Jersey photos
Jersey Canada and Unique Stock Farm of Rochester, Alta., have selected the winners in a photography contest designed to showcase the Jersey breed.
In the scenic photos of Jersey’s category, Melissa Bowers of Coaticook, Que., won first and the grand champion prize.
Second place and honourable mention went to John MacConnell of Meadowville, N.S.
Third place was won by Jennifer Vander Meulen of Brighton, Ont.
In the Jerseys at home category, Bowers again placed first and also won third place.
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Jennifer Pretty of Grindrod, B.C., placed second.
In the 21 years old and younger category, Erica Sayles of Paris, Ont., placed first and Katelyn Fraser of Lakeside, Ont., won second and third place.
Prizes were awarded in each category, and the photos can be seen on the Jersey Canada website at www.jerseycanada.com/news/photo_contest09.php.
Photos were judged on a combination of photographic skill and usability for promotional-artistic purposes.
OYF Alberta
Alberta’s Outstanding Young Farmers for 2010 are Lethbridge area seed growers.
Annette and Ryan Mercer operate Mercer Seeds, which grows, processes and retails pedigreed seed across North America.
The Mercers have farmed together since 1997 and purchased Mercer Seeds from Ryan’s parents in 2004.
They diversified their crop lines to include mustard and safflower, tripled staff and processing capacity and added human and pet food processing.
Expansion of the farming operations included new custom seeding, spraying and combining.
The Mercers will now compete with other provincial winners to become the Canadian Outstanding Young Farmer for 2010.
The other nominees from Alberta were goats’ milk producers Patrick and Cherylynn Bos of Rock Ridge Dairies in Ponoka, Tamara and Mark Taylor of Ravenwood Farm at Caroline and Lee and Elise Townsend of TPLR Honey Farms at Stony Plain.
OYF British Columbia
Gene and Shelly Covert have been named British Columbia’s Outstanding Young Farmers for 2010.
They operate Covert Farms and Dunham and Froese Estate Winery in Oliver, B.C.
The judges focused on the Coverts’ direct marketing of organic and conventional fruit, vegetables and wines produced on their 660-acre farm.
They market their product throughout Western Canada, but most is sold direct through their on-farm Covert Farms Organic Market and pick-your-own organic market garden.
They planted a 15-acre vineyard in 2005 and added another 15 acres last year. Their estate winery produces 2,000 cases a year.
The Coverts were finalists for the award in 2009 and will now represent B.C. in the Canadian Outstanding Young Farmer finals scheduled for Victoria in November.
Runners-up in the B.C. competition were twin brothers Ricki and Newton Sahota of Twinberry Farms in Pitt Meadows, who developed a direct-to-office marketing system and are creating a boutique processing plant and Blue Barn Farmers’ Market to sell fresh and processed blueberries from their 163-acre farm.
