I grew up on a family farm south of Fort Qu'Appelle. I attended a one-room school for 9 years, high school in Regina for 3 years, and then 4 years of University in Regina and Saskatoon. I taught school for 6 years in Regina and 4 years in East Africa. When my parents retired in 1974, my wife and I started farming the one section of land. We have four children, the oldest, a daughter, is married and teaches, the two oldest boys are working in Prince Albert and Saskatoon and the youngest is attending the College of Agriculture in Saskatoon.
I have been active in a number of organizations; Saskatchewan Wheat Pool as a committee person and delegate, member of the Fort Qu'Appelle Crop Club since its inception 10 years ago, ADD Board, Save our Soils, Sherwood Credit Union Board (president for 2 years), 4-H and minor hockey.
Our farm is now 11 quarters, mainly grain with a large selection of crops: pulse, oilseed, and cereals all direct seeded. Carol and I do most of the work except when the boys can get home (which they usually do at harvest). While some of the land is Indian Head clay (level without stones) most is rolling with potholes and stones. It was easy to see that our land was eroding and through involvement in the ADD board Save our Soils program that there were better ways to manage the soil. I attended direct seeding conferences put on by both SSCA and Man-Dak that helped make the final decision to direct seed; this will be the fifth year of direct seeding all of our crop.
I look forward to serving on the board of SSCA. There are a number of important issues facing agriculture--economic squeeze and environmental (carbon sequestration). I see this as an opportunity to promote soil conservation and thus in a larger sense to be able to play some role to improve the lot of the farm community.