Filter by Popular Categories
YA BUSINESS MENTORSHIP NETWORK – FOOTFALL
“We thoroughly enjoyed every meeting with our mentor Bluesette and left each one feeling motivated and inspired. We developed a strong friendship, and we can’t say enough good things. This mentorship has given us the confidence and tools to move forward and continue to hone and develop our business management skills.“
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 across Canada are now open! Mentor applications are accepted year-round. Click below for more information and to apply.
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.
Meet a Mentee: Footfall
Greetings from Footfall! We are Heather (she/her) and Brendan (he/him) Dickson, along with our three children. Our farm Footfall is located just outside of Grimshaw, Alberta in Treaty 8 territory. Our Mentor is Bluesette Campbell of the B-C Ranch.
Our goal for the season was to develop a long-term strategy for the farm and begin implementing it. With the guidance of our mentor Bluesette we took many fundamental steps towards accomplishing this goal. First, we were able to dial in a holistic goal for our farm. Boiling it down to our core values and reasons for doing any of this at all. We now have this written down to aide us in any current or future decisions. We took another important step in developing our long-term strategy when we received some instruction in financial planning. In determining where dollars are best spent or not spent, as well as effectively managing cash flow we are now in a much more favorable position to grow our business with confidence. Together we also developed a three-year strategic plan to guide us in taking the next steps in moving our business forward. The knowledge we extracted from Bluesette is proving to be invaluable in both our beekeeping and our cattle enterprises.
Another significant advantage we gained from Bluesette was some instruction in grazing management. This included developing a grazing plan for the season which proved to be very effective. To diversify our pastures, we adopted a longer rest period then we used previously. This long rest period proved critical when we received very little rain, and the grass growth was very slow. Prior to the season we felt our stocking rate was likely to be too low but without the rain it proved to be about right, and we continue to graze stockpiled grass well into the fall. This situation will provide much food for thought when planning out our grazing in the future.
For us winter is a time to catch up on sleep and rest while the days are short. We also find cold air very conducive to deep thinking. There is nothing like a good snowshoe across the farm on a clear cold day to clear the mind. Of course, this leads to much future planning which we plan to continue throughout the winter.
This fall our band The Honey Cowboy released a new EP, Wax & Wane which parallels many thoughts and feelings that one experiences while farming. It is available through honeycowboy.com or the usual streaming platforms.
We thoroughly enjoyed every meeting with our mentor Bluesette and left each one feeling motivated and inspired. We developed a strong friendship, and we can’t say enough good things. This mentorship has given us the confidence and tools to move forward and continue to hone and develop our business management skills.