Young Agrarians is celebrating the ninth year of the Business Mentorship Network (BMN) program in BC and the expansion of the program across the Prairies! The BMN offers business mentorships to a diverse array of new and young farmers. Through one-on-one mentorship, peer networks and online workshops young farmers develop the skills necessary to operate ecologically sustainable and financially viable farm businesses.
Applications open for Mentees across Western Canada in October 2023. Mentor applications are accepted year-round. Check out the Business Mentorship Network page for more information!
Want to learn more about our Mentees (or Mentors)? Below you’ll find a Q&A where you can learn all about their farm and why they joined the Business Mentorship Network. If you’d like to read about the experiences of other Mentees/Mentors, head to our blog here
Check out the program page on our website for more information!
Correction Line Acres
My name is Jonah Langelotz, and my farm name is Correction Line Acres.
My mentor is Rebekah Sandford of Prairie Winds Garlic Farm
Where do you farm?
I farm a few miles southwest of Rosenfeld, MB, on treaty 1 land. The land I farm on is part of my partner’s family grain farm, that I also work for. Some of the land has been farmed for 5 generations. The farm is in the Red River Valley, the heart of what was once tallgrass prairie in Manitoba.
What inspired you to get into farming?
When I was working on an undergrad degree, I was studied International Development. Food, hunger, and agriculture were all major topics in the field. I was inspired by the tangible connection that food provided in what was otherwise a very global and theoretical area of study.
How did you learn how to farm?
As part of my undergrad degree, I was required to do a practicum. My interest in food, and connecting with family roots brought me to the Turtle Mountains of Manitoba, close to the town of Boissevain. This was in the same of neck of the woods as my great grandparents settled in 1926.
My practicum brought me to a small market garden and greenhouse on a farm and woodland sanctuary. I learnt the basics of growing starts and seeds, vegetable growing and gardening, and many general skills on maintenance and building that were quite foreign to me as someone who grew up disconnected from these things in the city.
For two years after I was part of a workers coop in Winnipeg running a vegetable CSA. One of those years I had the opportunity to manage a satellite location in southern Manitoba, not far from where I live now. I enjoyed the steady work and lifestyle farming rurally. I also had the opportunity to raise and direct market chickens and pigs provided to me by a neighbouring friend and farmer.
A couple years later my father in law invited me to work for him on the family grain farm. That was 5 years ago. I’ve learnt both the positive and negative realities of a modern industrial grain farm, which has given me a different perspective, and a new set of skills to apply to my passion of growing food. I’m privileged to have access to land and equipment through my work/family, and lucky that they put up with different ideas and dreaming.
What type of business structure is your farm?
My farm business is a sole proprietorship.
How much land is under production on your farm?
I’m focusing on growing garlic on about 2 acres, with about .5 acres actually in garlic production on an annual basis. I have 3 acres of pasture that I manage attached to the same piece of land, where I have larger plans for of integrating livestock and perennials into a more diverse and productive system.
What is your land tenure? Are there special relationships that enabled this?
My land tenure agreement is enabled by family relationship attached to our grain farm.
What types of ecological farm practices and/or responses to climate change realities do you engage in?
My entry into farming came through organic market gardening, and that colors my approach to farming now. I’m interested in the regenerative farming movement, and the soil health principles that accompany it. Many of these individual practices seem to be touted as silver bullets, which I’m skeptical about; but the principles appeal to me because they can be used as a guide, and inform specific action in a local context.
More recently the reading and studying I have done have led me down the road of permaculture. I took a PDC a couple years ago, and really appreciate the systems approach to growing food that focuses on resilience through perennial plants . I want to be able to grow food in a way that regenerates the world around me, in a system that is resilient and doesn’t rely much on fossil fuels, or frankly me.
Why did you apply for business mentorship?
I received an invitation to apply/particpate that was quite timely. I was in the midst of planning for the upcoming growing season, and scaling up the garlic growing I had done in the past for market. This is still a side business as my job and family, don’t give me enough time to truly focus my attention during the growing season. The mentorship seemed like a good opportunity for some structure, accountability and support in my planning and business going forward. It has provided this so far, and has forced me to take some positive steps forward that I wouldn’t have made otherwise on my own.
What is the greatest business challenge you face as a new farmer?
The biggest challenge for me is a lack of time or labour. My primary source of income is from working for the grain farm, so it means that I won’t always have the time to prioritize my business when it needs it.
What is your primary business goal for the season?
First and foremost I want to sell all of the garlic I grow this year. I know how to grow garlic, and have enough experience to deal with management challenges as they come up, but marketing is something I’m not great at.
I don’t naturally talk about myself, and I think to be good at marketing you need to be passionate about the product and be willing to go out of your way to communicate that with people.
What business tools could you not live without?
The two that come to mind first our a laptop and a small tractor. For what I’m doing the tools on a computer for planning and organizing are invaluable to organizing my plans, especially juggling multiple jobs.
A tractor quite simply saves a lot of time when it comes to field prep, planting and harvesting, and in more of a field setting I wouldn’t be able to do that by hand.
If you had a farming robot what would it be?
I would love a robot that I could send out to weed for me. Growing using organic practices means staying on top of weed management, and too many times I’ve been stuck doing inefficient hand weeding. It’s hard, frustrating work, especially when you know that it could have been avoided with better management.
How can we find out more about you, your farm, and its products?
TBD.