The Felgarth Farm

Farm purchased 1971, by Gudrun and Wilhelm Brand, German immigrants, two children Kerstin and Alexander. Fellgarth Farm was a pioneer certified organic farm in Eastern Townships in the early 80’s. Growing diverse crops such as vegetables, corn, hay, barley, spelt, oats and soybeans. A livestock production with beef and chickens, sold with vegetables at the farm store.

The farm is now operated by the second generation, Alexander Brand and his wife Lindsay-Jane Gowman. In 2015 we partnered and created Ferme Fellgarth SENC while having and raising the third generation

of 6 children. Alexander has a degree in Agriculture from MacDonald College and was born and raised in Hatley and has operated the farm. Jane has a Bachelor of Arts from Bishop’s University and was born and raised in North Eastern British Columbia. The uniqueness of our family’s heritage is a strength to our enterprises. We bring an understanding of the country, the world, other languages, cultures as well as integrating German/Western Canadian agriculture practices to our farm located in the unique Eastern Townships. It allows us to be open minded and aware of other environments.

Being a young enterprise in comparison to the operating 3rd, 4th and 5th generation farms we are nestled amongst is a limitation and struggle as we stumble with a lack of family support, family power, efficiency and the missing generational knowledge many farms have as their greatest asset. We are a young enterprise operated by a husband/wife team, neither employed off the farm.

This winter and because of Covid many great conferences were available to us just by sittingat the kitchen table and clicking on ZOOM. We learned about farm insurance, operating a lower cost cattle operation, how to replace baler twine with an edible biodegradable twine. We hope to try this with winter pasturing in 2021. We got to zoom with the first Woman Agriculture Minister and learn how to empower each other as women farmers and finally we learned about urban farming in Montreal.
Both are passionate about sustainable, safe, regenerative agriculture which is family and community orientated, while being profitable. Our main expertise and revenue arrives from cattle, crop and hay production. We maintain small animal husbandry with our most recent trial farm animal being pastured pork.

The size of agricultural operations considerably impacts the outcomes on the surrounding ecosystems, making our small, diverse family farm a positive in managing effective agri-environmental practices. We are dynamic and unique which will be a strong asset to meet the environmental challenges and impacts of climate change to agriculture. One other aspect of our farm’s bio diversity that is important is our genetic diversity we are creating within our cattle. We have learned and applied mixing genetics to create sturdier, more balanced, outdoor cows. Using breeds such as Brown Swiss, Jersey, Angus. and Holstein genetics we are achieving genetic diversity within our livestock.
To conclude, it has been awhile since either of us gave deep, up to date thought on our agro-environmental management. This exercise and generous opportunity was thought provoking. It helped us be informed on immediate changes that are being made and a renewed call for leadership and our present involvement.