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Are you an aspiring ecological farmer who wants hands-on experience working the land and living in community? Triple Lyoness Farm in Dapp, Alberta might be the place for you!
About the Farm
Triple Lyoness Farm is located on Treaty 6 territory; the traditional meeting grounds, gathering place, and traveling route of the Cree, Dene, Blackfoot, Saulteaux, Nakota Sioux, as well as the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 4.
It is family run and operated by the three Carlyon daughters: Andria, Jessica, Briana, and their parents: Rod and Janet Carlyon. Together they maintain a small rural farming business that has diverse production avenues.
Triple Lyoness Farm raises commercial beef cattle (cow-calf and backgrounding steers), broiler chickens and turkeys on pasture in the summer, along with outdoor pigs and laying hens.
From the start, Rod and Janet wanted to provide habitat for wildlife and protect the land from being ‘over-farmed’. They wanted to employ sustainable and regenerative practices to improve the land to ensure that it could provide for generations.
Their goal is to ethically raise livestock to produce healthy, tasty meat products for their community and are always working to be more environmentally friendly. Meat sales are farm-direct for retail and wholesale, through a local abattoir and an on-farm slaughter license.
They operate with and are guided by and Alberta Environmental Farm Plan. Their pastures feature shelter belts, protected riparian areas, and solar powered watering systems. They continually strive to implement farming techniques to promote wildlife biodiversity, increase native plant species, and protect wetlands, waterways and riparian zones.
Website: https://www.triplelyonessfarm.ca/
Facebook: @triplelyonessfarm
Instagram: @triplelyonessfarm/
About the Farmers
Rod and Janet are the owner operators of Triple Lyoness Farm. They have three daughters who are involved with the farm. In addition to farming, Rod worked for the Alberta government in the agriculture division for many years and Janet worked as a vet tech, custom cattle processor and coordinator for Green Certificate.
Rod is the primary planner/organizer for all farm activities.
Janet leads cattle care, bookkeeping, and farm-direct meat sales.
Briana is a farm partner with her own land and cattle, full time employed on the farm as the main hand involved with day to day operations and planning with her parents.
Andria and her husband Derrick are mainly involved with the meat and marketing aspect of our business. Derrick is a trained butcher, he leads the on-farm slaughter operation and is growing the meat processing capabilities. Andria leads the ag-education events such as Zoom presentations and organizing Open Farm Days. She keeps our website and social media current with our news, updates and pricing of products. Their farming operation is located north of the main farm site and is next to our primary summer pastures.
Jessica is off farm, involved mainly with social media content where she develops content based off media that Briana and Andria capture during operations. She also has a farm tool business called Hired Hand Hardware.
The main mentors are Rod and Janet, while projects and ground work will be with Briana. The entire family attended University of Alberta for various degrees in agriculture and continue their education in what interests them through webinars, networking, workshops, and field days. They try to apply their knowledge to benefit the farm and enhance the experience for those who visit.
About the Apprenticeship
The apprentice would engage and assist in almost every aspect of the farm after training and competency is reached. Triple Lyoness Farm is primarily a beef cattle farm, but also raise chickens, turkeys, hogs, and laying hens. The Apprentice would assist with general care of all animals (checking water, feeding, bedding, cleaning, health checks). Calving occurs in April and May so they would assist with cow checks, processing calves, and sorting and moving pairs. Summer would consist of fence repairs, moving cattle for rotational grazing, checking solar water systems, making and storing hay, and equipment maintenance. Fall would consist of more cattle care, mixing feed, building and repairing wind fences and hay feeders, and other projects. Livestock are kept year round, so there are chores and tasks throughout the seasons, but summer and fall are the busiest.
Work hours are generally Monday to Friday 8 hours a day for a total of 40 hours a week. Sometimes we work longer days and sometimes shorter days, weather dependent. There is the occasional weekend that will need to be worked. We are also happy to work to accommodate days off that the apprentice would like in addition to normal weekends off.
A farm vehicle will be provided for all farm related tasks. It can be available for personal errands as a back up to your vehicle.
The ideal duration of employment is April / May to September / October.
The job requirements are:
- Positive and willing attitude
- Ability to work outdoors in all weather
- Class 5 driver’s license
Apprentices are willing to learn these skills:
- Observing biodiversity
- Observing the water cycle
- Calving
- Animal Health
- Moving animals in a field
- Feeding & watering livestock
- Assessing forage quality & health of pasture
- Harvesting hay
- Equipment maintenance
- Networking with new people
- Meat cutting/wrapping/marketing
Compensation
We offer the wage of $17/hour to start
About the Community
Triple Lyoness Farm has great connections with neighbours and the community to enable an apprentice to learn about many different aspects of agriculture – from breeding cattle, dairy farming, grains and oilseeds, veterinary medicine and feed milling.
The farm is about 20 minutes from the town of Westlock which has all amenities, as well as a vet clinic, farm supply stores, ag equipment dealerships and a feed mill. There are a growing number of farms and small businesses in the area that raise/grow/make products on farm; flowers, garlic, soaps, honey, etc. and there is good consumer/community support for these. There are quite a few lakes and natural areas to explore as well.
Westlock is 20 minutes away
Accommodation
Accommodations: yes
Accommodation details: We will work with you to find appropriate housing near our operation.
Accommodations shared with other employees/apprentices: maybe
Access to a full bathroom with running water: yes
Type of dwelling: Four seasons
Accommodation checklist:
- Furnished
- Wifi
- Running water (potable)
- Shared Laundry
- Clean
- Private bathroom
- Private kitchen
- Heating
- Electricity
Pets permitted: maybe
Guests permitted: yes
Rent: Depends on accommodation
Accommodation Agreement: yes
We look forward to seeing you!