Alberta farmer makes a smooth transition, moving into town and driving to the farm to help his son on his own schedule
CAMROSE, Alta. — When Warren Moseson retired from farming and moved to the city, he kept on farming.
With his son Adam making the decisions, Warren could come and go as he pleased. He has the benefit of still having a connection to the farm, without the farming pressures.
“He would go nuts if he didn’t farm. Going to the farm now is more fun,” said Janet, who said her husband now gets to pick the jobs he wants to do on the farm.
When Warren and Janet moved to Camrose from their farm south of Wetaskiwin, Alta., Warren promised his son to work full time for two years to ensure a smooth transition. Now, 10 years after moving off the farm, going out to the farm is a pleasure, not full time and on his own schedule.
“When guys ask me why I keep going to the farm I tell them I enjoy it and when it gets really hectic I say, ‘Mom wants me back in town early, I got to go,’” said Warren, who isn’t afraid to reject jobs suggested by his son, especially if they involve GPS technology on the equipment.
“The beauty of it is I can work as many hours as I want and if someone phones me up and says we’re going to the mountains I have the freedom to go.”
One of the keys to the smooth transition was not waiting too long to move off the farm. Warren was 62 when they left the farm and bought a home in Camrose. Janet retired from her job with the local member of Parliament and the pair built a new community in town.
“When we moved here it was a big change for both of us,” said Janet, who plays bridge three days a week and still gets together with friends who she played bridge with for more than 30 years.
“I am very fortunate that Warren was willing to look for a home in town. We have so many friends who are dead set against moving into town,” she said.
Their home backs on to a green space and across the street is a walking path that leads to Camrose’s scenic valley with kilometres of paved and grass paths.
“You walk half a block here and there’s a bench and you can sit down and overlook the valley. It reminds me of a pasture out in the hills. It seems like everyone is friendly. There are not a lot of grumpy people on the trails,” said Warren.
A month ago, Warren bought an electric bike complete with fat tires to cycle on paved trails around Camrose, or grass or dirt trails in the mountains. Buying and riding an e-bike never entered his mind while he lived on the farm. In between feeding cattle and raising a family, Warren’s interests ran to mountain trips with horses and snowmobiles, not pedalling a bike for exercise.
“I bought a motorcycle and I have put more miles on this e-bike than I ever did on my motorcycle. I couldn’t get comfortable on it,” Warren said about the motorcycle. Now, he often gets stopped on the trails to discuss his e-bike.
Keeping the connection to the farm is important to Warren. He has retained ownership of some cattle and land, but the decisions about them are made by his son. When his son took over the farm, calving switched from March and April to May and June, fields were seeded to grass for early calving and summer pastures hundreds of kilometres away were given up.
Turning the decision-making over to the next generation is never easy, but it is an important part of farm transitions, he said.
“Kudos to you, Warren, for letting those reins go. There are numerous friends that cannot relinquish control,” said Janet.
Warren added: “There are a lot of things we talk over. He has the final say.”
With three children, Janet said it took about two years of work with lawyers and accountants to finalize the farm transition. They sold the home quarter to their son and daughter-in-law, Kelly, and made it clear to everyone breaking up the farm was not negotiable.
“We said to them that the farm will stay together and they were welcome to come back to the farm but they chose not to. The kids realize it won’t be totally equal because they realize it was important for us to keep the farm and the land together,” said Janet.
By staying involved in the farm, Warren also keeps up with the latest innovations and stays connected to younger farmers with fresh ideas.
“It is fun to listen to the young guys and their ideas. There are so many things coming up in agriculture. It is pretty exciting stuff.”
While they changed from barbed wire to electric fences years ago, they are now looking at virtual fencing that uses GPS technology to create fences without wires.
Warren said he will continue travelling the 35 minutes back to the farm until he is no longer helpful.
“Now, it seems like I am contributing something. I don’t know how you are supposed to sit and look out the window. It is a good thing Janet told me to move to town.”
