Two sisters

Brooke Aitken farms. Her sister Sarah Tkachuk is a farm adviser in the city. Together, they’re the story of a changing agriculture

Brooke Aitken wasn’t going to farm. Then, while attending an animal behaviour conference in Australia, she woke one morning and knew she wanted to get back to the farm. “It was something about being halfway across the world, maybe,” says Brooke.

It’s the kind of life moment that many farm kids share. Except, of course, Brooke is a daughter, not a son, which is a distinction that still makes myriad differences, large and small, both in her daily life as a farmer, and in how she prepares for the future.

Maybe it isn’t as revolutionary as it used to seem. Brooke’s parents, after all, always supported her interest. The youngest of four daughters, she showed early skills with animals, and she was encouraged. “They bought me five ewes for my fifth birthday,” Brooke recalls.

It didn’t stop there. Growing her flock, Brooke used the lamb sales to pay for her education at the University of Saskatchewan, and she now holds a B.Sc. in agriculture and an M.Sc. in animal behaviour.

In 2010, she finished her studies and returned to the family farm. Today she runs 400 ewes, 100 commercial cattle, and about 200 acres of organic cropland with her parents, John and Sandra Aitken. Her longtime boyfriend, Chris Howard, helps out as well.

Loch Lomond Livestock Ltd. is huddled in the Missouri Coteau, south of Eyebrow, Sask., and the Aitkens sell most of their cattle direct to buyers off the farm or through auction marts. Much of the lamb is direct marketed.

And Brooke is in the middle of it all.

A woman’s place

An hour and a half east of Eyebrow, Brooke’s sister Sarah Tkachuk is a partner with KPMG Enterprise and Tax Services.

Sarah knows every inch of the road back home. Women on the farm have been carving out roles for themselves for decades, Sarah tells me. But even today, she says, young women face different challenges than their male counterparts.

Today, though, the challenges are nuanced, and they start within the family, at the heart of most Canadian farms. Managing the family is a challenge that farm women know they will have to face in a way that’s different than for their brothers, says Sarah. “It’s a bit of a deterrent. I mean, farming is not a nine-to-five job. It’s not a job you can take mat leave from.”

“In lots of ways, that’s a benefit because there’s lots of flexibility,” Sarah adds. “But at the same time, when I see women in agriculture now, I don’t see the men that are their partners taking on the same roles that the wives would have done in the past.”

And of course, there are also the lingering questions about whether women can handle the physical demands of farming and livestock production. Again, Sarah says, “I don’t think this is overt. I think it’s more subtle.”

Although Brooke is just over five feet tall, she’s proven that she’s tough enough to handle livestock. One recent day at the community pasture, as she hauled out a lamb that had slipped into the wrong pen, a man commented, “Pound for pound, you’re probably the strongest person here.”

Mentoring can also be a different process for women. “I think women have different relationships with men,” Sarah says. “And because a lot of the people going before you, and the people you learn from, would be men, I think there’s a different mentoring relationship that happens there.

“It’s still surprising to see females in agriculture,” Sarah says, “so I think they’re treated differently.”

Brooke doesn’t find she gets talked down to. “But I notice when I’m with Chris, people will ask him questions about the cattle, which I find kind of funny because he’s involved, but he’s not up close and personal.”

Besides, she adds, women are excelling in ag education, so  more and more, they’re the ones who know their stuff. “In my animal science class,” Brooke says, “I think it was usually about 75 per cent women.”

Succession planning

Despite the specific issues women face in agriculture, when it comes to farm transfer, women and men have to jump the same hurdles.

As part of succession, Sarah focuses her clients on communication and the transition process. “Every situation is going to be different, but what we really emphasize is making it about the process, not making it about the individual,” she says. “Making it about the process takes away some of the emotion.”

For example, families can hold regular management meetings that include everyone involved in the farm to help plan the crop year or upcoming month. Everyone should have a chance to talk about what’s working, and what needs to be done.

Sarah says it’s easier to raise issues at regular meetings than call a special meeting to hash out problems. “Then it’s about the system, rather than the specific situation.”

Sarah encouraged parents John and Sandra to think about succession planning shortly after Brooke returned to the farm. The family sat down to talk about wills, ownership structure, business structure, and everything else that goes into succession planning.

