Logan welcome the interest their grandchildren take in farm operations. They and their two children, Tamara and Doug, operate the large enterprise and some of the seven grandchildren seem likely to follow in their farming footsteps.
Six generations of Logans have farmed in this fertile part of southern Alberta, starting in the early 1900s. The farm’s website, built by Doug, emphasizes that history with an array of vintage photos of past Logans and Bolducs, which is Marie’s side of the family.
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Glenn says that history emphasizes the fact that Wheatcrest Farms is here to stay.
“Our vision is to create an environment where our kids will want to stay and work, continue on the farm. It’s important to us. It’s been here 100 years. We’d like to see it continue for another hundred,” says Glenn.
“We have a really deep sense of our roots,” adds Marie.
“I guess one thing that sums it up is our family mission statement. It says ‘committed to the quality of life for our family, efficient management of our farm and betterment of our community.’ I think every one of our generations has sort of had that same mission.”
The family includes Doug and Heather, and their children, Hannah, Hailey, Sam and Jaxon, and Tamara and Shin Okubo, and their children Eva, Max and Kale.
Over time, the farm has expanded to several thousand acres of irrigated, dryland and pasture in various locations between Lomond and Enchant, with additional property near Picture Butte.
The farm has been zero till since 1995 and the Logans grow an array of pedigreed cereals and oilseeds, operate their own seed cleaning plant and run a 100-head cow-calf operation and a 1,000 head feedlot.
Family members plus two employees keep things running, but they are always considering ways to keep the farm sustainable and environmentally friendly.
They recently added a solar array that provides electricity to the seed cleaning plant with excess sold into the grid.
The Logans have also embraced variable rate fertilizer application, made possible by GPS and other technology.
Extensive records allow the farm to trace cropping history back to the early 1980s, an asset when it comes to pedigreed seed and hybrid seed production on contract.
The farm is involved in biodiversity projects involving Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever and a Fish and Wildlife burrowing owl protection effort.
Glenn is well known in agricultural circles for his work with the Alberta Barley Commission, various seed grower organizations and both the provincial and Canadian cattlemen’s groups.
The business cards on his desk are printed in both Korean and Japanese for use on his numerous business trips, the most recent of which saw him promoting barley to Asian markets in March.
Glenn is also active on SouthGrow, an initiative to attract people and businesses to southern Alberta, as well as Ag for Life, the Alberta 4-H Foundation, SeedNet, Vulcan County council and numerous other industry and community groups.
Marie is well known in 4-H circles. She was inducted to the 4-H Hall of Fame in 2000 and has an honorary life membership on the Canadian 4-H Council.
She has been a 4-H leader for 38 years, and her children and grandchildren are all past or current members of 4-H. As well, she is past-president of the 4-H Foundation.
“I’ve always said the experience a 4-H member gets lasts them a lifetime. Our youth are our future leaders and especially our 4-H members, there’s no limit to what they can achieve or what goals they can reach,” she says.
Family and business pursuits could fill the days, but the Logans’ belief in community involvement stretches their time even further.
Marie is a founding member of the Chinook Arch regional library system and has long been a board member for the Lomond Community Library and Vulcan County library.
She is also past chair of the Horizon School Division and a member of the Alberta School Board Association, so negotiations with teachers have recently been part of her activities.
“I’ve always said if you want women and children to live in rural areas, there’s got to be services, and that happens to be schools and libraries,” she says.
Community involvement is also part of Doug and Heather’s lives.
Doug serves on the library board and has been tapped to develop a website for Lomond’s upcoming 100th anniversary.
Heather, a public health nurse, is on the local skating club board and involved in various music, 4-H and sporting events for her children.
And then there’s the money printing operation.
Glenn hatched an idea to print “Badger Bucks” as a method of community development. Funded by the community, the bucks are used as prizes in local events, such as the fishing derby on nearby McGregor Lake. The “money” must be spent in the community.
“It’s fun things like that, that keep community spirit,” Marie says.
She and Glenn agree that farming will never be an easy way of life. It takes commitment and the ability to explain practices necessary to food production.
Glenn sums it up with a quotation from Martin Luther King Jr.: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.”
