YA APPRENTICESHIP 2023: GARDENTON, MB – GREEN PASTURES FARM

Are you wanting a job this summer in the fresh air? Do you love spending time with animals on farms? Are you wanting to improve your homesteading skills? Green Pastures Farm is offering a well rounded agricultural apprenticeship with a mix of commercial and home-scale production.

About the Farm

Green Pasture Farm is located on Treaty 1 territory near Gardenton, MB. 

Guy and Leah Bouchard are the farmers and owners of Green Pasture’s farm which is located on Leah’s family farm. It is a mixed farm on 320 acres of pasture, bush, and crop land where they farm turkeys, sheep, wool, and hay. The Roseau River runs through the farm, which adds a beautiful water source to the land.

Their goal is to manage a farm that benefits the land, their family, and their community while practicing rotational grazing, utilizing cover crops, and avoiding synthetic fertilizers and herbicides.

The Bouchards raise about 25000 turkeys every year from March to October. They have 130 sheep which they lamb in the winter, and rotationally graze all summer. The sheep’s wool is used to make wool comforters and other wool products for sale. Most of the land is used for hay and pasture, and occasionally grain production is added as a rotation. They raise most of their own food on the land including all the vegetables, meat, milk, eggs, and also love to forage for wild food.

Guy, Leah, and their kids are always looking to improve their land stewardship and enjoy living in the country and working with the land.

About the Apprenticeship

An apprentice’s main duties will be daily regular chores for the sheep flock, including health checks, watering, possibly hand-milking several sheep. An apprentice would learn sheep husbandry, observations on flock health, sheep handling skills, and could also be involved in learning to make cheese and yogurt from sheep milk (which they do for their own families’ use). The apprentice will also be responsible for the rotational grazing system which includes putting up and taking down portable fencing every day and moving and watering the sheep. An apprentice will learn to make observations on the grass length and health and learn to make judgements on when to move the livestock and make adjustments to the size and location of the pens. The apprentice will get plenty of hands on experience with rotational grazing and pasture health as the summer progresses.

Besides chores and rotational grazing, the apprentice will be involved in other day-to-day projects on the farm including moving and shipping turkeys, helping with haying and fieldwork, assisting in the large garden, possibly washing and working with wool. Apprentices will have opportunity to learn a variety of skills depending on what they are interested in – gardening, working with wool, preserving and canning, cheesemaking, laying hens, fence building, construction and building, and/or equipment usage.

As part of the apprenticeship, you will meet with other apprentices across Manitoba who are part of the Young Agrarians Apprenticeship program. Field days, learning opportunities and potlucks will be planned with this group at each hosts farm.

About the mentors

Leah and Guy love to pass on their knowledge and experience and feel that it’s really important more young people learn to take care of the land. They think that an apprentice will be a motivated eager learner and we look forward to journeying and learning together.

Guy will  be the main mentor. He has been farming sheep for 25 years, grew up in the red river valley on a grain farm, and is now farming turkeys and sheep. He has been practicing regenerative agriculture for 12 years. Farming is in his blood and he has a lot to teach!

The Bouchard family includes Guy and Leah and they have three boys age three, thirteen, and fifteen. Currently Guy and Leah are both farming fulltime. Guy works with the sheep, turkeys, fieldwork, and farm maintenance. Leah focusses on marketing, paperwork, wool comforters, and keeps the family eating all home-grown and home-preserved food all year round.

Skills this farm has to teach: 

The following skills are being offered by this farm. While you’ll get exposure to many of these areas, it is likely that not all will be covered. Apprentices will work to identify the skills they want to develop to a learning plan with the host farm.

Skills Required of the Apprentice

Apprentices should be an eager learner, motivated, and efficient. They must enjoy and be comfortable working with livestock. Any other skills or interests the apprentice has could be put to use including carpentry skills, photography, childcare, cooking, marketing, mechanical skill, etc. A vehicle would be helpful for the apprentice to have, as the family only has one vehicle.

Housing, Stipend and Duration

A small comfortable cabin is available for the apprentice that includes a queen size bed, hydro, heat, and fans (no air conditioning). The cabin is located near the family’s house and apprentice can use outdoor shower and outhouse or use bathroom in the main house, whatever they prefer.

Laundry is available in the family’s house, corded internet connection is also available in the main house, but wifi and cell service is not very good around the farm.

There will be three shared homemade meals a day. The family cooks from scratch and use the food that grows on their farm, which includes plenty of meat, milk, eggs, soup, sourdough bread, and vegetables. They might be able to accommodate an allergy or two, but for the most part, they will not be able to specially prepare additional food or accommodate special diets. Details around kitchen usage, shared meal prep and clean up can be discussed in the interview.

Sunday is off for the family on the farm. Depending on what is happening, the apprentice could also take another day off during the week.

Wage will be around $1000 per month plus room, board, food, and training. These details can also be discussed in the interview

The apprenticeship will be 4-5 months starting May 1, and end either beginning or end of September.

About the Community and Land

The community of Gardenton is pretty rural. Basic necessities are located in Vita, ten minutes away. But the bigger centre for extras is 45 minutes away from the farm, in Steinbach. The Tall Grass Prairie Preserve is located near the farm and they have educational workshops occasionally. The Roseau River also flows through the farm and there is opportunity for swimming, canoeing, and tubing.

The farm is on Treaty 1 territory and the traditional and ancestral lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene Peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation. These communities have a deep relationship with this land based on, among other things, a spiritual connection and subsistence extending back thousands of years.

This farm, like many others, is surrounded by agricultural cultivated land, uncultivated land, Indigenous people and voices from non-settler walks of life. We encourage everyone to build relationship with the land and community that surrounds the place where you will be learning.

More Details about this Apprenticeship and How to Apply 

Deadline  > January 31st, 2023

Interested in an Apprenticeship but this isn’t quite the right one? Check out other Young Agrarians  Apprenticeships being offered in 2023 here.