Globetrotting farmers

In June, 28 farmers and extension staff from Ontario and the U.S. travelled to the UK to tour farms, research facilities, and attend the annual Cereals conference as part of this year’s Great Lakes Yield Enhance Network (YEN) networking tour.

The tour was an excellent opportunity for North American growers to engage with like-minded farmers in the UK, learn more about growing great wheat, and understand the challenges faced by UK farmers. It also provided an opportunity to bring back information, tools, and resources that could help them on their farms in North America.

“The YEN started in the UK 13 years ago,” says Alexandra Dacey, Grain Farmers of Ontario’s agronomy projects coordinator. “The Great Lakes YEN is modelled after their program, and we wanted to learn more about why their farmers have such great success growing wheat—particularly from Tim Lamyman, a British farmer who, in 2022, was the Guinness World Record holder for the largest wheat yield, an astonishing 17.95 tonnes/hectare (286 bushels/acre).”

District 11 (Dufferin, Simcoe, Halton, Peel, York) farmer-member Alan Thompson says he joined YEN to “move the needle” on wheat production, and learning from other farmers has been integral to making that happen. In addition to the UK tour, he participated in previous tours in Ontario and Michigan.

“Getting over there, learning, seeing what they’re doing differently, what is it that they’re doing that we’re not doing,” says Thompson of his reason for joining the tour. “They’ve been able to figure it out, but I haven’t been able to get it right.”

Thompson says the weather and the type of soil in the UK have a lot to do with their success growing wheat. “But, I think there is a lot of learning for us to come back to Ontario and put into practice,” he says. “What they really do is understand the wheat stages and time of application. I think that’s where I’m really going to try hard to do the little things.”

WITNESSING HISTORY

Thompson’s participation in the Great Lake YEN’s networking tour was not his first trip abroad to learn about global agriculture: in 1984, he boarded a plane for Upper Volta, Africa, now Burkina Faso, to participate in the 4th World Congress for Young Farmers as a delegate from the Junior Farmers Association of Ontario (JFAO).

During that trip, he witnessed history in the making: he landed at the airport during a military coup.

“They had just seized the airport when we landed,” says Thompson. “So, on my passport, I have that I landed in Upper Volta, and when I flew out of the country, it was Burkina Faso.”

Despite the political instability, Thompson says that the conference went on as planned; he came away with a new appreciation for the challenges of global agriculture, particularly in developing countries where opportunity is overwhelmed by challenges.

“I couldn’t believe how rich the land was, but I saw there was a lot of contaminated water,” he says. “People were dying of starvation. It made you appreciate home and our food security. Ever since that trip, I’ve always given thanks for the food I have to eat at home.”

“It makes you appreciate what you have here,” he says.

DOWN UNDER

Graham Johnston, a District 7 (Oxford, Waterloo) farmer-member from New Dundee, Ontario, travelled on a JFAO exchange in 2005, where he spent three months in New South Wales, Australia, before heading to New Zealand for three months.

The timing, he said, was right for what he calls a trip of a lifetime.

“I was done school, and I knew the opportunity was there,” he says. “It was a chance to get to the other side of the world, and I didn’t think I’d have the chance again.”

While Johnston saw a lot of similarities in farming practices in Australia and New Zealand compared to Canada, he says there were some key takeaways from the trip that have influenced his career as a farmer.

“After seeing how dry it is down there, I’ve focused on controlling erosion,” he says. “Using cover crops, preserving what moisture we have, keeping it in the ground.”

Johnston, who also hosted many incoming JFAO exchangees from around the world on his farm, then near Brampton, Ontario, during his time as a member of Peel County Junior Farmers in the 2000s, says his international travel experiences have prompted lifelong friendship. He says it’s the people he met who ultimately made the experience so worthwhile.

“You’re learning about farming, but it’s really about the people you meet and come across, on the farms and off the farms,” he says.

THE TRADITION LIVES ON

As part of its mission to build future rural leaders, JFAO has organized an inbound and outbound exchange program since the 1940s, with hundreds of young people from across the province travelling across Canada and around the world to learn about global agriculture over the association’s 80-year history.

This summer, six young people from Northern Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scotland, and Ireland are spending their summer on farms across Ontario, immersing themselves in rural Ontario and learning about Ontario agriculture, with Junior Farmer members travelling abroad to the same countries.

Amy Danen, a JFAO member in Oxford County, left for Scotland in June 2025.

“I’ve toured a whisky distillery, grain elevator, a livestock market, dairy, pig, and deer farms, and went for a hike up a hill to take in the incredible views of the countryside, and even took a picture with the famous Aberdeen angus bull,” she writes in a blog post about the first week of her exchange.

Other highlights included spending a day at the West Fife show, attending the horse races, touring a Christmas tree farm, a horse breeding farm, vegetable farms, helping roll wool during sheep shearing, and helping with the peony harvest.

“This is just a small list of everything that I have been able to experience on this trip so far,” she writes. “This trip has been truly amazing.” •