YA APPRENTICESHIP 2021: Brandon, MB – South Glanton Farms

Posted by Justin Girard on November 18, 2020 2 Comments

Do you want to spend a summer immersed regenerative farming? South Glanton Farms is excited to offer a hands-on apprenticeship just for you.

About the Farm

South Glanton Farms is a third generation family farm including Ryan, Sarah, Piper and Bingham, Jim, Joanne and Janelle Boyd and their full time employee Connor English. The farm is located north of Brandon, Manitoba near Forrest. Their goal is to produce healthy food while improving our local landscape and community while providing a rewarding life to their family.

South Glanton Farms is working towards a system that is self sufficient and regenerating, requiring minimal outside input. The farm includes a grazing operation of 400 cows and 400 feeder cattle and some grain production. The cow herd is kept on pasture year round. Cow calves on green grass in June.  Cattle are moved at least daily in an intensive grazing rotation. The farm also includes grain produced with minimal inputs. Planting occurs in May and harvest in August/September.

The farm focuses on working with nature making the grazing of perennial forage central to our operations. Care is taken to maximize our effective rainfall and provide habitat for all sorts of biodiversity. They  take pride in the community that they farm in and believe that farming can produce abundant food while improving the soil resources and the environment in which they farm.

About the Apprenticeship

The apprentice will work with Ryan, Jim and/or Connor and be involved in day to day caring for livestock. They will also help to build permanent and temporary electric fence, setup water systems and move water troughs and daily grazing management. Low stress cattle handling techniques will be used daily. Calving management will be learned in June. Routine maintenance and minor repairs of atvs, vehicles and farm machinery will take place as well.

The apprentice will learn what to look for when selecting grass fed beef to be marketed direct to consumer and have opportunity to see how they are processed and sold. The apprentice will also be exposed to grain farming but the emphasis will be on intensive cattle grazing systems and leave with a solid understanding of soil health principles, planned grazing, and stockmanship. 

About the mentor

Ryan Boyd is 37 years old and has grown up on the farm. He studied agriculture at the University of Manitoba and has an insatiable appetite for learning how to farm focused on Agroecology. He believes that there are many options to farm in a way that promotes biodiversity and creates many positive down stream effects. Determined to make a living as a farmer and not compromise this ambition with the desire to live in a vibrant rural community, it has become an obsession of Ryan’s over the last 15 years trying to create a profitable and resilient farming system that is not simple dependent on ever increasing the acreage of the farm. A perennial forage grazing system is the most logical way to achieve these goals at our scale. 

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.

LIVESTOCK HUSBANDRYCalving
LIVESTOCK HEALTHObserving Direct marketing
LOW STRESS LIVESTOCK HANDLINGObserving meat processing
grazing managementPasture Soil health
Machine maintenencestockmanship
FENCINGGrain farming

Skills required of the apprentice: 

The apprentice must have a drivers license, a passion for regenerative agriculture, steel toe boots and appropriate work clothes for all seasons.

Housing, Stipend and Duration:

The apprentice will live in an old two story farm house that includes rural water supply. Nothing fancy but very functional. Laundry is available on the farm and internet service will be provided.

Grassfed beef will be available. Fresh garden vegetables and apples in season.

Minimum wage paid on an hourly basis minus a $500 per month for accommodation. We are prepared to pay full wage for the right apprentice.

About the Community

South Glanton Farms is close to orrest MB is a quaint small community 15 minutes away from the city of Brandon.  The region has a lot of beautiful uncultivated land and hiking trails  and is 1 hour from Riding Mountain National Park and about 25 minutes from Brandon Hills trails.

The farm is located in Treaty 2 Territory and  the traditional homelands of the Dakota, Anishinaabe, Oji-Cree, Cree, Dene and Metis peoples. These communities have a deep relationship with this land based on, among other things, a spiritual connection and subsistence extending back thousands of years.

Young Agrarians recognizes the unresolved Indigenous land title and rights in the diverse territories in what is today called Canada. As we live and work in the context of and in response to a colonial system of laws and policies, it is important to acknowledge the historical and ongoing impact of agriculture and land enclosure on Indigenous lands and food systems. In this context, we acknowledge our collective responsibility to position Indigenous Peoples and their experiences with coloniality, in a narrative of reconciliation that places ecology, land stewardship, and Indigenous land title and rights at the forefront – if we are to sustain the Earth’s ecosystems in today’s rapidly changing climate.

Our deepest hope is that the future of our food systems is diverse, interconnected, and resilient, embraces people of all walks of life and sustains the water, plants, and creatures in ways that benefit and work alongside Indigenous Peoples and narratives and ways of knowing and caring for the land.

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 31, 2021.

Interested in an Apprenticeship but this isn’t quite the right one? Check out other Young Agrarians Manitoba Apprenticeships being offered in 2021 here. 

2 thoughts on “YA APPRENTICESHIP 2021: Brandon, MB – South Glanton Farms

  1. Hello, I am very interested in joining your farm, and learning how to run a farm . I own two cats, would I be able to house them in the farmhouse while apprenticing? Please feel free to contact me by email or by text at 204 901 1095. Thank you for the opportunity,

    Have a great day!

    1. Hi Megan,

      Thanks for your question. I will email with you with info on contacting the farm, as they probably won’t see your question here.

      Cheers,
      Michi

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