Tonight I'm heading for the very first time to the Great White North, to Canada! Or to Endiang, in Southern Alberta to be exact, to talk to cattle and crop farmer, Stuart Somerville @Stuthefarmer

We talk about the prairies where he lives, and the kind of farming people are doing in that area, and some of the challenges they face there, including coyotes, cougars, plagues of gophers, and drought.

We discuss Stu's 4th generation farming operation which stretches to 4000ac of barley and canola, and calving 350 head of Maine-Anjou Cattle this year

We go into his early career, and why he chose to be school teacher for several years, before eventually returning to the family farm and starting a family.

We discuss his plans to be 'a proper cattleman', and what that really means, and how he wants to replace as much of the tractor and quad work as much as possible with horses going forward. 

We also talk about bagpipes! Stu's been playing them since he was 7 years old, and has played at the world pipe band championships in Scotland in 2004.

We also discuss how he ran for Parliament twice in '08 and '10, how he's trying to put something back into the industry by getting involved with the Alberta Beef Producers as a delegate, as well as talking about social media, and what he loves about it, and also how sometimes he wants to burn the whole thing down!

I also couldn't talk to Stu without talking about his love of history, and why he's so interested in both the early pioneers, and the native people of Canada, as well as his own family stories.

All this and much, much more.

Stu's one of my favourite people to follow on twitter, and it was fantastic to finally speak to him, and learn more about his farming life in Alberta. Check it out folks.. 

 

 

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This episode is kindly sponsored by NFU Cymru. For more information please visit www.nfu-cymru.org or www.rockandrollfarming.com

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