Ferme Rang 6

My uncle Louis had no one to take over the farm. He was a man who lived alone, so when he died, the land returned to the family. Then, the entire family asked themselves, what should we do with the land? It was my grandfather’s land, my great-grandfather’s land, so it had great emotional significance for all of us. I was already involved in farming in the area. My market gardening project was going very well. But how many years would I continue to do this? It’s quite demanding, with the summer rush. So that’s basically what happened when my uncle passed away. I immediately volunteered to take over the land. And the morning after he died, I was already on the farm taking care of everything that needed to be done, because I knew the farm well. I was also close to my uncle, so it was natural for me to be there to take over. It was a bit of a rushed decision, but I had great support from my family. We managed to stay the course, and today we’re up and running and things are going well.

Well, basically, it was a farm that specialized in dairy production, but I wasn’t that interested in dairy production. So I converted the dairy herd into a beef herd, because my idea was to raise beef cattle and process it on the farm. We work organically and we care about the environment. In any case, these are all things that are very important to us. Louis also thought that way a bit, along with animal welfare. You know, pasture for cows, no inputs on the farm, lots of permanent grassland. So I’ve made changes in terms of production itself, but a lot of progress had already been made over the years, so I didn’t have to do that.

Well, let’s begin with my family and friends. Yes, I had help there. My father was really supportive. He stopped working for three years, the first few years after I took over the farm, because I needed help. After that, in farming, you’re surrounded by a terrific support network. I surrounded myself with advisors to help me boost my production a bit.

But, basically, we have 40 beef cows. They’re a cross between Simmental, which is a French breed, and Angus, which is an English breed, so that’s our cattle herd. Basically, it’s a cow-calf operation, so the cows stay in the herd and give birth to calves every year. And it’s those calves that we sell as meat. That’s right, our cows stay in the herd and produce calves. So that’s cattle farming, which involves producing all the fodder needed to feed these animals and maintaining pasture for cows in the summer. Apart from that, what else do we do? Part of our land is used for grain production, so we grow bread wheat, which is wheat for human consumption, and we also grow oats and peas. Those are the main crops we grow. Other than that, there’s also forestry production in winter, because there are a lot of woodlots on the farm, so we cut wood for the sawmills in winter.