Fed-up Ontario farmer seeks move to Prairies

Jan 10, 2024

The 33 year old would like to own and operate a farm near his hometown of Peterborough, but the math doesn’t make sense. To purchase 100 acres and run a small herd of beef cattle, the price tag for the land could be $1.5 to $2 million or more.

“Unless you’re inheriting assets, you can’t grow in Ontario,” said Glover, who lives close to Assumption, Ont., with his wife, Katie.

“Nothing pencils. We both work full-time. You can’t (cover) a mortgage and make it (profitable)…. You can’t get ahead here.

Glover and his brother now run a herd of about 70 Simmental cows on rented land. They were planning to buy land from a dairy farmer who is close to retirement, but that deal fell through when the owner increased the sale price by $600,000.

That forced Glover to rethink his future.

He decided that farming in Ontario is unworkable. So, he bought an ad in The Western Producer, hoping to find a farmer on the Prairies who is nearing retirement.

“Young Farming Family looking for a spot to call home and put down roots in Western Canada,” the ad reads. “Open to any location with a nice, local church, a decent bar and a rain gauge that’s not just for looks.”

In an early January interview, while he was driving a load of pigs through gridlock on a highway near Toronto, Glover said he grew up on a hobby farm near Peterborough. His dad was a teacher and his mom came from a cattle farm. His parents had about seven acres, with five cows and a small sheep flock.

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