With the help of a Nuffield Canada scholarship, Craig Lester is challenging mainstream media coverage of agriculture. Lester is the founder of Rural Roots Canada, an agriculture media company he launched in 2010. In 2022, he left his day job as a broadcast journalist to work full time on his own business.

I am the fifth generation of my family to operate our Wetaskiwin area farm. In keeping with tradition, I have given it my own unique spin in the form of a garlic products business.

Real Garant began his work life at 18 farming grain and forages with his father and two brothers in the Donnelly area. In winter, he took a job at a local sawmill operated by relatives. A general labourer, he was inquisitive and bombarded maintenance staff with questions. Over following seasons, he serviced air and electrical systems and began welding and machining various parts. To beef up his farm skillset, he took an apprentice machining course at NAIT. Soon after, he established a small shop on the farm. Customer demand grew quickly. He rented his land to his brothers and threw himself into the launch of his own full time business, Donnelly Machining and Fabricating. The business serves a wide variety of clients in agriculture and agri-food manufacturing, the heavy equipment and forestry industries and even schools and hospitals. It’s a go-to business in the Upper Peace Region, but it is Garant’s 2022 product the Spider Hitch, which launched a second enterprise that carries international potential.

Raised on a mixed grain and pig farm in southeast Saskatchewan, a career in agriculture was a foregone conclusion for Wayne Thompson. Although he helped raise the pigs and grow the grain, he has always been preoccupied with the issues farmers face and how they can maintain stable, profitable operations.

As a researcher and administrator, Sheri Strydhorst knows how to produce results, and in October was hired as research program manager for crops WITH Results Driven Agriculture Research (RDAR). RDAR is a farmer-led, not-for-profit corporation with a 10-year budget of $370 million. In support of projects across the value chain from farm to store shelf, its central priority is to boost farm productivity, profitability and competitiveness.

Farmers are skilled at many tasks. Marketing an entire season of crops while in line at Tim Hortons or properly sampling a super-B of grain while scrolling social media are but two examples. One thing many farmers just aren’t too good at, though, is retirement. For so many, 65 really is just a number. With the wisdom they’ve acquired in the art and science of farming, they can continue to make a difference. And given the standard auto features and air-rider comfort of new-model tractors, the work has become more physically accommodating for senior farmers.

Mark Walker’s maternal grandparents farmed in Manitoba’s Interlake Region and his father grew up on a livestock farm just outside Victoria, B.C. These deep family farming connections led him to pursue an academic path to a career in agriculture.

The intent of the Nuffield Canada Scholarship program is to connect agricultural scholars with farmers and ag professionals across the globe. Established in 1950, the program is geared towards mid-career individuals, it empowers recipients with $15,000 and a two-year mandate to travel and research a topic of their choosing.

Gurcharn Singh Brar’s ambition was to develop or lead a wheat breeding program. “Plant breeders have a very tangible impact on the lives of growers,” said Brar. “That’s very, very fulfilling.”

In 2024, another slew of Canadian farmers will transition out of farming while the next generation takes over either in part or whole. It’s a fact of farm life: eventually the farm changes hands. For countless reasons, farm transitions take many meandering paths. Depending on business and family dynamics, the trip can be smooth going or a rough ride.