Communication is often thought a female skill, perhaps especially on the farm. Whether that’s still as true, Sarah is good at “spurring us on,” Brooke says, and Sarah has also been careful to declare where she has a conflict of interest. “We definitely appreciate her help,” Brooke adds.

Brooke and her father meet informally often. “We’ll sit down over a coffee or over the wood stove in the shop and talk about what needs to be done in the next week or the next couple days. And then we’ll also bring up things that are more longer term.”

Now the Aitken clan is working to set up regular, more formal meetings. Sandra recently retired from her off-farm career, and will likely take on the marketing. The family also holds an annual meeting where they look at cash flow and big business decisions.

Supporting two families with income from one farm can be a challenge, Sarah says. Alternately, the farm may have to support the parents’ exit. “There are lots of financial issues around succession, and sometimes that can drive who can be involved in the farm as well.”

Although it can be tough to find enough income from one farm to support two generations, Sandra’s social work career meant she wasn’t relying on the farm for income. As well, when Brooke first rejoined the farm, she did contract work as a research writer until the farm grew enough to support her full time. And Brooke’s boyfriend, Chris, still works off the farm.

Chris grew up on a grain farm, and is chewing over the idea of farming full time. “He definitely figures in because if he’s farming full time as well, then it changes things for sure,” Brooke says.

Brooke says they’ve tried to keep non-farming family involved as well because “it impacts them even if they’re not here.”

Sarah says much also depends on “understanding when you’re making a business decision and when you’re making a personal or family decision.

“It can create a lot of conflict when people don’t understand where those decisions come from,” she says.

Non-farming children might feel they have a stake in the farm, as well, and they might be more inclined to want a piece of the business when commodity prices are good, Sarah says.

But generally everyone feels better when the farm can stay in the family. “There’s a sense of legacy there. There’s a sense of history,” says Sarah.

Based on her experience, Brooke endorses Sarah’s call for more communication. “Just sitting down and talking through things once in a while can really help.”

Next generation shakes up the farm

The stereotype is of families farming together, where the knowledge flows by osmosis from parents to the next generation. But that’s not the whole picture.

Young farmers tend to bring more education to the table, Sarah says. And while farmers approaching retirement tend to be more conservative in their business practices, often younger farmers are more willing to take on risk. They may also challenge the status quo.

This can create tension, but it can also be very healthy for the business.

“What we know about business is that businesses also go through that life cycle. And a mature, stagnant business tends not to grow,” says Sarah. “So having that element of risk-taking can be very good in enabling a business to look at diversification or expansion or trying different methods.”

Brooke’s risk tolerance is on par with John and Sandra’s. But Loch Lomond Livestock has expanded since she came back. The cow herd grew slightly, from 75 animals to just over 100, and the flock quadrupled.

Brooke’s return also heralded the introduction of radio frequency identification (RFID) equipment to automate the flock’s record-keeping. They accessed Growing Forward funding, which covers up to 70 per cent of the cost of readers, software, and equipment training.

There are other benefits to having different generations involved in the farm, too, says Sarah. The broader the family, the bigger the labour pool. Family members who work off farm, or have held off-farm jobs in the past, bring different skills to the table.

Brooke doesn’t have to look further than her own family for many of the resources to run a successful business. Sandra is the strongest communicator, and spurs Brooke and John to invest time in planning where they want the business to go. “She’s pretty good about trying to get us to work together as a team,” says Brooke.

John has about 45 years of livestock production experience, and has kept good records on everything from pasture management to finances. Both John and Sandra are financially astute, Brooke says. They tend to plan ahead. And living through decades of rising and falling commodity prices has given them a calm, “been there, done that” outlook.

Brooke also has three sisters, including Sarah, and all have university degrees. “We’re blessed,” Brooke acknowledges. “Everybody’s got ideas and tries to help any way they can.”

Brooke is no slouch herself, with knowledge and connections from her university education. She is always looking to improve the farm, and is currently evaluating holistic management to better use the farm’s resources. Her research experience has made her comfortable rooting around until she finds an answer.

And when it comes to individual animals, she’s got a memory that would put an elephant to shame. “I’m usually the one who knows the whole history of a cow. I’ll look at her and say, ‘Oh, her mother was this cow and her father was that bull. And she’s raised a bunch of good calves.’”

Perhaps most importantly, Brooke says she and her family have a healthy respect for each other as well.

“You have to have respect for the people you work with,” Brooke says. “Especially when you’re dealing with a farming operation. There are some pretty high risks.”