A 160-acre farm located along Cherry Creek Road and Moore Road is being used primarily for growing grain that will be sold across Vancouver Island.
Bought two years ago by Mark Super, the farm has created a bit of a buzz on social media in the past with people voicing questions and concerns about tree clearing and burning happening on the large property.
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Super, who moved back to the Alberni Valley after 30 years living on the mainland and running his own commercial roofing company, said he bought the farm with the intent on “just doing hay.”
“Then I thought I may as well have cows because you have hay anyways…and cows will eat almost any type of hay,” Super said.
Currently Super owns about 30 cows but will probably reduce that number once he is done clearing his fields.
Recently Super was approached by Alberni farmer, Wayne Smith, of Vancouver Island Grain and Milling, who mentioned the farm would be perfect for growing grain.
“I had to put in fall rye anyway just to tighten up the soil, and [Smith] said I’ll harvest that and we’ll see what we get for money,” Super said. “I said to [Smith], I want to see what kind of outcome it is, what kind of money it is. It costs money to plant and because it’s grain the cows can’t eat this because it’s too dry.”
Super said he will try out the grain for now and if it makes money he will continue with it.
“I’m a business guy, I had my own roofing company for years. You’re in business to make money,” Super said. “It’s really nice to be a farmer but a farmer doesn’t make any money, it’s just a real hard grind.”
Smith, who lives near Super’s property, uses a self-propelled grain combine to harvest the grain that is then distributed to bakeries and other companies around Vancouver Island, but so far, mostly Victoria.
“What I do is supply raw grains to bakeries down in Victoria that have got their own mills,” Smith said. “We’ve got big sacks here and we take it down. I haven’t been able to get a bakery in Port Alberni interested in doing it.”
He said companies would have to invest in a mill in order to grind the grain to bake with it.
“The whole idea of doing grain (in Port Alberni) is I want locally produced food on Vancouver Island,” Smith said. “We cannot be relying on having our grain coming from the prairies. The drought is incredible there.”
Of Super’s 160 acres, Smith estimates about 30 to 40 per cent will be used for grain.
“This is the biggest potential for grain that we can see (on Vancouver Island). Nobody has offered up this amount of land for grain production,” Smith said.
Smith said he was happy to hear Super’s property was being maintained as a farm and not turned into a subdivision.
“This is going to be visually very, very appealing to everybody here because everybody wants to look at fields, especially when they have some grain growing in them,” Smith said.
Smith said the farm was originally about 80 per cent forest before it was sold. He mentioned once clearing and burning on the property began, after Super bought it, neighbours became upset.
“We’ve got burn piles that are going to be happening over here and everybody’s all concerned about that, but part of the thing is with burn piles, it’s critical they get burned right on site,” Smith said. “The thing is, when those burn piles are done, it leaves a mineral residue that helps the soil for decades.”
Super added that it takes about two days to completely burn the slash piles.
“When we light them up in September when it’s raining and you’re allowed to burn, they’re gone in two days and then that’s clear, it’s done,” Super said. “It’s a lot of work before you can get it into farm land status.”
karly.blats@albernivalleynews.com
