N.B. farm a dream come true for Toronto family, initial challenges daunting - Action News
Home WebMail Thursday, November 14, 2024, 01:02 AM | Calgary | 6.7°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
New Brunswick

N.B. farm a dream come true for Toronto family, initial challenges daunting

Karen Anderson Ferron and her family bought a farm in Carleton County in 2021 and she has suggestions on how New Brunswick could better welcome new people into the agricultural industry.

There were 35 new-entrant farmers in New Brunswick last year, down from previous years

A family of four huddle together and pose for a family portrait. A Black woman with short curly hair wearing a denim button up shirt stands to the left, with her husband next to her, a taller Black man also in a denim button up shirt. A young Black woman stands centered in front of them with a white tee shirt and overalls, and next to her is another young Black woman with her hair in long braids and a denim button up shirt.
Karen and Al Ferron moved to New Brunswick in 2021, following Al's lifelong dream of owning a farm and producing quality food products. (Adam Hodnett)

When Karen Anderson Ferron agreed to follow her husband Al's lifelong dream of starting a farm, she didn'timagine she'd have to puther corporate marketing skills to use from the very beginning.

This time she wasn't making cold calls as a fundraiser,as she had in Toronto, butmaking calls to gather the informationneeded to get their farm in New Brunswick up and running.

She and her family purchased a farm in Long Settlement, around 20 kilometres southwest ofFlorenceville-Bristol, not far from the U.S. border, and they movedthere in 2021.

Ferron said they didlots of research before falling in love with the property, but reality only really sank in once they arrived.

They have since grown it into Ferron Family Farms Ltd., a farm spanning 137 acres, specializingin grass-fed meats,including goat, beef and pork.

A Black man stands in a field surrounded by goats. He is wearing a black tee shirt and beige pants. There are several buckets on the ground, one to the right where one white goat is eating, and another to the left of the photo and a group of six or so goats surround it.
Al Ferron and some of the goats at Ferron Family Farms. Farming goats for meat is relatively new to New Brunswick. (Submitted by Karen Ferron)

Ferron said she thinks New Brunswick still has work to do when it comes to supporting new-entrant farmers, meaning those new to the agricultural industry, especially when it comes to the availability of information.

"I'm still learning and I still don't even know half of what these generational farmers know," said Ferron. "To be honest, the attitude that we found towards us coming into farming was no one took us seriously, especially when they know you're from the city."

Ferron said they started with the new-entrants roadmap, a lengthy guide from the New Brunswick Department of Agriculture that offers snippets on things to consider and departments to know about when starting a farm.

She still had to call those departments, though, and said department officials wanted to help but often had to look up the information she was asking about, especially since she was interested in farming goats as a meat source, a relatively new idea in N.B. agriculture, she said.

Ferron wanted to speak to more people who working on farms, knowing they would have the deepest wealth of knowledge on day-to-day operations.

Her main recommendation to the Department of Agriculture is to have a roster of farmers willing to mentor new entrants so they don't have to try tofind these people themselves.

A large grey rock sits in the foreground with
Ferron Family Farms offers goat meat, beef and pork for order, as well as a selection of imported African and West Indian cuisine items. (Adam Hodnett)

Even if the farmer is not in the exact same sector of agriculture as the new entrant, they can provide advice on grants, equipment, and local resources, Ferron said.

She sees the interest from newfarmers like herself as an opportunity for New Brunswick agriculture, but said the way it is set up now, it's very discouraging. She thinks the roadmap itself should also be revised to include more information on who does whatand where to go for information.

"It's a pricey venture to take on," said Ferron. "It's a lot and it can be daunting."

"If you don't have that research background, it's very difficult but like I said, I wouldn't do anything different for us because I've seen how much we've learned from our challenges."

Conversation on agriculture shifting

Jessica McKenna, the workforce development co-ordinator for the Agricultural Alliance of New Brunswick, said there are more people from outside traditional agriculture showing an interest in making it their living.

Whether it's because they have dabbled in outdoor work in the past, or have a passion for the environment, McKenna said her department is hearing from people from all different backgrounds.

"It seems like more than ever we're having a lot of conversations outside of what that traditional narrative is," said McKenna. "Whereso many people feel that it's a succession planyou get a farm passed down from generation to generation, and and really that's your avenue of becoming a part of the agricultural community."

McKenna recommends working on a farm before acquiring one, if possible, and ideally someone interested in startinga farm would start with the new-entrant roadmap and ask themselves questions about their goals for their farm.

"You don't have to do it alone," she said. "You don't have to, you know, ask yourself those questions alone but rather there are resources there. And with those resources comes a person on the other side of that."

Barriers to entry

Financial realities can behard to overcome, especially for farming hopefuls hoping to acquire a turnkey operation without inheriting a family farm.

Jerry Bos is the president of Boscenic Farms, a dairy and cattle farm near Salisbury, west ofMoncton, and is a generational dairy and cattle farmer.

If a neighbouring farmer is retiring and selling the farm, Bos said a farm like his will likely make a stronger offer than a young person without substantial funds or collateral.

Heexplained that a generational farm's wealth lies in the assets of the farm, and family owners often have established relationships with their banking institutions.

N.B. Minister of Agriculture Margaret Johnson said her department is working on further developing resources for new-entrant farmers. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)

Bos said even established farmers don't take home a lotof money in New Brunswick because margins are tight.

According to a 2021 Statistics Canada report, farms in Canada incurred an average of 83 cents in expenses for every dollar in revenues. Bos said he suspects that number has gone up.

It's not impossible to start a farm in New Brunswick, though.

According Margaret Johnson, New Brunswick's minister of agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries,there were 35 new-entrant farmers last year, a dropfrom 42 in 2020, and 52 in 2021.

"We're genuinely working hard to try and make sure that we maintain vitality within that," said Johnson. "Because we recognize that these are the people that are going to keep food on our table. So we want to make sure that we are bringing young people into the fold."

As to what the Department of Agriculture offers, Johnson said they have a various of programs including business planning assistance. She added they are in the process now of surveying new entrants in the hopes of offering better support.

Karen Ferron said farming is not a "sexy" industry to get into as a business, and many of her friendsin Ontario questioned their family formovingto rural New Brunswick and takingup farming, but she was not deterred.

She said while she would like to see changes to resources offered to new entrant farmers, when it comes to Ferron Family Farms, she wouldn't change a thing.


For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of.You can read more stories here.

Five fists raised, different shades of brown skin, next to text that says Being Black in Canada surrounded by an orange and red border.
(CBC)