7 ONTARIO GRAIN FARMER JUNE /JULY 2024 continued on page 8 include a GEA Monobox milking robot that Steve calls a pivotal part of the dairy, offering flexibility and data that are invaluable, plus a robotic feed pusher running every two hours to keep feed in front of the cows. The laying hens are kept in a Cackellac chicken tractor in warmer weather, allowing them to be safely and securely housed on pasture and moved on to new grass daily. With their expansion, efficiency is paramount: each task needs to be accomplished quickly and easily on a daily basis. With the store, Janan is kept busy vetting suppliers and trying various products. Working with local people is important but so too is their focus on offering the highest quality goods from consistent and reliable suppliers. Their cousins produce the maple syrup they sell, and there is a couple that maintains an expanding apiary on the McNaughton farm to supply them with honey. Steve acknowledges the need to be multifaceted to operate any farm and that he, Janan, and Mike each possess a diverse yet complementary skill set suited to their current operation. Mike is hands-on and has a practical approach, and Janan is strongest in formulating customers’ experiences, relationship management, and marketing the business. Steve’s strengths lean to the food-processing side, together with planning and crunching numbers. “The skill set necessary to add a consumerfacing aspect to your farm is definitely different from being strictly productionfocused,” says Steve. “You have to keep consistent retail hours and respond to the evolving needs and desires of your customers. We’re more implementers than innovators; we just try to piece together things we think will work well for us here on our farm.” AN ORGANIC APPROACH Farming is hard enough, dealing with the vagaries of weather and the volatility of commodity prices. But making the decision to undergo organic certification — and not just in crops but in livestock, as well — further complicates life as a producer. Yet that is exactly what Brett Israel, his father Jamie, and grandfather Carl have embraced in the past eight years. The family-run farm has been certified organic since 2019 in their crops and with their 170-sow, farrow-to-finish operation. Brett acknowledges the effort involved in “going organic”; he never tries to convince others that it’s the only way to go, yet he does field a significant number of questions about his family’s methods and goals. The transition has yielded numerous benefits, from premiums resulting in the added management requirements to improved soil conditions and animal health. They’ve checked their land base at 800 to 900 acres, and if they expand on those acres, it’s a gradual process that reflects their organic requirements. “If we have an opportunity to grow in our land, we’re going to take that opportunity and look to grow it modestly — nothing too fast,” says Brett, who rotates corn, soybeans, and winter wheat, spring barley or mixed grains. “I don’t want to overproduce for a given market, either. That’s an important component, where growth hasn’t been excessive, and it’s more about improving profitability per acre if we can.” Two additions to the crop rotations are alfalfa and cereal rye as a cover crop. They’re seeing better weed control in subsequent crops, plus higher corn and soybean yields following alfalfa. The feed quality for their hogs is showing positive results, which Brett notes is a return to past practices, such as when his grandparents fed alfalfa haylage to their sows in the 1960s and ’70s. Incorporating cereal rye as a cover has also helped with weed control and boosted soybean yields. JANAN McNAUGHTON
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