By Alice McFarlane

Hope and the Future: grain producers have a positive outlook for 2021

Dec 24, 2020 | 9:55 AM

The COVID-19 pandemic makes 2020 a year many may prefer to forget. While we’re not out of the woods yet, farmnewsNOW has chosen to produce our usual series of end-of-year stories with a focus on hope and the future.

Melfort, Sask.

Excellent weather this fall had grain farmers feeling good about the past year and looking forward to the next growing season.

Irma, Alta. farmer Kent Erikson said there is nothing like a weather positive harvest.

“We’ve had some tough harvests. We were combining flax in May and that puts stress on any operation so harvest was great and we’ve been able to move a lot of grain,” Erickson said.

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The central Alberta farmer seeds about 4,000 acres each year and is slowly building up his herd which consists of 100 bred cows.

Erickson said the improved commodity prices towards the end of 2020 helped the farm operation and he is grateful for good health this year especially as the family is very involved in the operation

“I’m excited because we’re a family farm. My son is becoming more involved and being able to transition him on to some equipment is really exciting. It will give us an opportunity to expand and diversify,” he said.

Heading into 2021 Erickson said he is going to focus on the basics, starting with seeding.

“When you plant the seed, if you don’t do that properly it doesn’t matter what you do the rest of the year, you’re not going to get a good crop,” he explained. “Simplify rotations, simplify cost strategies, upgrading the seeding operation, and getting the family more involved which means training and learning.”

Erickson said they recently went through a farm transition so there are still a lot of issues to deal with this winter.

As for the future, Erikson said what gets him up in the morning is that he’s growing for somebody and he wants to do it the best way possible.

“We are stewards of the land whether the land is going to the next generation or its going to someone else to take it over and to run it. We want to make the land better and that’s why we do it,” he said.

Erickson’s message to other producers is simple.

“Stay safe and healthy and I hope 2021 is a fruitful and prosperous one.”

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF