Perry was born and raised in Empress in southeastern Alberta, and started farming with his brother in 1976. He married his wife, Sheridale, in 1995 and together, they have a one year old son. They now reside in Leader, Saskatchewan, where his wife is the vice-principal of the school.
Perry's father, like his father, relied heavily on tillage in his farming practices. They used discers to seed their crops, which included wheat and durum in a 50/50 crop-fallow rotation. Like most everyone, they used a cultivator to manage their fallow land. However, in 1988, the tillage practices caused severe wind erosion on their farm. That was all it took for them to decide to make changes.
Since 1990, Perry has been using disc openers to seed their crops, which now include durum, canary seed, wheat, lentils, chickpeas, mustard, some coriander and just this year, introduced alfalfa into the rotation. Their soil ranges from a sandy loam to a clay loam with no shortage of stones.
The openers Perry has been using are the Barton disc openers, which he mounted on a 30-foot JD cultivator with a converted JD 665 tow-between tank. He has been using these openers for six years now and they seem to be well suited for his soil zone and soil type. They seed approximately 1900 acres per year and keep about 800 acres of chem fallow. Perry is amazed at how much the soil has improved, due to the change in tillage practices. Perry describes the soil as "It seems to be as mellow as a sponge." Soil tests this spring show the organic matter to be as high as 3.2%.
Perry explains that his success with zero-till practices is in many respects, due to his involvement with SSCA. He has been a member of the association for a number of years as well as been on the Board of Directors for the past three years.