All of the clichés about sharing workloads — “Many hands make for light work” or “Two heads are better than one,” fall by the wayside when chatting with Ian and Scott Matheson. Since they took over farming from their father, they’ve increased their respective duties on the family operation near Lakeside in the northwest corner of Ontario’s Oxford County. In addition to 1,600 to 1,700 acres of cropland, the brothers manage two 350- to 400-sow farrow-to-finish operations and a 50-cow dairy farm. They also have a crop input business and provide custom work.
The two credit their father Robert and mother Helen, for laying the groundwork for continuous diversification of the farm.
“We couldn’t do anything we’ve done if it hadn’t been for their forward-thinking to create a business that could handle our return to the farm,” says Ian, who graduated from the University of Guelph in 2004. “Our parents made a lot of sacrifices for their retirement so we could keep things going and have this opportunity.”
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On the crop side, Ian and Scott have decreased their reliance on three to four years of continuous corn down to one or two years. Then they plant soybeans, then either winter barley — after which they double-crop soybeans — or winter wheat, then go back into corn.
Ian refers to their soils as “forgiving,” with the surrounding region boasting several successful operations. He notes that when he sees the farms and the way they operate, it’s a reflection of how good the soils nearby really are.
Scott also credits the team that he and his brother work with as part of the farm’s day-to-day operations. Their mother Helen is still involved with some of the accounting duties. Ian’s wife Carley oversees the dairy operation and is a certified crop advisor who also manages crop consulting duties. Scott’s son Declan and daughter Alex, both in their teens, help out on the farm and Ian has a seven-year-old daughter Vivian.
The operation also relies on four full-time employees, along with five or six part-time workers during the busy season. Both Ian and Scott appreciate the value of finding the best people, especially since so many in the region are struggling to attract workers.Those looking for work may have a different vision of what they’ve done on a farm compared to what’s needed today — it’s easy to find tractor drivers but it’s a challenge to find operators.
“The labour market is very competitive,” says Scott, who graduated from the University of Guelph in 1997 and oversees the livestock operation. “Finding those people — and we’ve been fortunate to find good ones — becomes more difficult. With the diversification of agriculture in this area, there’s never a time when all of the sectors aren’t doing well. It’s not as if when commodity prices are low, everything backs off — everyone just keeps driving forward.”
Getting along
To some, that might translate into a more competitive nature among producers but Ian maintains there is a collaborative spirit within their region. It’s competitive but not in a negative sense.
“There’s a lot of looking at how you can work with them,” he says. “Even though you may be competing sometimes on land together, you’re still able to look back and work with your neighbours in a positive way.”
On the hog side, Scott is part of a group of five or six producers, most of whom are the same age and with similar farm types. They try to get together once or twice a year and share ideas on what they’re doing on their farms.
Scott and Ian agree that staying up to date on precision technology is vital to the continued growth and strength of their operation. They make full use of precision ag systems in their cropping practices, including yield monitoring, variable-rate applications and satellite imagery for measuring inputs. They all help with making better-informed data-based decisions.
“Through our custom work, there are a lot of people who are able to access that kind of information without having it on their own farm,” says Ian. “They can partner up with someone else, and not necessarily know every depth of what’s there but still benefit from the technology.”
In their hog barns, all of the production records are in digital form, with feeding technology and feeding curves. On the dairy side, there’s a robotic system that can measure several production parameters.
Building blocks for success
It’s the use of available data, as well as the lessons learned from their parents, that have the Mathesons uniquely poised for success. Their father started the double-cropping practice that Ian and Scott have refined, and a relationship with Conestoga Meat Packers, providing a foundation for success on which to build.
“We take a certain amount of risk trying new things or different things,” says Scott. “Some are with success and some not always with success. I don’t know if we’re innovators or risk-takers but sometimes we look at it and say that if we don’t try it, we’re not going to know either. I think we have it pretty fine-tuned now so that our success rate is a lot higher than it once was, and that all started with our Dad being an innovator on that front.”
Scott believes that’s why he and Ian have seen their successes, whether with cropping practices or in the hog or dairy barns. They’ve always tried to integrate along every step in the chain, trying to learn from their successes and their setbacks. Even if something doesn’t work out, the best answer is to be flexible and open-minded.
“If things don’t go the way you expected them to go, don’t get worked up about it, just start looking for how to work with it the way it is,” adds Ian. “It’s easy to get bogged down and look at what’s going on and maybe it isn’t the way you planned it. But you can’t go back and change how it is — you just have to figure out how to get out of that spot. Learning is always a two-way street, where you can learn from anybody else as much as they can learn from you.”
It’s also about being open to opportunities: you may have a plan as to where you expect your business to go, yet at the drop of a hat, it can change.
“We never thought we’d be in the dairy industry,” says Scott. “That was something that two, almost three years ago, a few things happened and there we were. We’d never been involved or known anything about that industry and we bought a farm as an ongoing dairy farm — and tried it — and rolled with it.”
