Hudye Farms | Walsh, Alta., area colony plans to start new colony near Norquay, Sask.
The Hudye family from Norquay, Sask., has sold its 20,000 acre grain farm to members of the Spring Creek Hutterite colony near Walsh, Alta.
The move is one of the larger single sales of farmland in Western Canada, says Braden Hudye.
He said the sale will spark the development of a new colony, to be known as Crystal Lake, and include Hudye Farms’ equipment, grain storage and land.
Paul and Pauline Hudye started the family farm after the Second World War and expanded the operation to cover 2,300 acres by the mid-1950s. They brought sons Greg and Ben into the business in 1980, incorporating the farm, expanding it and including other family members over the years.
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The operation diversified with an agronomy, marketing and farm inputs business that now sponsors Field of Dreams, an annual project aimed at maximizing yield in wheat and canola crops.
The family has also diversified its operations with a 16,000 acre U.S. farmland business in western Kansas and eastern Colorado, an American wind energy business, an oil and gas operation in southern Manitoba and the United States, commercial real estate in Canada and the U.S. and residential real estate in Arizona. It also runs a bison ranch near Norquay.
Braden Hudye said the family had reached some of its goals in grain farming and now wants to invest in other areas.
“We’re going to take a little time to examine where to go next with our portfolio, but we already have a lot of diversity.”
Hudye said the family chose to sell to members of Spring Creek largely because of the group’s commitment to the community and sustainable agriculture.
The family made the sale with the use of a broker, saying the single sale of the land and other grain business assets was the best overall divestiture plan for them.
According to Farm Credit Canada, farmland in the Norquay area has been selling for about $875 per acre over the past year, with prices peaking at $1,125.
These figures would put the Norquay deal in the $20 million range, although Hudye did not give a selling price.
