Father and son enjoy the lifestyle, flexibility on farm

Gene and Ken Kessler operate a 2,000-acre organic farm, the Roughbark Creek Farm, north of Pangman as father-and-son, carrying on a tradition hat began with Gene and his father Bert, with each generation passing down help and advice in their own style.

Unlike his father, Gene took university schooling, as did his son Ken, each coming away with two degrees, and both Gene and Ken made the conscious choice to come back to the farm rather than seeking a career off the farm.

As organic growers, they produce a wide variety of commodities, including cereals, oilseeds and pulses, with about half the land seeded in any given year and the other half in summerfallow.

Currently, they are strictly grain and oilseeds producers, as Gene sold off his cattle about five years ago; Ken raises sheep for meat on his farm, but he is planning to sell the herd later this year.

Gene came back to the farm in 1979 as his father Bert was retiring at the time; Ken came back after university in 2000, and began farming full-time with his father in 2003.

"In the 1970s, there was the green movement, and I had two young kids at the time. In the 70s, it was very optimistic, prices were up, and there were financial considerations," said Gene, noting his father helped support him and assisted in his starting up on the farm.

"Then we hit the 80s, and we had drought years. For about six years, we hardly grew anything there," he said.

The move towards being organic began in 1990, although he didn't call it that at the time; he began farming without use of chemicals, but it wasn't until 1997 that he became certified as organic.

"I didn't even know what certification was about; we were chem-free for seven years before we were certified, so it was natural to move into it," said Gene.

Ken noted he bought Rick Fellner's organic farm, and his land was very close to his father's land, only about a half-mile apart, which worked well as they planned on sharing the farm equipment between them.

"Dad helped me get going," added Gene. "To make it and succeed, you have to have some kind of support. Ken does all the management of the farm, and I help as much as possible. With my dad, it was funny; he offered a lot of advice, but indirectly."

He recalled one incident around when he started, and Gene puzzled over the difference between a 540 PTO and a 1000 PTO; asking Bert about it, his reply was, "You'll find out."

"My dad is a little more direct," chuckled Ken. "With him it's more like, 'what the hell are you doing?'"
In the farming business itself, Gene said there has been many changes, such as the proliferation of canola fields in the southeast; he pointed out when he started out in 1979, he was told canola could not be grown south of Dafoe - and indeed, he could not find a canola field anywhere south of that town.

Asked if being organic growers presents challenges to them, Ken noted that rotation of crops is key, along with diversity: "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

Delayed seeding is also a technique they use, to allow the weeds to come up first, which admittedly makes for a "very hectic" season at seeding time, said Gene.

"When it's time to go, you have to go," said Gene, adding that it's difficult when he sees neighbours out in their fields in mid to late April, trying to get a jump on seeding.

"I see the bigger guys when they have to get going and spraying. In terms of organic farming, we like to have an integrated system, with livestock involved. It's better use of the land and of nutrients," said Gene.

Spelling out one of the advantages of farming as father and son, Ken noted that besides the help to get started as a young farmer (which he said he could not have done on his own), having his father nearby gives him the ability and freedom to work as he wants and come and go as he needs, including the ability to take his young family on a vacation trip. Without that partnership to help out, he said, he'd be married to the farm with no flexibility or freedom at all.

Gene said it was the same when he started, relating how the first spring he was on the farm, it was extremely wet.

"I had every vehicle, every tractor and every truck stuck; I was able to call Dad to come and get me unstuck," said Gene, chuckling.

Besides helping Ken around the farm, Gene also owns and operates an organic company, Clear Creek Organics, which markets organically grown deli meats, with a deli shop in Regina that Gene helps to run on a part-time basis.

One of the challenges they face is that the demand for organic products, including beef, far exceeds the supply.

"We can't get enough organic cattle," he said, adding the domestic demand is strong, plus there is a lot of offshore demand for the products as well.

While the company is centred in Saskatchewan, their federally-inspected processing plant is located in Montreal, because there is no plant capacity in Saskatchewan to process organic meat, said Gene.

Meanwhile, Gene makes sure he is able to help Ken out at key times of the year, such as seeding and harvest times, when an extra set of hands is both needed and appreciated around the farm, said Ken.

For his part, Gene enjoys being able to be close to his grandchildren, and the family is able to spend more time together.

Ken noted that as they both have two degrees, they could both be working permanently off the farm, but for both it's the lifestyles of farm life that they both enjoy and love.

"I like the flexibility, so I'm always home with the family. It seems to be a good way to raise my kids," said Ken, noting he does have some part-time work off-farm, as an organic inspector.

He travels to check farms over, including making sure their paperwork is in order, and checking the fields to make sure there's no presence of chemicals of any kind.

"I think it's a great job; I get see what other producers are doing, what techniques they're trying out. They're usually really good to deal with," said Ken.

"It's definitely the lifestyle for the kids, which is important, and the flexibility," he summed up.
"I could make a lot more money off the farm, but this is the lifestyle that I want."