DJ Wassenaar and Matt Bergman of Haybury Farms Inc. at Jarvis are this year’s Ontario’s Outstanding Young Farmers.
They edged out Romy and Ryan Schill of Wallenstein.
Bergman grew up on a dairy farm and started on his own when he was 23.
He took jobs to pay for land.
Wassenaar was raised on a beef farm and he began with beef and transitioned to crops.
They decided to increase revenues by going organic in 2018 with identity-preserve beans and contracts for organics.
The next year they grew organic corn and soybeans on 400 acres and named their business Claybank Organics.
They bought a farm in Algoma District in Northern Ontario In 2021 and grow timothy hay for export.
Now Claybank Organics is growsing 1,000 acres of organic corn, soybeans and hay, and Haybury farms 3,200 acres.
Romy and Ryan Schill run Circle R Livestock Ltd/Revolution Wool Company at Wallenstein.
National OYF board member, Richard Stamp, said in a news release that both finalists “are real leaders in many aspects, of Canada’s exciting and diversified agriculture industry.”
