Montérégie producer wanted to be worthy of being part of family operation

Andrew McClelland
The Advocate

Sometimes, coming to the realization of what you want to do in life comes slowly, after trying out a number of career options. And sometimes, it just hits you like a tonne of bricks.

It was definitely a tonne-of-bricks moment for Alexandre Verdonck. He grew up in Ste. Marthe, about 70 kilometres west of Montreal, on the farm his grandfather bought in the 1950s. A farm kid all his life, some of his earliest memories are of tending to the land.

“My first memory of working on the farm is probably when I was 5 or 6 years old, helping my parents pick rocks in the fields with my brother,” the 24-year-old said. “It isn’t much, but it’s a good introduction of learning to do long, hard work with no salary for long-term benefits.”

Agricultural entrepreneurship runs deep in the family. Verdonck’s grandfather and great-uncle formed the company, Belcan, which sold alfalfa cubes and fertilizer. In 2001, Verdonck’s father, aunt and uncle, combined resources and land to form Groupe Stell-Ag, growing corn, soybeans, wheat and peas for the Bonduelle food group.

But still, Verdonck wasn’t sure agriculture was for him.

“I was kind of a lost kid in high school,” he said. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do growing up.”

As graduation loomed, Verdonck found himself casting about for a career path and reflecting on his future.

Looking for direction

“I guess it was because of my lack of maturity at the time — I never really saw farming as an option, even though it had been staring at me my whole life,” he explained.

“Suddenly, I felt a calling to pursue my career in hopes of one day taking over the farm business, and hopefully becoming worthy of it.”

That calling sent him to the Farm Management and Technology program at Macdonald Campus in Ste. Anne de Bellevue. Although he was a farm kid, Verdonck said the ag knowledge of many of his peers was a bit intimidating.

“I’d be lying if I said that I was anywhere near the level of competence of some of my peers when we started the program,” he said. “These ambitious farmer kids, who had been involved in their farm business probably since they were able to hold a shovel, really opened my eyes. I still admire them to this day.”

Verdonck graduated from FMT in 2019, and then continued on at Mac in Agricultural Economics, a degree he felt he needed to become a successful farm manager in the current climate.

Wanted to gain a better edge

“I wanted to gain an edge with how to manage my farm better with regards to global events,” Verdonck explained. “Wars, pandemics, political conflicts — so many factors affect farming in relation to input and output prices, and the ability to adequately market commodities through unstable supply chains.”

With two degrees under his belt, Verdonck has returned to the family farm, working the 2,000 acres Groupe Stell-Ag has in crop production and helping with expansions. Recently, the business has started a broiler operation with a 23,000-bird-capacity barn.

“This is a very new field for us since we’ve never had animals before,” Verdonck said. “So it’s an adaptation to say the least. The goal was to diversify the enterprise and not rely so heavily on grain for our source of income.”

Stell-Ag is also currently switching over to a no-till system on its acreage and has begun acting as the local dealer for Environmental Tillage Systems, a project in its infancy that the Verdoncks hope will also diversify their revenue streams.

Alexandre has come a long way from not knowing if agriculture is right for him. But after proving himself worthy of making a huge contribution to the family farm, he’s also become a capable and articulate producer with much to say about the future of farming.

Support needed

“I think farmers just want support from non-farming people rather than criticism,” he said.

“We don’t necessarily need people to know the difference between a grain combine and a forage harvester, what a corn tassel is, or even why biosecurity is important in a poultry barn, but just a general understanding that we are dealing with big enterprises that depend on many factors in order to survive. A bit of gratitude for the food you enjoy every day is all we ask.”

Cutline: Alexandre Verdonck of Ste. Marthe felt he needed a solid foundation in production techniques and agricultural economics before returning to work on the family farm. “Events like the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have had major effects on the prices of grain, fertilizer, fuel and other commodities that our farms depend on,” said the 24-year-old.