The Stampede tradition of honouring the families tied to the land continued as three local farming operations were honoured by the Bank of Montreal.
The Calgary Stampede BMO Farm Families were honoured on Monday morning at the Calgary Stampede. The Honourable Verlyn Olson, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Bob Thompson, president and chairman of the Calgary Stampede, Vern Kimball, chief executive officer of the Calgary Stampede, and Mike Darling, BMO vice-president of the Southern Alberta commercial district, awarded 16 Alberta families.
Local operations that received the award include Bertsch Custom Farms in Kneehill County, run by the family of Neil Bertsch, Dalbey Farm of Wheatland, operated by the family of Olav and Rita Pallesen, and Windmill Lane Farm of Starland County, owned by the family of Craig Russell.
Farm Families are selected by the Alberta Agricultural Service Board on their contribution to the community and farming expertise.
According to a release, these awards “recognize farm families who take an innovative approach to growing their business, demonstrate a commitment to traditional western values and follow sustainable production practices.”
The Bank of Montreal has been the banker to the Calgary Exhibition since 1899.
The Bertsch family was recognized as a BMO farm Family for Kneehill County at the Calgary Stampede.
Bertsch Custom Farms
Much can change in a hundred years. Farming practices, for example. On the other hand, commitment, dedication, and farm family surnames can stand the test of time.
In 1913, an American named Jacob Bertsch came to the Carbon area from South Dakota to homestead. Today, the name Bertsch is still found on farms in the area and the family of Neil Bertsch, Jacob’s great-grandson, is the 2013 BMO Farm Family of the Year representing Kneehill County.
All of Jacob’s seven sons helped to purchase a half section, including Neil’s grandfather, Robert. When Robert died in 1953, his teenage son Adam, with the help of his uncles, continued on, eventually moving to a farm northwest of Hesketh.
Usually the family ran a mixed operation of crops and livestock, but that changed in 2009. As the crop side of the farm grew, there was less and less time for cattle,
Neil explains, “the pasture out here is coulee, so you have to fence up and down - all of it by hand,” he says.
Today, Bertsch Custom Farms Ltd. has 4,500 acres under cultivation, plus another 1,000 that is entirely managed for a neighbour, rotating canola, wheat, barley and peas. In addition, Neil does custom swathing on another 7,500 acres of canola.
“Between our canola and the other guys’, we did 10,000 acres last year. That’s a little bit insane,” he admits. “I’m trying to back out of that a bit.”
The custom work started, he says, because they had equipment sitting around idle.
“We put an ad in the paper and I couldn’t believe the calls we got. Now we farm most of the land we were custom-farming,” Neil states. “It helped our farm grow.”
“We’re almost classed as desert here,” he continues.
The farm uses a no-till air drill, and the Bertsch family is trying to maximize the efficiency of their fertilizer application. GPS has become a very important tool, Neil admits, despite his initial reluctance to acquire the technology.
“My son wanted me to try GPS, so I put it in the sprayer,” he says. “Now I think we have five or six of them.” With auto steer, Neil jokes, “nobody wants to drive anything anymore.”
That may be just as well. Using an old swather without GPS, he says, “I swathed a piece of land and hand-drove the thing. It seems to me there were 94 passes on that field - a quarter section of land. If I had GPS, there were only 88 passes. At the end of 10,000 acres, that’s a lot of miles!”
Neil and his wife Lonna are the farm principals right now. Adam still likes to keep his hand in, too. Neil and Lonna’s daughter Kelisha is enrolled in a farm management program at Olds College and helps fulltime on the farm. Son Chance decided, after some time on the farm, to take a job trucking.
Kaitlyn, the other Bertsch daughter, is married and lives in Edmonton.
