DECEMBER 2018 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


35 Young farmers share experiences at Farm Fest


Business, communication savvy important tools for success


by DAVID SCHMIDT LANGLEY – Last year, Jill Robbins of K&M Farms


in Aldergrove and Ross Springford of Springford Farms in Nanoose Bay were among 10 young farmers from across Canada to be selected to participate in Farm Management Canada’s Bridging the Gap program. Robbins is a second-generation farmer who


recently received new entrant quota from the BC Chicken Marketing Board while Springford is a sixth-generation farmer who received new entrant quota from the BC Egg Marketing Board. The aim of the Bridging the Gap program is to


provide future farmers with the best chance of success, Robbins told her fellow young farmers during the BC Young Farmers Farm Fest in Langley, November 10. Through the program, Robbins and Springford


“The success of any farm enterprise is directly


related to your farm business management skills and practices,” BC Ministry of Agriculture partnerships and outreach manager Lindsay Bisschop said as she detailed some of the resources the ministry provides. These include Agri-Skills workshops on value- added processing, disaster recovery and land linking, and the BC Agri-Business Planning Program, which helps farmers develop business plans.


She told young farmers the BCMA also has a


variety of online business resources, including new farm start-up guides, enterprise budgets, self- assessment questionaires, succession planning checklists and agri-tourism guides. And more help is on the way, she promised. “We are looking at how we can support


startups more effectively,” she told her audience. Farm management skills are useful but Andrew


Campbell, a third-generation farmer from Ontario known as the Fresh Air Farmer, says communication is the “next great skill every farmer needs.”


were able to attend both an international farm management conference in Edinburgh and the 2017 Agricultural Excellence Conference in Ottawa. While the trip to Scotland was the most enjoyable, Springford said the Ottawa


conference was the most useful. In fact, both he and Robbins found the conference so useful, they both planned to attend this year’s conference in late November.


Robbins said the conference assisted with their farm businesses, allowed them to contribute to agriculture at large, gave them peer-group mentoring opportunities and is helping them transition their family farms. Best of all, it was all provided to them at no cost. Although Bridging the Gap was a one-time program, Springford noted there are many other no or low-cost programs young farmers can participate in. “All you have to do is apply,” Springford said.


Overseas farm tours are one of the potential perks of programs directed at young farmers. ROSS SPRINGFORD PHOTO


He notes consumers are asking more questions about where their food is coming from and how it is produced. Answering those questions is more suited to young rather than old farmers, he said.


However, answering them with only a series of facts won’t cut it. “The facts we present to consumers doesn’t matter at all to them,” he said.


Instead, farmers need to consider what people think before they eat, and respond accordingly. Noting activists are constantly preying on consumers using fear or guilt


messaging, Campbell said it is essential for farmers to get in on the conversation. “Our side of the story doesn’t exist unless we tell it.” He told farmers to “be yourself” when talking to consumers, saying they should use personal examples which are based on facts but fit into consumers’ perceptions. “Government and retailers won’t solve our problems for us. We have to get at


doing it,” he said.


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