NAICAM, Sask. – One thing you won’t hear much of during a visit to Bill and Lori Hetland’s farm is complaints.
There will be lots of good conversation about farming and small towns and raising kids and community work and hockey, some of it serious and some of it light-hearted.
But none of it will be bitter or angry or negative, because if there’s one thing Bill Hetland can’t stand, it’s negativism.
“With all the negativism you hear these days, who’s going to want to farm in the future?” he wonders aloud, sipping a cup of coffee in his farm office.
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The 43-year-old seed grower, who lives with Lori and their four children in this rolling country two hours northeast of Saskatoon, said he sympathizes with farmers who have been rallying and demonstrating for financial aid.
But he fears that all the negative comments and publicity might drive away the family farmers of tomorrow.
“From Grade 3, I always wanted to be a farmer,” he said.
“I wonder how many farmers’ kids in Grade 3 want that today?”
Hetland knows many farmers are in desperate straits and says improved safety nets are needed.
And he’s quick to acknowledge that luck plays a big part in farming, adding he’s been lucky enough to have bumper crops the last four years.
But it’s also just not in his nature to complain. He’s a hard worker who has built Hetland Seeds into one of the top locally owned seed companies in the province.
He’s a hard-headed businessperson who says it’s a “tough and competitive” world and not everyone will survive and prosper, especially if they’re not prepared to diversify and change.
He’s an optimist who says that while times may be tough now, agriculture is a cyclical business and things are bound to improve.
And while his number one priority is to run a successful business and provide for his family, there’s one other thing that he never loses sight of – he loves farming.
“I truly enjoy what I do,” he said. “It’s great to live in the country and it’s a gift to have the opportunity to be a farmer.”
Nothing, he says, can match the feeling of riding a combine at midnight taking off a good crop, or getting back out on the land in the spring when the birds have returned and the warm sun is bringing the trees into bud.
“You just can’t beat that.”
Hetland carries with him a familiar name in prairie agriculture circles. His father, Forrest, was a commissioner with the Canadian Grain Commission and Canadian Wheat Board for many years. As a result, Bill spent much of his youth in Winnipeg, while the family farm was rented out.
While there he met Lori, who had an agricultural pedigree of her own. Her father John Clark was the well-known editor of the farm newspaper Grainews in the 1970s and 1980s.
After returning to Saskatchewan to complete his degree in agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan, Bill began farming in 1979.
He now seeds about 2,400 acres to a variety of crops, with about 75 percent of his production going into the seed business.
Chatting at the table in their sun-drenched kitchen, Lori recalls that her mother always told her not to marry a farmer.
“Unfortunately,” she joked, “she told me after I married him.”
A veterinarian, Lori worked in Melfort, Sask., and Humboldt, Sask., and set up a small practice on the farm before giving up her career to concentrate on raising their children, girls 15 and 14, and boys 12 and seven. She’s also involved in community activities and takes care of the farm’s books.
A self-described “city girl,” Lori is forthright about her mixed feelings about living in a small town. While calling it a great environment in which to raise kids, she makes no bones about missing some aspects of city life.
“Let’s put it this way – they won’t bury me here,” she said with a laugh. Lori describes her life on the farm as a chance to experience things that would never otherwise happen. But she doesn’t foresee staying on the farm full-time once the kids have gone.
“It’s a big world out there,” she said, adding that she and Bill are interested in traveling and mission work in Third World countries.
So would she pass on to her daughters the same marital advice her mother gave her?
“My advice is to follow their heart,” she said. “It might lead them right back to a farm and they will find a way to make farming and small town life a fulfilling experience.”
Bill said he hopes that one of his children will want to take over the farm after completing their education, carrying on what he, his father and grandfather have built.
“Everybody would like that, but it’s their choice,” he said.
“The number one thing is you have to enjoy what you’re doing.”
