Every year, Canada recognizes rising talent in agriculture with its national Outstanding Young Farmers Awards. The country is divided into seven regions for the competition, with each region nominating a farmer under 40 who demonstrates excellence in the farming profession. Winners of the regional Outstanding Young Farmers will move forward to the national competition.
Ontario’s regional competition took place earlier this month at Cellar 52 in St. Jacobs. The regional awards included presentations from nominees, a regional award banquet and a farm tour on April 9 of Circle R Livestock in Wallenstein, home of last year’s national competition winners, Ryan and Romy Schill.
The Schills primarily farm sheep, but they also have a few cows and grow most of their animal’s feed. They have been raising sheep for around 18 years.
“We’ve got a couple of cows now. The sheep are the main business. And I use all the wool for our retail stores,” explained Romy.
“We sell [the wool] mostly online and at artisan markets.”
Circle R Livestock works with various mills to process the wool, then creates products such as pillows, felt yoga mats, duvets, and blankets, which are available for sale on their website. Their sheep are raised for meat, which Romy explains mostly ends up in butcher shops in southern Ontario.
Like many farmers, Romy and Ryan’s journey into farming started when they were kids. Romy grew up on a dairy farm, and Ryan grew up on a mixed farm.
“Both Ryan and I grew up on farms, and then this was his grandparents’ farm that we took over,” explained Romy.
She added that sheep were a bit of an experiment for Ryan when he was younger, and that they expanded on it.
“Sheep are a great opportunity. There’s lots of potential still, and we love working with them, so we kind of use sheep as our little gateway into farming and creating our own story,” said Romy.
As the hosts for the award weekend’s farm tour, Romy and Ryan led attendees of the Regional Outstanding Young Farmers Awards around their farm. Showing them the process of their farming, sheep at different stages of development and the different uses for their different barns.
On the day of the farm tour, Romy recalled the process of getting nominated last year, which included giving a presentation on their farming operation. She explained that nominees are judged on everything from farm finances to community involvement and everything in between.
“We submitted a nice, long application of our farm history, all the stuff we’re doing, all the things we’re involved in. There’s a panel of judges, so they look at all of that, and they ask us lots of really hard questions. You get really in-depth as to what you’ve done on the farm,” said Romy.
“They do a big gala night, and you have to sit there all night and patiently wait, and it’s very nerve-racking. We were completely surprised. It was really great to be nominated for this nice sort of recognition. It’s a great way to spotlight what we’re doing and share our story a little.”
In attendance at the Circle R Livestock’s farm tour were this year’s nominees. The Ontario Outstanding Young Farmer winners, Drew and Heather Spoelstra of Roy-A-Lea Farms Ltd., came from Binbrook, Ontario, for the three-day event. They were one of two farming couples nominated for the award. The other nominees, Tyler and Allison McBain, are a fifth-generation farming couple from Caledonia.
The Spoelstras operate Roy-A-Lea Farms Ltd., a family farm producing grains, hay, dairy and beef. Drew owns the farm and has been the president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture since 2023. Heather leads the Roy-A-Lea Clydesdales program, managing a herd of 50 Clydesdales, some of which serve mounted police units across Canada. They also have three daughters, Hadlea, Harper and Kasey.
Like the Schills, both Drew and Heather grew up on farms in Hamilton-Wentworth.
“I grew up on a beef cow herd. My dad had a career at Ontario Hydro, and we had a herd of Clydesdale horses growing up. It started back when my mom’s grandpa was born and raised with the horses. My mom worked on the farm with the horses as a kid, and then it’s just been in our blood ever since,” explained Heather.
“We’re both from farming families. I was born and raised on a farm. He lived about 10 minutes away, dairy farm and cash-cropper. So, we both grew up very close to each other.”
Drew added that his parents started the farm business back in 1989.
“We’ve been growing it ever since, and [we have] been milking in the robotic barn for two years now. It’s been a constant evolution of the farm and continued growth along the way,” said Drew.
The Spoelstras hard work and dedication to the sector have not gone unnoticed. They will represent Ontario as the regional winners in Vancouver, later this year, at the national competition, from November 25-29.