GrainsWest Fall 2019

Fall 2019 Grains West 28 JANINE PALY When Janine Paly and her husband Ian decided it was time for one of them to transition from off-farm work to full-time farming, she stepped up. Paly grew up on a mixed farm 21 kilometres from her current home and attended school with her future husband, long before they became a couple. “A career in agriculture wasn’t on my Top 10 list in high school,” said Paly. “I always thought I’d be a dental hygienist.” After high school, a move to Lethbridge altered Paly’s career path. Rather than studying dental hygiene, she enrolled in the Faculty of Agriculture at Lethbridge Community College. She received a diploma in plant and soil health and later completed her bachelor of science in agriculture with a major in biology at the University of Lethbridge. After graduation, she spent eight months in Australia working on canola seed production for Bayer CropScience. She came back to Canada to help her parents with harvest and worked FEATURE in small town agriculture retail jobs. “It wasn’t until I started working with Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) that I found my spark in agricultural extension and ag-vocacy,” said Paly. “I worked for DUC for 10 years on the winter wheat extension program in Western Canada in Alberta and I loved it.” Working with DUC allowed her to travel and develop relationships with farmers and industry members across Western Canada. “It helped me as a farmer,” she said. Having developed relationships with wheat breeders and researchers, she taps into their expertise when agronomic problems arise. Now farming with her husband’s parents on a mixed operation in the County of Thornhill, the couple manage the grains side of the operation while his parents Darlene and Don oversee the livestock. Paly also serves as an Alberta Wheat Commission director-at-large. “At first, the transition to full-time farming was hard. “It was a challenge because I didn’t have the ‘me time’ that I had before,” she said, explaining that her daughters, Annabelle (six) and Lillyanna (three), stay home with her full time rather than attend daycare. “The other side is that it allows me to be a better mom, and it has given me more time to look at our farm from an agronomic perspective. Though I’m an agronomist by training, I didn’t take time to scout the field when I worked off- farm. Now I’m there to do it.” With a succession plan in place, she has her sights set on building the farm business over the next five years so her husband who works in oil industry land reclamation can work full time on the farm as well. While she is optimistic, Paly believes it’s harder for her generation than for previous ones to take over the farm. “Our grandparents were able to provide for a family of five off three quarters of land, and not work off the farm. Now, with inflation of land prices, inputs and equipment, it’s a struggle for young farmers to come back to the farm. They have to supplement with off-farm income so their farm can survive until they are able to start paying their debt down.” From left to right, Annabelle and Lillyanna accompany their mother Janine Paly as shemakes the rounds on their farmnear Thorhild.