Andrew McClelland
The Advocate

Agrologists and governments have been telling farmers for years that being efficient is the key to running a successful farm.

And young Ontario producer Olivia Mudde is so busy that she had to learn how to be efficient in every part of her life.

“My time at Macdonald Campus (in Ste. Anne de Bellevue) helped prepare me for life and business because I was on the varsity women’s rugby team. I had to be very good at time management because all practices and games were downtown!” beams the 21-year-old Farm Management and Technology (FMT) graduate. “By being on the team and having a full schedule with the FMT program, my spare time was limited.”

Looking at Mudde’s résumé would leave one wondering how she has had time to earn all the accolades that have been awarded her in recent years. A two-time FMT scholarship recipient at Mac, Mudde also completed an internship with Bayer Crop Science Canada in her second year of university, and, along with playing on McGill’s women’s rugby team, dove headfirst into planning the FMT graduation supper and started a fundraiser for the event with Farmers Feed Cities.

Her efforts were acknowledged following that when she was awarded Mac’s Gold Key Award for her outstanding and commitment to enriching student life on campus.

“Since graduation, I find myself having more and more contacts from people at Mac,” said Mudde, who completed her final semester last spring. “And that has helped me the most with learning about new ideas and techniques to implement on my farm.”

Responsible for the herd

The farm in question is no small operation. Together with her father, Ian, Olivia is now the youngest generation to run Mudde Farms Inc., a cash cropping and swine farm in Iroquois, Ont., 60 kilometres up the St. Lawrence River from Cornwall.

With 1,930 acres on a corn/soybean/winter wheat rotation and a swine herd of 230 sows, there’s lots of work for an eager producer to do around the farm.

“I’m in charge of managing the swine barns — still with some guidance from my dad,” Mudde explained. “I’m also the certified site manager and CQA (Canadian Quality Assurance)manager, meaning I’m responsible for the animal welfare aspects and deciding if a pig is fit to ship, as well as the treatments it will receive and record keeping.”

Growing up, Mudde had plenty of opportunities for gaining experience in agriculture: her grandfather — who emigrated from the Netherlands in 1966 — ran the cash crop and swine herd, and her mother’s family ran a dairy farm. Mudde got the chance to work on both farms, learning the ropes and making memories.

“My first memory of the farm was helping my Opa move pigs out of the hot rooms to the grower barn. He was always so patient with my brother and I, since we were just small, and often the pigs were almost the same size as us.”

Mudde was very enthusiastic about moving to the island of Montreal to attend Macdonald Campus at just 16 years old. And then COVID happened.

“I couldn’t go to school, couldn’t play the sports I loved. Everything just stopped,” she said. “I’m a very athletic person, so there was no way doing nothing was going to work for me. I began going to the barns and working in the fields when I was supposed to be doing ‘online school’. I think every farm kid was doing this.”

But the experience of quarantine was a blessing in disguise, helping Mudde to see what a career made on the family farm would be like.

“Truly, being on the farm during COVID helped me to find my love for farming,” she explained. “And seeing my entire family work together during this weird time was amazing. I loved it.”

Grateful for family business

Mudde feels that her degree at Mac help her see the business side of the family farm she grew up on. And now, it’s her (and her family’s) intention to manage that business so that it can support her family and allow her father to retire. And she has lots of ideas.

“Since being back on the farm, I’ve seen a need for better record keeping,” said Mudde, who has introduced the online platform PigKnows to the farm, allowing Olivia and her father to keep better records of all sows and inventory of pigs.

“It’s a key program for us to get good at using before next summer. That’s when we’ll be converting our dry sow barn to a free-access stall barn.”

Until then, Mudde is enjoying life on the farm and the challenges it gives her to apply her learning, work with her father, and being productive and efficient in her craft.

“Being back on the farm has been great,” she said. “The summer has absolutely flown by.”