Grainswest - Fall 2021

Fall 2021 grainswest.com 25 (NPARA) in Manning. A big proponent of soil health, from 2015 to 2019 she chaired the Western Canada Conference on Soil Health & Grazing in Edmonton. Jackknife Creek Land and Cattle is located southeast of Manning and just east of the NPARA Research Farm. Nora’s Ukrainian immigrant grandparents homesteaded nearby. Husband Bob Noble grew up on a farm near Taber. With daughter Jolene and son Lee, they maintain a cow-calf operation and grow cereal, oilseed and pulse crops. Their daughter Cara is an accountant who lives in Edmonton but assists on monthly visits. Geographic drawbacks of farming in Peace Country are magnified as one travels north. Here, market access for crops and livestock is limited. The family hires a custom hauler to drive 80 kilometres to Grimshaw at about $12.50 a tonne. While transport to far-flung terminals takes a bite, grain buyers offer lower rates than do facilities closer to port. Input suppliers are also spread out, so parts can take time to acquire. Speed of service depends on the colour of the equipment. The family drives an hour-and-a-half to Fairview or two to La Crete. They do appreciate the efforts of service and supply outlets to address local needs, but maintain contingency plans. This includes a limited on-farm, spare parts inventory. Despite drawbacks, the family speaks glowingly of their northern advantages. Accessibility of land can bring favourable return on investment, and because urban development is limited, there is less pressure on land value. There is also less maintenance pressure on local roads and even less noise and dust pollution. As well, shy of soybeans, long summer days allow farmers to grow most crops their southern neighbours do. “We pay for the day length in December,” said Lee. “But I wouldn’t trade it.” Neither would Jolene. Like Nora and Bob, Lee and Jolene studied agriculture at the University of Alberta and are now career farmers. “We’re very proud and lucky they both want to come back and farm,” said Nora. “This was always what we wanted to do,” said Jolene. “And a big part of that was mom and dad involving us in management decisions from an early age. And they always bring new ideas to the operation and all of us are very open to moving forward and making improvements.” This includes further diversification and vertical integration of crops and cattle. “We will improve our soil health through our crop rotations and grazing management and reduce our inputs to make more profit,” said Nora. They are also retailers of forage seed, fence supplies and livestock minerals and plan to introduce a value-added beef freezer trade to their business. Cover cropping, which they began in 2013, is a proven innovation. “That’s what’s going to save our bacon this year,” said Nora. Late frost and a dry spring knocked forage production back to as little as a quarter the norm. On Christi and Kelly Friesen's farm near Brownvale, the couple celebrated the completion of a new grain bin installation.