FORT MACLEOD, Alta. — Stephen Vandervalk’s smart phone rings every 10 minutes or so and when he doesn’t answer, it emits that distant bell-like sound indicating another message awaits his attention.
The president of Grain Growers of Canada, who also operates a large farm with his two brothers and father, has no shortage of subjects vying for his time.
Stephen, the third in a family of four, is the overall manager of the Vandervalk family farm north of Fort Macleod, which has been in the family for four generations. As such, he does the buying, selling and marketing of the farm’s range of cereals, oilseeds, pulses and hay.
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Brother Brian does the day-to-day work with the equipment, farmyard and field operations. Youngest brother Daniel just rejoined the farm operation and their father, James, runs another business in nearby Fort Macleod.
This was a good year for the farm. It was wetter than normal and yields were among the top two or three that Stephen and Brian have seen.
Their region typically tends toward insufficient moisture, but 1,500 acres of the farm are irrigated, which reduces risk.
Risk and reward are uppermost in the minds of the two brothers, who view their operation as a business, pure and simple.
“At the end of the day, farming is a business. That’s just kind of the way it is. We need to be competitive and we’re not just competing against ourselves anymore. We are competing against Russia, we’re competing against Australia and Brazil,” said Stephen.
“We need to be as efficient as possible, and sometimes that includes a certain critical size, critical mass as far as running an operation.”
Brian agreed that romantic notions about farming have little place in today’s competitive marketplace.
“If there’s no profit in something, we’re not going to keep doing it just because my dad did it and his dad did it. We will adapt our business always to the current situation.”
Both brothers left the farm to get post-secondary education and then returned. With a limited initial land base, they planted the largest black currant crop in Canada at the time.
“We thought that would be the way to value-add so we could bring more families on the farm,” recalled Stephen.
But marketing the crop in the early 1990s proved problematic so they decided to plow up the currants, get rid of the cattle herd and concentrate on farming. The decision was made possible when an uncle quit farming and the brothers were able to buy his land.
Improved commodity prices have put the farm in a good position, said Stephen, who is encouraged by market analysts’ comments about agriculture’s bright future.
One analyst has suggested that farmers will one day be driving Lamborghinis, or at least be able to afford them, but the brothers joked that they don’t plan to order any luxury cars.
Rather, they are encouraged that agriculture is taken more seriously now as a business and a vocation.
“There’s some farmers that are doing very, very well, and I don’t think we should be embarrassed by that,” Stephen said.
“Farming has changed, especially in the last five years with profitability coming back and people coming back. We’ve got a lot of young farmers in this area. It’s changing. It’s high technology. We’re not looking for handouts.”
Brian agreed.
“Some people think ‘corporate farm’ is a swear word. They throw it out there like it’s a negative thing. I don’t’ understand why an incorporated business is negative.”
The brothers live on acreages a few kilometres away from the main farm site. Brian and his wife, Brenda, find it safer for their two children, Evangeline, 5, and Lochlan, 2, to be farther away from the large equipment.
Stephen, who lives across the creek from Brian on another acreage, has a fiancée and is busy with Grain Growers of Canada work, which involves considerable travel and networking.
He said he doesn’t regret his involvement in farm organizations, and Brian doesn’t begrudge him the effort.
“I think it’s good because he doesn’t need to be on the farm all the time if I’m here, so it opens some opportunities and doors. We get to meet a lot of people and I think it’s a good thing,” said Brian.
