2022 Watershed Awards
2022 Pembina Valley Watershed District Award Recipient:
Kroeker Farms
The Pembina Valley Watershed District (PVWD), in partnership with Manitoba Department of Agriculture and Resource Development, is honouring Kroeker Farms with the 2022 Conservation Award. The Conservation Award, inmemory of the late Mike Cabernel, is presented each year to recognize an individual, organization, family or business who actively promotes wise farm management and conservation practices.
Since their early days, Kroeker Farms has been working at solutions for soil erosion on potato farms. They wanted to change the mindset that potato farmers were to blame anytime there was dust up in the air during a windstorm. But they also recognized the need to do what they could to make their farm more sustainable for future generations.
"I do think we have an obligation beyond economics,” says Kroeker Farms CEO, Wayne Rempel. “We need to protect and enhance the environment and the precious resource of our soil."
Kroeker Farms planted corn rows and experimented with Jerusalem artichokes as annual barriers, which could trap snow or stop blowing. They would often have potato fields with a strip of corn every few hundred feet. They tested out many potential solutions with a multi-step approach. They aimed to reduce tillage and tried not to have black fields.
Above: Wayne Rempel - CEO, Kroeker Farms
Their organic production has put strong emphasis on soil health, and they are more devoted to excellent soil health than they have ever before. This means they have zero tolerance for blowing, although it does happen, and it is sometimes seemingly inevitable.
Through many challenges and setbacks, Kroeker Farms persevered in developing a tree row system that works on their farm. Trees that were once problematic are now an essential part of their farm, especially in their organic production. However, tree rows could still cause large snow drifts, delay planting, reduce wind movement, and encourage disease to form more easily in their organic production.
To help alleviate these issues, they planted mostly fast-growing, hybrid Poplars. In many of their plantings they interplanted with another species which may have more longevity. Kroekers also trim the trees up to 10 or 15 feet high, which means the wind can blow through in summer preventing disease, and they can cultivate close to the tree rows and keep them clean. In winter, when the winds and blizzards come, the snow doesn’t get deposited right beside the tree rows but continues through and spreads the snow out over the field, which is a huge improvement.
Kroeker Farms Ltd continues to demonstrate leadership in farm sustainability throughout all areas of their production. Their use of shelterbelts, cover crops, organic production methods and crop diversity show their desire to keep land and water health tied to farm productivity and profit.
Kroeker Farms is being recognized for exhibiting, exemplifying, and executing environmental stewardship practices that will help enhance our environment for future generations to enjoy.