PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. – With his spring planting drawing to a close,
Ian Wishart glances at the sky, hoping for signs of rain.
A warm rainfall would green up his pastures and spur the growth of his
crops. Although there has been almost no rainfall at his farm this
spring, Wishart remains upbeat in his outlook for the year.
“I find farming a challenge and I enjoy that challenge,” he said. “I
enjoy what I’m doing.”
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Wishart and his wife Leslie began farming in 1980 on a quarter section
of land rented from Ian’s father. At the time, the farm was devoted to
conventional grain crops like wheat and barley.
A lot has changed since then.
The Wisharts now farm 2,000 acres, most of it their own. They are
growing beans and potatoes, oats and forages, peas and wheat.
The potatoes are grown under contract with McCain Foods, which has a
processing plant in Portage to slice the potatoes into french fries and
other products.
The oats will be sold to Can-Oat Milling in Portage, which processes
the crop for export to the United States. There it will be made into
breakfast cereals and granola bars.
Part of the forage crop will be exported to the U.S. or overseas, where
premiums are paid for quality livestock feed.
Wishart likes hay and oats because they are low input crops. The
forages also help alleviate weed pressure in his fields. He would like
to increase their role in the rotations.
“Last year, some of our best revenue came out of hay acres.”
Wishart describes himself as averse to risk. Diversification has been
his way of managing it.
Besides growing crops, the Wisharts have a commercial herd of 130
cow-calf pairs and run a backgrounding operation.
A large red barn and a network of corrals remain a prominent fixture in
their farmyard.
“The cattle have been good to us,” said Wishart, who grew up on a dairy
farm. “The potatoes have been good to us, too.”
At one time, the farm also grew sugar beets, but the industry died when
Rogers Sugar closed its processing plant in Winnipeg in 1996.
Leslie, a chartered accountant, raises registered Morgan horses. The
Wisharts also board some horses at their farm.
Leslie grew up in Winnipeg, but her family often visited rural western
Manitoba, where her mother was raised. Those visits helped foster her
interest in horses and gave her an appreciation for farm living.
When she married Ian in 1975, she knew they would one day go farming.
She looked forward to it as much as he did.
“The farm is where I always wanted to be,” she said, noting the
enjoyment of having a garden, a huge yard and livestock.
“The lifestyle we have is what we enjoy. We’re just fortunate that it
is also our business.”
Leslie holds a degree in agriculture and worked at Agriculture Canada’s
Morden research station before training to become an accountant. Her
skills are valuable for keeping their farm’s books in good order.
During the annual potato harvest, she oversees the work of storing the
potatoes once they arrive from the field. She is adept at running the
potato piler, a machine that conveys the potatoes into storage sheds,
where they will remain until being hauled to the McCain’s processing
plant in Portage.
She shares in a variety of the other farm work, including the late
night checking of cattle during the calving season in late February and
early March.
“She doesn’t spend a lot of time on the tractor,” said Ian, “but she’s
an important part of this farm.”
They also both appreciate the support they have had over the years from
Ian’s father, Glen, who lives nearby. That support came in the form of
encouragement, as well as a helping hand whenever it was needed.
The Wisharts have two children: Carolyne Jean, 4, and Rhiannan, 2. Both
girls are “animal and plant crazy,” according to Leslie, who hopes they
will one day develop an interest in agriculture.
At the same time, the Wisharts hope their daughters will pursue a
higher education once they finish high school and will spend time away
from the farm to gain another perspective on the world.
“It wouldn’t upset me if they chose not to farm,” said Leslie.
“Everybody has to do what interests them to be successful at it.”
Ian talks about farm policy as easily as he talks about the day-to-day
decisions of tending crops and cattle.
When he’s not thinking about the affairs of his own farm, he’s thinking
about the broader issues that affect the farming community.
He’s a past board member of Manitoba Crop Insurance, a current board
member of the Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council, and president of the
Manitoba Forage Council. He also served on the executive of Keystone
Agricultural Producers for a couple of years and remains involved in
committee work for Manitoba’s general farm group.
Now, he is helping promote a proposal that would see producers paid for
farm practices that benefit the environment and consequently society as
a whole.
The idea behind Alternate Land Use Services, or ALUS, was conceived by
Wishart two years ago while in the midst of a potato harvest.
With input from others in the farm community and support from the Delta
Waterfowl wildlife conservation group, the concept has evolved into a
proposal being reviewed by the federal government.
The core idea of ALUS is to reward farmers through a crop insurance
contract for agreeing to use fragile land for forage or forest,
managing water resources and using farming practices that enhance soil
quality.
“The public wants these things,” said Wishart, “but who’s paying for
it? The farmer is paying for it 100 percent.”
Wishart spent part of this past winter promoting the idea to farm
groups across Canada. He sees some encouraging signs that it might one
day be implemented, although he suspects it will take a few years.
Farmers then would get paid for protecting air, water and soil quality,
not only for the food and fibre that they produce.
Wishart thinks Canadian agriculture has been without a national vision
since the departure of former federal agriculture minister Eugene
Whelan, “and that was a long time ago.”
At this time of year, however, Wishart has to keep most of his thoughts
trained on the farm. Although the seeding is finished, spraying and
haying seasons are already looming. It’s a busy time of year, but he
wouldn’t want it any other way.
“I’m farm born and bred. That’s where my heart is.”
