Young farmers from across Alberta gathered in Calgary recently to network, learn about succession planning, spraying technologies, and risk management.

Lauren Ovinge says they are pleased with the reception the event received.

“We’ve been slowing building AYFR over the past couple of years, so this year’s Rock the Farm has been focused on succession planning again with Merle Good, as well as Tom Wolf who talked to us about getting the most out of our sprayer and got us thinking about the productivity of our sprayer which kinda focused on productivity of the farm and where you can improve the efficiency of your farm,” said Ovinge.

Ovinge says the organization is now working on growing, which includes what they deliver to their membership.

“We had a board meeting to help us learn what we can do as a board to serve our members better and improve our efficiencies to become more productive for young farmers around the province to help kids with succession planning and taking over the family farm and providing them with the tools to do so, essentially providing answers to questions they are maybe afraid to ask their parents.”

Ovinge says the conference is great for young farmers to come together meet and discuss issues with other farmers.

Taylor Munro enjoyed her first ‘Rock the Farm’ event.

“There’s lots of people from different operations from different parts of Alberta, so you learn more about what they are doing, which is cool, because you can learn other ways to farm,” said Munro.

Kleinjan says it’s been good.

“We’ve been talking about new ideas and I think that is a good thing to do, we are co-workers and not competitors, so it’s been good,” said Kleinjan.