32 Story Idea? Email Paul.Nolan@Farms.com Better Farming | December 2024 SPRING GROVE AGRI PLANS AHEAD The Groves value family & communication in farming. By Emily McKinlay UP CLOSE Katie and Luke Grove love that they can bring their young family along while they farm. The Groves own and operate Spring Grove Agri near Blackstock, where they grow soybeans, corn, wheat, and adzuki beans. Both Luke and Katie were raised on farms – Luke’s family farm is in Blackstock and Katie’s is in British Columbia – and they have been farming together ever since they graduated from Olds College of Agriculture and Technology in Alberta. “We came back to Luke’s family farm from college in 2015 and have been farming since then,” says Luke. Katie adds, “I worked in ag retail until 2018, then started farming with Luke. He grew up farming with his family near Blackstock and I grew up on a small farm in British Columbia. We both grew up with the agriculture lifestyle, so it was a no-brainer to come back to the farm and it made it an easy transition.” Luke is responsible for most of the day-to-day work on the farm and has help from two full-time employees, along with his father Steve and brother Zach. One employee drives trucks, and the other operates the drill and a sprayer. Steve and Zach often help with the buggy when needed. On top of managing their own acres, the family also owns a hydrovac and directional drilling business and does some custom work. “We do custom harvesting and spraying and bounce around a bit from Durham to York Region, covering a few acres every year,” says Luke. “The most unique thing about our farm is that we have two self-propelled sprayers, which we own as a bit of a cooperative with three other farmers in the area. We shuffle them around the four farms and do some custom acres as well.” This arrangement has worked for more than a decade and has allowed the farmers to keep their machines running well. “We’ve done this since before I got home from college. We probably started in 2013,” explains Luke. “It lets us keep those machines in fresher condition. When the weather is right, those machines can cover a lot of acres since we’ve been able to keep them fresh over a number of years.” When looking at further equipment improvements, after building a striptill machine from an old corn unit and RTS last year, Luke would like to look into adding more to the unit to be able to apply fertilizer during strip tillage. Katie’s role on the farm has changed a little over the past two years, as she became a mother to their daughter Georgia, 2, and son Whitley, 3 months. “I’m basically a full-time stay-atKatie and Luke Grove with their children Whitley and Georgia. Katie Grove photo
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