CANORA, Sask. – When asked, Tony Hladyboroda admits to being a
traditional farmer; perhaps, he mocks himself, even a bit old-fashioned.
But the faint odour of burned maple sap in his farm home gives him away.
This spring he tapped the trees on the farm where he was born and
raised and has farmed for decades.
His attempt to turn the sap into syrup didn’t go so well when a visitor
kept him away from the stove longer than he expected.
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He talks about growing large pumpkins – “to get my picture in the
paper” – and setting up a greenhouse full of tomatoes when he retires.
He is traditional in some ways, but he’s also looking around for
opportunities.
Hladyboroda and his brother Bill farm nearly 4,000 acres in
east-central Saskatchewan. They own some land separately and some
jointly. They grow wheat, oats, barley, flax and canola.
“We haven’t gotten into anything fancy yet,” he said.
They grow genetically modified canola, had about 700 acres of
summerfallow last year, and will likely have about 400 acres this year
to help retain soil moisture.
“It’s insurance to have a bit of a crop next year,” he said.
While many in this area have moved to continuous cropping, there are
still those who use fallow as part of their rotation.
Hladyboroda said they grew up with the idea and see no reason to change
now.
“If we don’t (fallow), we have to put so much more fertilizer on,” he
said.
They spray the summerfallow for weeds if necessary, but Hladyboroda
figures that’s cheaper than applying anhydrous ammonia.
They don’t buy crop insurance or participate in programs, even the
supposedly farmer-friendly Gross Revenue Insurance Plan of the early
1990s.
“Nature has been very good to us,” he said. If some years don’t yield
well, “I can accept that.”
Hladyboroda said the money he would have spent on insurance premiums
was instead set aside to buy equipment. The brothers prefer to carry
little debt.
“It’s not the in thing,” he acknowledged.
“You’re supposed to expand and buy the latest equipment. You can
capitalize on credit only until things go wrong.”
This year, the brothers bought an air seeder.
Hladyboroda said they don’t make seeding plans too far ahead.
“We play it by ear most of the time and that upsets all our suppliers,”
he said with a smile.
“Some people have it planned in fall and even set the date (to start
seeding the following spring). It isn’t much fun leading such a
scheduled life.”
Hladyboroda said young farmers starting out today can make money
growing traditional crops and not borrowing heavily to have the best
and newest equipment right off the bat.
They should keep good records so they aren’t fooled into thinking they
are making money, he said.
And, they should be patient.
“I’ve never borrowed more than what my term deposit can cover,” he
said.
“Banks are nice when you’re keeping up with your payments. If you’re
not, they get real nasty in a hurry, although they should take some
responsibility of giving you that money in the first place.”
