Better Farming - November 2016

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32 FarmNews First > Better Farming November 2016
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scaling up. Ontario’s average flock size
is 60 ewes, Vince estimates.
Since the mid-2000s, the sheep
have also shaped how the family
approaches its crop rotation. Earlier
this year, the couple won the title
Innovative Farmer of the Year from
the Innovative Farmers of Ontario.
They won partly for their use of what
the pair terms “sandwich” crops
(cover crops) as a way to provide
animals with feed that is mostly
harvested wet but on occasion and
under appropriate conditions,
harvested as dry feed or even grazed
as pasture.
The couple grows soybeans, hay
and silage corn, and in between these
crops others, such as mixed grain
(including fall rye and winter barley),
oats, peas and tillage radish. Many of
these crops are bagged for storage and
then fed back to the sheep in a total
mixed ration system. The Stutzkis
have divided 36 acres of permanent
pasture into nine main paddocks.
Each of these in turn is subdivided.
Every year the couple breaks up
three to four acres of a paddock and
then works that area for two years to
control weed and pest pressure and
maintain pasture health. They
introduce temporary crops on which
the animals can graze (or in the
second year can be harvested for
feed), such as corn, Sorghum-Sudan
grass, oats and peas. The Stutzkis
then seed the area once more for
pasture.
“It’s all about managing costs,” says
Vince. “The opportunity lies in
managing your costs and it’s all about
being as efficient as possible.”
Now in their 50s, Vince and
Heather recognize the next genera-
tion faces far greater hurdles to break
into farming than they did. In recent
years, their two older sons (they have
four children: three sons and a
daughter) bought a small farm
nearby. The two generations help
each other out.
The family has also embarked on
developing a succession plan, and
one of the key elements the parents
expect their children to bring to the
table is passion.
“If you don’t have the passion, the
business won’t follow,” Vince says.
Farming, as he points out, is one of
the only industries prepared to accept
all the risk without knowing what —
and if — a rate of return will follow
the investment. “Your commitment
has to be so strong.”
Describe your role on the farm operation?
VINCE: Heather manages the flock
through record keeping and logistics
and I’m in charge of enacting on
those logistics, making sure those
logistics follow through. Heather is
actively involved (as well) in the phys-
ical aspect of things. (Heather also
works part time as an education
assistant at a local school.)
On the cropping end of things,
that’s my responsibility, along with
my sons. That role is now shifting into
the next generation. It’s not me
deciding anymore; it becomes a group
decision because they have their own
farm that they’re trying to manage.
So, we try to work together on the
decision-making process so that the
rotation works for all of us.
Howmany people does your farm employ?
VINCE: Just myself and Heather.
‘The opportunity
lies in managing
your costs and
it’s all about
being as efficient
as possible.’