The Stamp family won the Alberta Outstanding Young Farmers award for 2023
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
A farm family from Enchant are the winners of the 2023 Outstanding Young Farmers Award.
Greg Stamp and his wife, Sarah, won the award, which recognizes farmers between the ages of 18 and 39.
“It was very surprising and left us a little speechless when we heard our names called,” Greg told Farms.com. “We didn’t get up right away because we were kind of in shock and there were three other farms that were equally deserving.”
The other nominees included a mushroom farming business, a farm that does direct-to-consumer sales, and a malting business.
This crop of nominees shows that Alberta ag is diverse and there’s room for everyone in the industry.
Greg and Sarah Stamp.
“There were four very different operations up for the award, and that shows that agriculture isn’t a one size fits all industry and there’s different ways of finding your way in,” he said.
Greg and Sarah are second-generation grain producers on the farm. Along with Greg’s brothers Nathan and Matthew, and parents Richard and Marian, they own and operate Stamp Seeds and Stamp Farms.
Greg is the seed sales manager while Nathan is the farm manager and Matthew’s role is as business operations manager.
The farm has 5,000 irrigated acres and 2,000 dryland acres where they produce pedigreed seed like wheat, barley, faba beans, peas and more.
Greg is approaching 20 years of involvement on the family farm and the opportunities new crop varieties present are still exciting.
“The reason I get excited about something new is because I think our customers are going to like it because we’re providing value to them and helping them solve a challenge on their farm,” he said.
Part of the award’s presentation process is to highlight what makes a nominated farm unique.
For the Stamp family, part of it is the success of the seed business, and part of it is involving the other family members.
“It takes a lot of work to build up a customer base of farmers and to bring products to them that they find valuable, and so being able to do that is a big success for us,” Greg said. “And also, the transition from my wife and my parents to adding my brothers to the team on the ownership and management on the farm. This means we don’t have to be jacks of all trades and instead we can have specialized responsibilities we can focus on.”
With the regional win, the Stamp family will represent Alberta in the national competition later this year.
A farm family from Alberta last won the national award in 2018 when Craig & Jinel Ference from Kurriemuir shared the award with Jordan and Alex McKay from Por Perry, Ont.
Many of the regional winners for 2023 have been announced:
B.C. – Hopcott Farms
Manitoba – Harley and Brooklynn Siemens
Saskatchewan – Leguee Farms
Atlantic Canada – Marijke Oudshoorn and Willem van de Wetering
The Ontario winners will be announced on Aug. 17, and the winners from Quebec will be announced during the regional event on Aug. 28 and 29.