Farming Forward - Director - Wayne Strochinski

I grew up on a small mixed farm in the Barrhead area. From a pretty young age I was aware that being a rancher was the direction I was headed. I married my wife Sharon McEachern and together we bought my parents farm in 1982 with not a lot more than a ton of optimism. We started as a cow/calf operation, transitioned to a backgrounding lot, and eventually ended up as a finishing feed lot. We raised three children along the way Jamie, Stacey, and Travis. Jamie and Stacey, along with their husbands Randall Breitkreitz and Chris Mack, are active partners in our cattle farm operation, SW Keystone Cattle Co. Inc. Travis is an architect and works in Edmonton. We have come full circle and are currently running cows again with a big focus on genetics.

What motivated me to join the board of Farming Forward?

It's a bad day when you don't learn something new. Exposure to ideas and practices different than your own either confirm that you are on the right track or encourages you to change direction. Do I have 40 years of experience or one year of experience 40 times over?

The long-term vision for Farming Forward.

This agricultural community has, and will face, many challenges going forward. On one side there is pressure from consumers to produce food that is nutritious, healthy, wholesome, sustainable, regenerative, free-range, organic, grass-fed, grain-free, non-GMO, but above all cheap. On the other side, there are more companies than ever before pushing products to increase productivity and efficiency on your operation, therefore improving the bottom line. Sometimes yours, but more often theirs. Farming Forward provides a platform to assist and support producers with these challenges through plot trials, demonstrations, networking, workshops, and field days. In the future, the value of organisations such as Farming Forward can only increase.