BONNYVILLE – As many in the agricultural industry could attest, there is never a dull moment on a farm. There is even less down time if you run over 700 head of cattle with your brother and son.
In between navigating daily life on the farm and replacing heat tape around pipes to keep water flowing for his cattle to drink during an extended cold snap, Roger Antoniuk found time to discuss the multi-generational farm he runs with his brother Ken and son Kurtis.
In 2020, Roger, Ken and Kurtis were informed that they had been selected as the recipients of the Family Farm Awards along with 15 other family farms from north and central Alberta communities.
The award committee selects “outstanding families who represent values of the family farm within their rural community.”
For Janice Boden, who is the manager of agricultural services for the MD of Bonnyville, the Antoniuk family is one that embodies those values.
“Alberta is a global agricultural leader in the food supply chain. The MD of Bonnyville’s Agricultural Service Board recognizes and supports our local farmers for their contributions to agriculture as well as their involvement within our local community... Today, the (Antoniuk) farm is still going strong and growing,” Boden wrote in a statement.
“The Antoniuk families’ strength and community commitment over the years is second to none and we congratulate the Antoniuks on receiving the 2020-21 Family Farm Award.”
The purpose of the award and the accompanying commemorative gate sign is meant to honour the family both for their farming business practices but also their community involvement.
On Nov. 12, the Antoniuk families were invited to attend a postponed Family Farm Awards Gala that took place at Farmfair International 2021.
Going and growing
In 1939, Roger and Ken’s grandparents arrived from the Ukraine and settled in the Bonnyville area. By 1940, their grandparents had bought their first piece of land – and Antoniuk Farms was established.
Just three to four generations later, the Antoniuk farming operations consists of 6,500 acres of crop land, 1,000 acres of forage, 350 cow and calf pairs, and 500 head of feedlot yearlings.
Although brothers Roger and Ken grew up helping on the family farm, it wasn’t until the early 1990s that the brothers would officially take over Antoniuk Farms when their uncle and their father, Bill, retired.
Even in retirement their father continued to lend a hand on the farm for as long as he could, says Roger.
Before taking over the farm, both brothers had already started purchasing land and building their own farming enterprise, but continued to work together, always offering support when needed.
“I bought my first quarter in ‘83 and my brother bought his, he's eight years younger, I think in 1990,” recalls Roger.
To generate funds and start his farming and ranching operations, Roger worked in the oil and gas industry for several years at the Wolf Lake facility, just a 35-minute drive from home.
“I was home either on the day shift or the night shift – It was pretty stressful on everybody,” he says, looking back.
Eventually, he would leave his industry job and pursue farming full-time alongside Ken.
“I was double dipping, making money, buying land type of thing, until we had the fourth child come along in 1999. I was 36 and our cow herd got up to 425 and it was just getting to be too much. I had to drop the patch,” he says.
Ken, unlike his brother, went from high school to studying as an agricultural mechanic and then headed straight back to the farm to help their dad.
Often, Ken would help with daily tasks and farm chores while Roger was away. “I would pay him a portion of his hours because he was putting in more hours than me obviously. It comes back to being fair.”
Honesty, trust and fairness
Roger attributes the longstanding success of Antoniuk Farm to honesty, trust and fairness.
“My dad and his brother farmed together, similar to my brother and I, they kept their land separate and farmed together with the cattle and their equipment. So, we just kind of went on from that and that has all worked out well,” says Roger.
“That had really held them together and that holds us together too – whatever one does, you just assume they're doing it to the best of their ability and then away they go.”
The same has held true since Roger’s son Kurtis joined the business in 2015 after completing Agriculture Businesses and Agriculture Technology at Vermillion and Olds College.
“By each of us owning our own land and sharing equipment, it's really worked out well for us. Because you can share equipment based on your acres, but you all have your own ownership. So, you make your own plan for your own land, your own crops, your own marketing,” he explains, adding the discounts of buying chemicals, fertilizers and equipment in bulk is a nice bonus of collaboration.
Machines and cattle are easy to divide up, dirt not so much, Roger says. “As soon as you can’t trust your partner, your brother or whoever, things just fall apart... As long as there is trust and all parties value honesty, it's an easy system to work out.”
When Kurtis joined his father and uncle in the family business, he was “a bit of a third wheel,” Roger laughs, but things were managed the same way.
Kurtis is set up on his own land, with his own cattle, leases the equipment based on his acres and makes his own decisions for his crops, he says. If his son needs custom spraying or seeding, he contracts his uncle and father, and likewise if Ken and Roger need help, they pay Kurtis a wage for his labour.
“But everything is black and white and not some promise in 20 years,” says Roger. “I see some farms where the son is working, working, working but never gets a title. (They) may be married and they might have kids and a wife but have no security. They might not even own their house because it's part of the farm – it's really stressful.”
Future of farming
For now, the Antoniuk Farm is growing and constantly innovating their agricultural practices, but in the next 20 or so years it may not be the same story.
“With the pile of land we have, you need at least two people to take it over,” says Roger, noting that so far only one member of the fourth generation of Antoniuks, Kurtis, has expressed a serious interest in the family business.
That will be a matter for another time. For now, he says, “We have family and then we have farm.”
Family Farm Award Recipients 2021
Local recipients who received the Family Farm Award in 2021 include Jim and Jina Greilach who operate 3G Farms Ltd. out of the County of Barrhead, and Arseny, Nick and Stepan Kuznetsov of Kuznetsov Farms Ltd. in Lac La Biche County.
Family Farm Recipients 2020
Other regional recipients for the Family Farm Award in 2020 include David and Tracy Morey with Unique Valleystream Genetics who operate out of Athabasca County, as well as Edward and Tammy Huk who run Huk Family Farms out of Smoky Lake County.
