40,000-Acre Farm Goes Organic
Heide, who’s in his late 30s, grew up on a farm near Moosomin, Sask., and is the oldest of four brothers. He was involved in the farm as a kid, and as a young adult he earned a business degree from the University of Saskatchewan. Like thousands of other young men and women from Saskatchewan, Heide moved to Calgary in the 2000s. He took a job with a commodity trading firm and then started his own grain trading company.
March 22, 2018 | Source: The Western Producer | by Robert Arnason
WALDRON, Sask. — There are 25 grain bins in Travis Heide’s farmyard, including six massive ones with a capacity of 70,000 bushels each.
In total, the bins can store around 550,000 bu. of grain. That’s enough for 10,000 acres of spring wheat, assuming an average yield of 55 bu. per acre.
For most prairie farmers, 550,000 bu. of storage would be more than enough. Not for Heide.
He has two other grain storage yards — one near Stockholm, Sask., and another by Whitewood, Sask.
Heide needs a massive number of grain bins because he farms 40,000 acres of cropland in eastern Saskatchewan. Again, for most growers, that would be more than enough.
Not Heide.
He’s converting all 40,000 acres to organic.
“We’re half and half this year, between organic and conventional,” said Heide.
“We’ll be 75 percent organic in 2019, and if we don’t add anything else, in 2020 we’ll be 100 percent organic.”