Ontario Tender Fruit News

To: The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) and Niagara North

My name is Dylan Reed Wiens, a young tender fruit grower from Niagara on the Lake. I wanted to highlight what I consider to be the major successes in our recent Niagara Young Farmers event as well as challenges and future potential. Its major strengths were the location, topics of discussion, and speakers. I was challenged by my father (Kai Wiens) and invited by Robert Bator to help create and grow a youth oriented event series led by Niagara North which became known as the Young Farmers of Niagara. With help from Cathy Mous and Henry Swierenga, the first of these events was hosted at Silversmith Brewery on March 24th and focused on Value Adding by speaker Sue-Ann Staff.
My interest in the group was to bring together the young farms in Niagara and create a group which can support each other as we each begin to join our family farming business, or create our own. There is a lack of connection within the industry among our generation, which I can imagine exists across Ontario as well. The Niagara Young Farmers group sought to connect us. Its intention, in my mind, was to bring us together and have an open conversation about the challenges we face.
While my grandfather had 50 acres, my father tends 130 acres, and this is a common occurrence in the industry today. I imagine in my future I will farm more than my father. While this growth is exciting and encouraging it also means there are fewer of us farming larger areas. The amount of farmers in my generation is less than the past. Although we might find success alone, we will be much stronger together.

That said it is a major challenge to inspire young farmers to become involved and attend events. Some issues often create my disinterest are event fees, inapplicable topics, topics which imply a sales pitch or investment, and unattractive or uninteresting locations (due to atmosphere, distance, etc…). Young people (especially those purchasing their own farms) have limited funds. They are also quite unclear on the opportunities and offerings of the OFA, and so are not interested in attending anything extracurricular which simply reminds us of college or university seminars.
The strength in this night was its location. Silversmith Brewery hosted the event and was a terrific choice for several reasons. The brewery is a social atmosphere which invites casual conversation. It is a young business which has become a feature Niagara. It is a success story of a previously non-existent business created by young people. Attending the event was less like a presentation on Value-Adding, than an experience out among friends and guests. It has the ability to host both an intimate event, as well as providing an engaging post-event location without requiring relocation.
The modest night opened with a tour of the craft brewery by owner Chris Pontsioen and had 15-20 people. His tour explained fermentation process, market information (such as sourcing, market size, and sales), and how he, his partner & his investors launched their dream business. It was clear that Silversmith has a solid business and expansion plan. It has also faced many parallel challenges in planning, launch and operations. It created a common ground for us as group to begin.

Sue-Ann Staff then spoke to the group on “The Trials and Tribulations of Value adding”. This covered her career from its beginnings at Pillitteri Estates, to building her own brand today. It also highlighted the difficulty in balancing family life/personal goals with career/industry goals. Ms.Staff reached us because she was candidly honest about her successes and failures. She spoke very much at our level with no power-point presentation or handouts. She was also kind enough to sit with us in conversation and welcomed questions.

The official event ended with a paper survey which asked about our industries, and future events. This future events list was created and released by myself first on the facebook group which Alyssa Bator and I utilized to advertise the event and invite peers. The featured options for the future were created from issues which I felt have affected me in the past and present. They were:
ï‚· Balancing Family and your Farm
ï‚· Food Safety
ï‚· Growing Your Business
ï‚· Succession Planning
ï‚· Ways to finance (without banks)
A sign of success in my eyes was the conversation continued even after the tour and speakers had finished. With no obligation young growers stayed locked in lively conversation with questions, advice and stories of experience lasting until almost midnight. A major contributor to this was that after the event no one had to travel to a different location to stay engaged. The brewery was also the host of the post-event gathering.

Over-all, the night exemplified the intentions of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture with young farmers. It connected young farmers, provided them with applicable knowledge, and brought up many current issues in our industries and careers.
There are essential topics which are less engaging for young farmers, such as financing, or safety. Despite this I’ve had a positive review of this event, and expect to see the number of attendees increase for the next event. This will be hosted by Between the Lines Winery and is titled “Young Bucks in Business” – it was talk about how to finance your business beyond simple bank loans.
I hope to be able to become more involved with Niagara North and the OFA in the future. I feel these events, hosted correctly, could be a strong tool in uniting growers, engaging young farmers, and strengthening the abilities of the OFA for the future.
If for any reason you’d like more information I invite you to contact me. My information is below.

Thanks for your time,
Dylan Reed Wiens
Operations Manager, Kai Wiens Family Farms
Email: DylanReedWiens@Gmail.com
Phone: (289)686-2606 LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/DylanReedWiens
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/NiagaraYoungFarmers