Farming Had Him At Hello

Competition is cultural and collegial in agriculture. From the earliest days, farm kids compete to have the best calf, the best seed, the best speech. They do it in an open environment, in a club or at a county fair, side by side with other competitors, learning from each other. 

And they might not realize it at the time, but through that process, they’re becoming a community of learners that will go on to be distinguished by competition and cooperation. They want to be profitable, but they don’t mind sharing information to help their neighbor learn and succeed.

Take Alberta dryland farmer Troy Yancie for example. He and other producers in his region near Foremost, about 25 miles north of the Sweet Grass Hills of Montana, face huge production and management challenges every year owing to the area’s semi-arid climate. 

But ever since Troy became fully engaged in running Troy Yancie Farms some 20 years ago, he’s benefitted from tips and advice he’s received from others. Likewise, he’s shared knowledge he’s acquired through experience and by monitoring research.

“Farmers are competitive, but they’re not competing to beat each other. They’re striving to be better,” he says. “In that way, it’s a tight-knit community.”

Focus on growth
Troy inherited his competitive genes through his family tree. His grandfather Rudy, the son of homesteader George Yancie, had four sons, including Troy’s father, Dave. The four boys worked together and all became farmers. Troy worked with Dave, now 74, who was highly focused on growing the operation. 

“We took on a lot of custom work, combining, spraying, swathing and seeding for others,” Troy says. “We worked very hard to earn money to buy more land, expanding all the time.” 

Today, the results of that hard work are clear. Over the years, the 2,000-acre operation they started with in the 1970s has grown to 10,000 acres. Troy also farms another 6,500 acres he rents from his uncles. 

Despite very low rainfall annually – about 5-6 inches a year – farms in the region are highly productive and fairly diverse. Troy’s cropping rotation is lentils or chickpeas, followed by canola or yellow mustard, then wheat or durum wheat to complete the cycle. To him, the ideal rotation is a cereal, an oilseed, another cereal and a pulse.

He thinks he should also grow barley, but he shuns it for personal reasons. “Barley grows well here but it makes me itchy,” he says, describing a sensation barley producers understand. “I can’t stand the feeling of it going down my collar.”

Troy works the farm with two full-time employees and two seasonal workers, plus his immediate family. Linde, his wife of 25 years, handles the farm’s books and domestic duties. She was raised on a ranch in Warner, Alberta, 40 miles west, and is just as comfortable in the field as in the office, driving one of the farm’s four New Holland CR8.90 Twin Rotor® combines equipped with IntelliSense™ harvest automation. 

Troy regularly upgrades his equipment to leverage the advantages of the latest advances in precision technology. He now owns two of the new generation of New Holland SP410 Guardian™ front-boom sprayers with integrated Raven precision technology. 

Linde’s versatility has been passed down to the couple’s three daughters, Rayna Boschee, Kamryn and Corryn. They too can all drive a combine. Rayna and husband Houston’s daughter, Jordyn, represents the sixth Yancie generation. At some point, Rayna and Houston will farm part of the operation. Kamryn and Corryn are interested in farming too, but right now, Troy says the entire succession plan is a work in progress. 

“If they’d like to farm, it’s theirs,” he says. “I wanted to be a farmer ever since I was a little kid. Farming had me at hello.”  

Driven by sustainability
Troy Yancie Farms will be passed to the next generation in very good shape. Troy acknowledges his “younger self” was driven by profit, but now his management approach is to do what’s best for the land. Lately, that includes engaging the expertise of local independent agronomist Jenny Rae Seward – Linde’s cousin – who consults on everything from soil quality and effective insect control (grasshoppers and cutworms in particular this past year) to optimum spraying windows. 

“She makes all her clients better,” Troy says. Her sharp eye allows the Yancies to take some time off in the summer and relieve Troy of the pressure that comes with being solely responsible for making certain management decisions.

Going forward, Troy says his biggest challenge continues to be the weather. He’s a strong advocate for different forms of insurance as a management tool to mitigate the risk. 

“We can grow almost any crop in our area,” he says, “but you still need to be covered in case weather doesn’t cooperate.”

See more of the Yancie family and their multi-generational farm here.