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Posted on April 12, 2026
“We are now entering into our fifth season and couldn’t be happier that we took the leap.”
Young Agrarians is celebrating the twelfth year of the Business Mentorship Network (BMN) program in BC and the fourth year of the BMN in the Prairies! The BMN offers a year-long farm business mentorship to a diverse array of new and young farmers. Through one-on-one mentorship, peer networks, and online workshops, new farmers develop the skills necessary to operate ecologically sustainable and financially viable farm businesses.
Applications for mentees open in October 2026. Click below to be notified when applications open!
Mentor applications are accepted year-round. Check out the Business Mentorship Network page for more information!
Meet a mentee from the current cohort and learn about their farm and why they joined the Business Mentorship Network. Want more? Head over to our BMN Blog for more mentorship stories.
I am Janine Wilson (she/her), owner operator of Black Jack Farm in the traditional unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation, now called Nanaimo, BC.
I am incredibly lucky to have been paired with Aubyn and Trystan Banwell of Spray Creek Ranch in Lillooet, BC., as my Business Mentors through Young Agrarians for the 2026 season.
I am a fourth generation on our beautiful 100 acres. The farm was purchased by my Great Grandfather in the 1940’s, and became a corporation that I am now a shareholder of. This allowed me to start farming without any outside investments. Prior to our management, the farm had been rented out for hay production for 15 years. We now have roughly 55 acres in production of hay and used for livestock grazing.
From a young age I was incredibly passionate about animal husbandry and was eager to assist my mother with her sheep flock. I learned much of what I know and use today from her. Unfortunately she passed away when I was still quite young and I grew distant from farming. But my love for gardening and house plants brought me to the horticulture program at Vancouver Island University. There I met my partner, Christopher, and we started market gardening in an unused area on my family farm. When the hay lease expired, Christopher and I approached the other shareholders and proposed that he take over the hay production and I bring other revenue streams to the farm.
We are now entering into our fifth season and couldn’t be happier that we took the leap. We have a flock of 30 breeding ewes and six cattle, plus we produce turkey and broiler chickens seasonally. We practice rotational grazing for all our livestock, moving them across pastures to mimic their natural behaviors and movement patterns.
I may be fourth generation on the farm, but there was an unfortunate gap in the generational knowledge. While there is so much I wish I could have learned from my family and their experience on this land I am a firm believer you should never stop learning. I’m constantly taking courses, listening to lectures, and reading up on farming practices. My application to the Business Mentorship Network is part of this ongoing search for endless improvement.
Young Agrarians’ resource page has been my go-to for farm business help. The “Farm Business Tools” section is full of helpful curated resources and tools. There I found the “Software Tools for Small Farms” and the “DIY Website Toolkit” guides.
I find my greatest challenge as a new farmer is the large amount of “background” work that goes along with running the business. In a larger company, areas like administration, marketing, inventory management, and customer relations would each be a separate role. However, as a small business owner, you are responsible for handling all of these tasks yourself. Automating these areas is a priority this year in hopes to free up time.
This season, we have ambitious goals aimed at making our operations run more efficiently and expanding our sales. We have implemented a new e-commerce system for sales and finance tracking. Next we will create clear-cut sales and marketing plans. We’re aiming to build a loyal customer base and sell our products beyond our farm. Finally, we plan to make our rotational grazing system less labour intensive by upgrading infrastructure.
We will continue increasing our animal numbers, so working with our mentors this year to put new systems in place and increase efficiency will free up more time to grow our business.
To see more of us check out our website, Blackjackfarm.ca, or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
