CHECKING OUT
Seeders, combines and airplanes?
By Tania Moffat
nadian airports? “Farming available agricultural land benefits an airport,” says Darryl Dowd, Winnipeg Air- ports Authority Director of Operations. “Te benefits include risk mitigation related to wild- life, increased revenue and decreased expenses.” Te man tasked with farming our airport land
W
is Bryan Oliver. “Bryan is an integral member of the airport community and we’re very pleased to be long-term partners in the management of airport lands,” remarks Darryl. Bryan’s been farming all his life. “I guess you could say I inherited the defective gene,” he laughs. He grew up on a cattle farm and later operated his own farm in the Interlake until it got flooded in 1995. “I was looking for farmland while we were waiting to get our land back, but it was tough finding good land to lease. I was driv- ing by one day and saw the tall grass on the air- port property, so I called,” he says. Tat was back in 2004, 10 years later he is still farming there. “I thought they maybe had 100 acres, but they
actually have 1,200. It’s a bit of a challenge as it is broken up into several little parcels and is quite spread out. Most of the land is inside the airport fence, but a quarter of it is outside,” he explains. “Our fields go around the outside edge of the runways. Starting at the terminal it is almost four miles around from one side to the other. We are separated from the runways and we are not allowed to cross them.”
ould it surprise you to know that the Winnipeg airport has a farmer? Tat this is actually a common practice with many Ca-
Farming airport land is fraught with rules
and regulations. For instance, crop selection is restricted in order to avoid crops that attract birds. “Tat is the frustrating part, in terms of crop rotation, in that you are limited in what you can grow,” says Bryan. “We plant dairy quality hay, canola and flax.” Te fields require a lot of work. Bryan works them full time and also hires three to five part- time people to help him out over the season. Luckily they are able to leave a lot of their equipment on site, but bringing in seeders, sprayers and combines can be a bit of a chal- lenge. Another major difference from farming open
prairie is the surrounding airport activity ex- plains Bryan. “I grew up on a farm and it was very isolated. You get used to being alone with your thoughts. Tat first year, working at the airport was very startling at times. Often we work at night; you’d be working alone in the quiet dark and then suddenly there’d be loud noise and a light above you. Other times you’d be working and hear a bang over the sound of your equipment; it would give you a real start, then you’d realize it was the fighter jets taking off.” It can be kind of neat, too. “One year my son
was helping me and he was close enough to a passenger plane that he waved and he could see the pilot wave back.” Tough farming here is laden with regula-
tions not faced by other Manitoba farmers, it is an interesting and mutually beneficial arrange- ment.
64 • Summer 2014
The Hub
Photos provided by the Oliver family.
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