The third generation took over when his cousin, Danny, and his brother, Dale, took over and Blair’s first official crop with them was in 1985. Even today, the family legacy on the farm is very strong as Dale and his wife, Pam, and their children combine forces with Blair, his wife, Bev, and their children to make the farm a success.
When Blair looks back, he’s confident he was working on the farm before he learned to walk. He acknowledges he lived and breathed farming when he and Bev raised their children on the farm, but he has no regrets. And clearly that passion has been passed down to the fourth generation. Blair’s son, Wade, joined the farm as soon as they would let him, roughly when he turned 15. Neither Blair nor Wade can imagine doing anything other than farming
Blair’s farming philosophy is based on making decisions with return on investment in mind, but Wade says his dad is always trying something new on their farm. Whether it be applying fertility in new ways, or doing seed trials, Blair likes to experiment with options now to help them make better decisions in the future. He’s participated in DEKALB® Market Development trials withRon Rabe, DEKALB® Agronomist, and is happy with the support DEKALB®provides for the trial throughout the year and at harvest; “With Ron and his team, the trial is harvested in no time.” For Blair, a seed trial is “more than just posted data”; he gets to see key attributes like the timing of flowering and watch how the genetics perform on their own land.
It wasn’t so long ago that one of the new things on the Goethals’ farm was growing soybeans for the first time. They experimented with soybeans when they first became an option for Southern Manitoba farmers. But now it’s a serious part of their rotation and this year marks their fourth soybean crop. “It’s a nice crop to grow,” explains Blair, as “soybeans don’t require as much babysitting as canola.” Even as the acreage of soybeans increase on the farm, the Goethals continue to grow canola using the Genuity® Roundup Ready®system. “We like it for its weed control,” he explains and “some of the Genuity®Roundup Ready® hybrids have been the best canola on our farm; they’ve come a long way.”
When the conversation turns to volunteer canola in their soybeans neither Blair nor Wade are bothered. They use a pre-seed burndown which, in their experience, is essential for weed control. When it comes to spraying glyphosate, Blair says they always try to put another herbicide mode of action with it to tank mix as a practice to help prevent glyphosate resistance.
Another experiment on the farm is expanding the number of acres of canola they straight cut at harvest. The Goethals plan to straight cut 1000 acres of canola this year. Straight cutting is something they’ve tried before to save cost and time at harvest.
No doubt, harvest is a time of year when the Goethals family’s passion for farming is at full force and the results of trying new things can finally be seen.
We thank the Goethals family for choosing DEKALB® brand seed for their farm and wish them a safe and successful harvest this year and for many generations to come. Check out the results of farmer-managed DEKALB Market Development trials on DEKALB.ca this fall.
If you're interested in growing DEKALB this growing season...