Jack Pick believes family has played a big role in the success of Pick Farms Ltd.
So it’s fitting the operation was presented with the prestigious Farm Family of the Year Award on March 9 at the Beefeater Plaza – the highlight of this year’s Farmers’ Appreciation Evening.
“You can’t be alone in something like this, and everybody has to buy into the operation and be willing to go with it,” said Jack. “My wife (Donna) had to accept the lifestyle, which she did.”
Pick Farms has about 7,500 acres of land near Macoun. They grow canola, durum, wheat, peas and soy beans. At one time they had malt barley and other crops.
They also have more than 100 head of cattle on the land, which are tended to be Jack and Donna’s daughter and son-in-law, Erin and Brad Goettling.
Jack and Donna’s son, Korwin, is also heavily involved with the farming operation.
Another daughter, Holly Pederson, lives in North Dakota with her family.
Jack noted his wife was raised in the air force, and on their fifth anniversary, she told him the farm was the longest she had lived in one place in her life.
“She settled in, and she told me the other day she doesn’t want to leave the farm to retire,” said Jack.
He hopes the farm can continue to remain in the family, but he recognizes it’s not his decision. His grandchildren will ultimately determine the farm’s future direction.
“I remember people coming to my dad and saying ‘Can’t you talk that boy out of farming?’” recalled Jack. “I thought that’s a tragedy. And I said ‘If I ever have a son, I’ll neither talk him out of it or into it. And I kept my word on that … and he made his own choice. And I would hope that’s the same for my grandsons.
“It will obviously have to end if they choose not to farm, but at least they’ll have an opportunity. Not everybody gets that opportunity anymore.”
Jack is also thankful his ancestors came Saskatchewan. They emigrated from Europe to Minnesota at the turn of the 20th century. Then they later moved to this province.
“My dad had the misfortune of buying a farm in 1928,” recalled Jack. “And then in the 1930s, he went to the debt reduction board and that essentially forced him to take the farm back. When the ‘30s were over with, the place where we’re living now, he was able to buy that, and he told me ‘I paid for it so fast I couldn’t believe it in the early ’40s.’”
The family has had the pleasure of dealing with some great businesses over the years, who have sold and fixed machinery, or sold seeds and fertilizer.
“Whether they realized it or not, and a lot of people don’t realize this, but the businesses that serve you are absolute partners in your operation,” said Pick. “You share your dreams, you share your trials together, and you get to know each other really well.”
And the family is also appreciative of their neighbours.
“We’ve had some awfully good neighbours over the years, and we’ve worked back and forth, and we’ve hired some,” said Pick. “We really appreciated it. I’ve often wanted to be as good of a neighbour to those people as they were to me. Tonight I want to recognize all of them.”
Jack was born in 1938 and showed a keen interest in agriculture from an early age. He took over the farm in 1968, and since then, the size of the farm has doubled, thanks in large part, he said, to the support of his family and their work ethic.
