Lacey McCrae August 10, 2018

Meet Lesley Burton, irrigation farmer, mother of two, career woman, and AYFR director! About 20 minutes South East of Brooks, AB, Lesley and her husband farm nearly 1300 acres under pivot.  They started from a quarter of farmland that has been in her husband’s family for three generations.  They’ve grown in size and also taken over the leaf cutter bee enterprise, which they use for seed alfalfa production.

 

Lesley, who was raised on a dry land farm in Saskatchewan, has always considered agriculture her comfort zone.  She pursued agriculture in post-secondary, earning her degree in Agriculture at the University of Lethbridge, majoring in geography.  Lesley has had different jobs along the way that included oil field consulting, agronomy, working for the county, among other things, but she has always felt at home with farm people.  She pursued that passion, and now has her own business doing irrigated land classification.

Joining AYFR just this year, Lesley said she was looking for an Agriculture group to get involved with, to network and share ideas.  So much of agriculture is about knowing who to talk to when you have a pressing question, or an idea you would like to pursue.   Lesley is excited to share ideas as she meets with different kinds of farmers from across the province, and even across the country through our mother organization of CYFF.  She hopes that AYFR as an organization can help bridge the networking gap between post-secondary and the careers that follow.  Life-long learning is a mindset that all successful and aspiring young farmers need to have, and that is something AYFR offers. There is so much momentum right now in agriculture, it’s exciting, but it’s also challenging.  It’s good to be part of a group that helps you navigate both sides of that fence, and gives you a network to enjoy the ride with.

author

Lacey McCrae