COALDALE, Alta. – John Hubert gazed at six pea harvesting machines slowly making their way around his southern Alberta field.
In less than 24 hours, the 61 acres of peas would be harvested and shipped under contract to Lucerne Foods in nearby Lethbridge.
But before the harvesters were done, John hoped to bring out his father David to see another successful completion of a crop his father first grew more than 30 years before.
“My father was up (for helping with the harvest) until three or four years ago,” said John. “He had retired earlier, but farming was his way of life. We had a good arrangement. If I started cultivating and he felt like working, I’d come back, then he’d take over for a while.”
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A stroke in 1992 forced David to the sidelines and his eldest son took over the farm.
Unexpected occupation
A few years ago, John Hubert and his wife Dorothy didn’t expect he’d be operating the family farm. After earning an agricultural degree from the University of Saskatchewan, he worked as an agricultural consultant with the Mennonite Central Committee in Jordan for three years.
John learned a lot from the country, ranging from history to accepting a different culture to the politics of the Middle East.
The experience in Jordan “gave us a better appreciation for a rich country we take for granted here in Canada,” said John.
The hardest change for the Huberts to accept when they came back to Alberta in 1976 was the state of the farm economy.
“There was a tremendous boom and grain prices really took off. So all of a sudden it was very difficult to get into agriculture. We hadn’t expected that.
“There wasn’t the opportunity to get on the farm,” he said, pointing out he had other family members interested in farming.
He started farming with his brother-in-law away from the family homestead and soon found they needed more income. John began working for what became the Alberta Agriculture Financial Services Corp. and he later became the corporation’s lending manager in southwestern Alberta.
Then another twist. John’s brother decided he wanted more land, but didn’t want to pay the $2,000 per acre price in the Coaldale area.
So his brother moved to the northern Peace River region. Another brother and a sister moved to the same area to farm.
“So by default I took over the family farm,” John said. “It was good to do the two jobs (farming and lending manager) because I understand better and keep my fingers in farming… .
“I understand where farming is coming from and what some of the challenges are. And I speak the language (of the farmers) because I’m producing some of the things they’re producing.”
It has also made him see farming as a business.
“Farming has to be treated more as a business than as a way of life. You need to control costs. Even if a half section of irrigation sounds like a farm, if you’re going to buy it and have ownership, it would be difficult to make it without off-farm income.”
The need for a larger land base led him to add the second quarter to the farm in 1989.
The 320 acres are split in ownership between John and his father: Each owns a quarter section. The land is broken into four parcels and the crops are on a four-year rotation of peas, wheat, sugar beets and wheat.
John grows corn as windbreaks around six acres of saskatoon berry bushes grown under drip
irrigation.
He let a friend plant saskatoon bushes in a corner where the pivot irrigation doesn’t reach. If the berries grow well, he plans to plant more in the other pivot corners. In another three years, they hope to have a U-pick operation running.
John credits his wife as a key player in the farm’s success. “Dorothy does the book work, and can be counted on to do the field work, especially with my full-time job.”
He recalled one year in particular when she had all the work done by the time he got home from his job.
“She had finished combining. The combine was in the yard, the trucks emptied, the bins closed.
“It’s a partnership. That’s why I can have a full-time job and have a farm. I have someone who can pick it up when there’s a time conflict with my job.”
He also works in partnership with neighbors. He shares ownership in a combine with one neighbor and the beet harvest is done with friends. He supplies the tandem truck and they do the seeding and harvesting together.
The Huberts have four children. Daughter Gayle picked up the travel bug from living in Jordan and is now teaching English in Lithuania. Son Jeff is in a bible college in British Columbia and the two youngest sons Charles and Joel live on the farm.
Pass down the farm
“It’s hard to tell if our youngest boys will take over the farm. They are very interested in what’s going on in the farm, and they want to ride on the tractors or combines.”
While he speaks warmly of continuing the family farm, the business side of it begins to show.
“But if my boys want to farm in the long run, given that our land is so close to town, they would need to relocate. With the price of wheat, if it’s $4, it’s $4 whether it’s on $2,000/acre land or $250/acre land.”
