28 The Business of Ontario Agriculture Better Farming | February 2024 Norm Lamothe sees diversity as an opportunity to farm sustainably while improving the land. Norm runs Woodleigh Farms near Cavan with his wife and her parents. They have around 500 acres of cash crop, with a rotation of corn, soybeans, wheat, oats and a bit of barley, which is grown for a microbrewery in Toronto. The family also has a market garden, passive solar greenhouses, a 1,500-tap maple syrup business, and a compost facility that converts municipal yard waste to fertilizer. On the livestock side, Woodleigh Farms is home to a flock of sheep. “I think one of the unique things about our farm is the size – we aren’t a hobby farm, but we aren’t a full-size cash crop operation either,” says Norm. “We are around 500 acres in size, and to grow enough crops to sustain a family, you almost have to be at 1,000 acres. So, to feed our family, we have to diversify and look at what else that land can generate.” Norm, who has an entrepreneurial attitude, says that research and trying new practices are current options to increase the productivity of the land they have. “My interest – and where I spend a lot of time – is research. “I’m really interested in improving our soil health and promoting it to others. I love learning and I love teaching, so I enjoy any opportunity to be part of a group of farmers who are eager to learn about soil health and best-management practices. I have a lot of time for that activity.” Norm and Woodleigh Farms are involved with the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario, the Ontario Soil Network and the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA). They run field trials as part of the On-Farm Applied Research and Monitoring (ONFARM) program with OSCIA and conduct a lot of their own trials in their fields on an annual basis. “What really makes my day exciting is taking all of those aspects and trying to figure out how we can grow the best crops, be the most profitable, and also do that in an ecologically sound fashion,” says Norm about his research. He hopes that these efforts will not only improve his own farm, but also assist in developing new best-management practices for other producers. “There’s not as much collaboration in agriculture as I’d like to see. I like to take every opportunity I can to share both our successes and our failures with others.” The overall goal for Woodleigh Farms would be to achieve a circular system, creating as little waste while generating as many environmental benefits as possible. “We are really interested in creating this holistic, circular system where we would use waste and convert it to a meaningful substance. We use crop residue and manure to create compost, along with the municipal waste that is brought to the compost facility, and we are trying to increase our use of organic amendments on the farm with the goal of supporting soil health.” Acquiring the flock of sheep also played into the farm’s goal of reducing waste. The sheep are rotationally grazed on crop residue and cover-crop UP CLOSE The Lamothe family: Noémie, Norm, Max, Alec, and Emily. Norm Lamothe photo ‘I SEE NOTHING BUT A BRIGHT FUTURE’ Woodleigh Farms finds sustainability through diversity. By Emily Croft
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