LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP
LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP
With record numbers of UK
farmers looking to emigrate,
its worth remembering that
buying a farm abroad never
carries a guarantee of
success. Here, a UK farmer
who went to Alberta (and
wishes to remain nameless)
explains what went wrong
and provides constructive
advice for those looking to
make the jump.
NOBODY can say we went into it with our eyes closed. Before we finally emigrated to Bonanza in northern Alberta in April 1997, I had visited the region six times during the previous three years.
I had concentrated on this area because a friend had emigrated there, plus a few other English couples. It is in a more remote northerly area of Alberta with a riskier climate, but very good for grass seed production. The latter was the crop we hoped to concentrate on, given the low prices for wheat.
We first saw a farm we liked in July 1996 and made an offer -which was eventually accepted – in October 1996. At about that time the weather turned wet, but I thought that the next year should be OK because drought was their most common problem! We duly paid the deposit, having given up the tenancy of our English farm and sold up in September 1996.
We arrived in April 1997. It was a late thaw that year which, coupled with the extreme moisture from the previous autumn, meant the ground was absolutely sodden. We couldnt get on the ground until May 14 and even then had to skirt around large areas of the 65ha (160 acre) field that were waterlogged. Getting a Steiger tractor stuck with a set of large discs is a mistake you dont make twice when you are on your own.
The season started to get too late to drill wheat, so we planted Polish canola, a very short-season oilseed rape. As the season was rushing by I managed to get a neighbour to do my drilling for me and I did all the cultivations.
Having the planting done on contract was a large unbudgeted bill to pay, especially as I had purchased a second-hand drill of our own. After we eventually got the farm seeded, the rains started again.
It rained almost every night and much of the farm was covered in water because the prairie subsoil is mainly clay and doesnt drain at all well. The oilseed rape did germinate but large areas were drowned out and a lot of the crop got a fungal disease called phoma.
We managed to harvest some fescue for seed but our neighbour had to leave some of the threshed straw/hay in the swath because he kept getting stuck with the round baler. When it came to the time to swath the canola I had to leave large areas for fear of getting stuck with the swather.
We did eventually harvest a small area but had to write off a lot of acres for which we got a small amount of insurance money. My confidence – and our bank account – had taken a hammering but we hoped for better things in 1998.
The wet autumn of 1997 brought other problems. Normally we would have autumn-ploughed 117ha (290 acres) of fescue ground that had become sod-bound – that is, too thick to produce seed heads. But instead we were forced to plough in the spring of 1998. Ploughing up fescue in the spring is a very risky business. The sod takes a lot of discing to make it into a seed-bed and every time you disc it, it dries out a bit more. I had a contractor lined up to plough it all for me but he let me down and as I couldnt find anybody else to do it, I had to buy a second hand plough and plough it myself.
Why, you ask, didnt I borrow a plough? Most ploughs here are stubble ploughs and if you try to plough grass the sod comes up in great big rough furrows. It makes a terrible mess.
The grass was eventually ploughed, but this put me about a week behind – a serious thing in the Prairies. One of my neighbours, a most generous man whose kindness I will never be able to repay, spent many hours using his own tractor discs and harrows to create some sort of a seed-bed out of the ploughed-up grass.
But by now the land was like dust. We pressed on, drilling our grass seed first, then our wheat and lastly the rape. It was now time to let the rain come, except that it didnt. We did get the occasional shower but germination of all the crops was uneven, especially the rape.
It was a long wait until harvest, seeing all our efforts come to nothing. The wheat plants had grown a lot of late, secondary tillers which created a very unevenly-ripening crop.
So it was decision time again. Do we swath the crop to let the unfit grains dry out? But the danger is that if the snow comes early the swath will be sodden. Or do we direct combine and get the crop to the bin?
I took the latter course, thinking at least I had got it off the ground.
The autumn temperatures were much higher that year (1998) and so the grain came into the silos quite hot. In bins that didnt have scope for aeration the grain began to heat up. I spent weeks moving grain from one bin to another to try and keep it cool.
The rape yields from the drought-hit crops were pathetic. I realised that I couldnt go on like this for another year and so we decided to sell up in the spring of 1999.
So thats my story. I know the foot-and-mouth problems may be the final straw for some UK farmers. They will be thinking weve had enough of this country, were off to a new life. Dont let me put you off trying. Canada is a great country with lots of farming opportunities, but go at it slowly and thoroughly. Pick your area carefully and think about what enterprises you want to have. If you have no borrowings, are in the right area and enjoy a bit of luck, it is a good move, especially for the children. But Canada has its farming problems, like everywhere else in the world.
TIPSFORWOULD-BEPRAIRIE FARMERS
• Make sure you and your partner are 100% committed to leaving your family and friends behind. It is great going to cosy seminars but there comes a time when you really have to sign on the dotted line and say this is it.
• Spend a lot of time visiting farms and farmers before buying a unit. Some farms have been on the market for years, maybe with different land agents. There are plenty of farms to choose from and not many farmers buying them.
• Choose an area where you can grow a variety of crops which are showing a positive margin, such as lentils, chick peas, certain grass seeds, alfalfa for hay.
• If you have to borrow any money make sure it is only for your variable costs. I would not recommend anyone borrowing money to buy land, buildings or machinery – you really do need enough finance behind you to buy those outright.
• If you have a family dont buy a farm too far from a town because 30-mile (or longer!) trips to town soon get very tiring for mums taking the kids to hockey or ice skating. Buying a farm too far from town also leads to extra expense for haulage.
• Ideally buy a house with natural gas supply to the property.
• Make sure the house has a good, clean supply of water.
• Try to buy a house/farmstead as near to the tarmac road as possible. Most rural roads are gravel and get very rutted and dirty after thunderstorms; in the spring when the thaw comes they are muddy for about a month.
• You can get some idea of how much land has been selling for by contacting the Provincial Assessment Office or Municipal Assessment office where all land deals have to be recorded. The FCC Farm Credit Corporation are also another source to ask.
• Dont be afraid to see the outgoing farmers last set of tax accounts – if you dont ask to see them, he wont show you them.
• Two good periodicals to subscribe to are the weekly farming paper Western Producer (www.producer.com) and the monthly publication Grainews (www.agcanada.com).
• Dont be taken in by seeing a farm with a nice line of newish machinery. That machinery or farm may be financed by money from other business interests. Many Canadian farms have been built up by money from tracking, logging, the oil patch and engineering interests, and that isnt always made clear. It can paint a false impression of how well the farm is doing in its own right.
A run of atrocious weather made farming practically impossible.
Top: the 520ha (1280-acre)farm was in the more remote northern part of Alberta, with a riskier climate. Above inset: Foot-and-mouth and poor weather have prompted many farmers to look longingly at places like Canada.