CANNING, N.S. – David Fuller’s Annapolis Valley chicken operation is big by Nova Scotia standards. His 1.6 million kilograms of quota that sends 140,000 birds through his barns every eight weeks makes it the largest single operation in the province, excluding operations in which individual quota holdings are combined to operate as one unit with separate owners.
It is a thriving operation with an often-absentee owner.
As chair of Chicken Farmers of Canada for the past dozen years, the 55-year-old estimates he spends 175 to 200 days each year away from farm work and involved in CFC work. A supportive family, a brother, Tony, and an employee hold the fort when he is away.
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As for any other farm leader, being a hands-on operator of a successful farm operation is a delicate and sometimes difficult balancing act.
“I try to be as involved as I can be but the biggest asset I have is the support I receive here on the farm when I’m not here,” Fuller said.
The farm is the site where the movie version of Amelia Earhart landed her airplane in Ireland after the first solo trans-Atlantic flight by a female pilot in 1932.
In 2008, when Hollywood was recreating the life of the famous American flier who disappeared in 1937 attempting the first solo flight around the world, the producers did some filming in the Maritimes, near where her famous trans-Atlantic flight started in Harbour Grace, N.L.
They needed a field to land in that would look like Ireland so the steep bluffs from the Minas Basin that border one of Fuller’s fields became Ireland.
Actress Hilary Swank, playing Earhart, soared over the bluffs and landed in a farmer’s field, complete with the Irish farmer herding his sheep.
They were the first sheep ever on Fuller’s farm, transported hundreds of kilometres from a sheep farm with the owner brought along to herd them.
Fuller remembers it as an exciting time with trailers on the field for a week and the family watching Swank through binoculars.
It was a bit of Hollywood money for renting the land and some local notoriety.
For his wife Diane, there was also disappointment. Swank’s co-star was a no show.
“Richard Gere was doing some scenes in Wolfville so we never did get to see him,” she said.
The arrival of Hollywood and the Irish countryside aside, the Fuller farm is a success story in a province where the number of chicken producers has fallen to 84 quota holders.
His parents moved to Nova Scotia from England in the 1950s and over the years had a dairy herd and produced table eggs and pork.
In 1977, David joined his father, John, and brother in the farm operation and over the next three decades, he became the sole owner and expanded the operation to three farms and six barns. He also produces 250 acres of grains and oilseeds.
Fuller produces for and negotiates prices with fast food giants KFC and Swiss Chalet, typically selling birds after four or five weeks.
The latest sales are roasters after eight or nine weeks.
As the Maritime chicken industry has declined, finding a reliable processor has been an issue.
Fuller is joining other regional producers in supporting a new poultry processing plant planned for Kentville, N.S., in 2012. He will hold shares and guarantee a supply of birds to the plant.
“This is a tremendous boost for the industry here, a real injection of stability,” he said in July when plans for the plant were announced. “I believe in this industry and I think it has a future in Nova Scotia.”
Fuller expects his daughters, Natasha, Stephanie, Jennifer and their families, to be the next generation of Fuller chicken producers in the Annapolis Valley west of Halifax.
Meanwhile, he juggles his time between the farm and his farm politics work that includes travel to Ottawa, across the country and often to Geneva for World Trade Organization meetings
“At some point, this (farm leadership) will wind down but I’m not planning anything yet,” he said. “The main reason I do this is to give something back. The supply management system has been good for me and my family. I want to see it maintained. I want to say thank you.”
