30 Follow us on Twitter: @PrairieFarming Better Farming | May/June 2024 UP CLOSE and with the malt company. We are trying to build a business that’s sustainable enough to potentially have the opportunity for our kids to get into it. My little guy is two years old, and Joe and Daelyn also have three kids that are pretty young. What has your biggest challenge been in farming? When we first started the malt plant, craft malt was barely a thing, and we had to go around to prospective customers and explain the benefits of craft malt and build their trust to get them to take a chance on our product. How do you measure success? Our company has a mission statement to make more beer styles and whiskies possible using only Canadian ingredients. So, we want to keep doing that and keep coming out with innovative products to give our customers more options. Is there any equipment you want to add to your farm? Always. We just completed an expansion of the malthouse at the start of 2023, and that was done with future growth in mind. Our germination and kilning happen in the same vessel right now, but the whole system was set up with the option to drop in a second drum to increase capacity. We are always working towards that goal. On the farm side, I go to AgSmart at Olds College every year. It is really exciting to see the technology that’s on the horizon like the See & Spray sprayer from John Deere that can identify weeds in real time, and the drones that are able to spray fields. As some technology improves and starts working together, the future of farming is pretty exciting. Improving chemical usage by 90 per cent is a pretty interesting prospect. What keeps you up at night? We have to attend a lot of beer and whisky festivals, so hanging out with customers keeps me up at night. That, and my two-year-old. On a more serious note, the other thing that keeps me up is the growing disconnect between consumers and where their food comes from. You're all very busy on the farm. How do spend your time off? I really enjoy live music. If I get free time, you can usually find me at Bo’s Bar and Grill in Red Deer or travelling to go find a show. I took my son to some music festivals – a folk festival and another one at The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington, and those were pretty special experiences. How do you manage teamwork? It is definitely an interesting dynamic working with family. It has really expanded what the relationship is between all of us. We have to be both professional and personal, and have them in their own boxes. Every month we have an owners’ meeting and a sales meeting for the malt company. That keeps us all rowing in the same direction for the business. We maintain the personal relationship with lots of family suppers and lots of meeting up at Red Hart Brewing for a quick pint. What’s your favourite piece of equipment? If you asked my dad or brother, I think it might be the new combine. When we are meeting up at agricultural trade shows or other farm events, that’s the one that the neighbours ask about most often. It’s a Fendt combine, so it’s black and noticeable, and with some land close to highways, it gets a bit of a profile. BF The malthouse is set up to support an increase in capacity with space for another drum for germination or kilning. David Dinan, Hot Shoe Studio photo
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