Andrew McClelland
The Advocate
There’s a reason why so many successful farm businesses are also family businesses.
Through the decades, the knowledge and passion for agriculture are passed down, giving each generation a solid foundation to build upon and leaving room for some improvement.
You can’t find a better example of that business model than the Crack family of the Eastern Townships. And 21-year-old Savannah Crack is very aware of the benefits she’s reaped by coming from a dairy family.
“I’m very grateful,” Crack said, speaking on a rare break from work at the family farm in Cleveland, Que. — just a few kilometres east of Richmond in the Eastern Townships. “It is extremely, extremely, extremely difficult to get into this business if you don’t come from a dairy farm family, if you don’t have quota already.”
But it’s more than just quota and assets that Crack is grateful for. From a young age — looking up to her father, David, and grandfather, “Butch” Crack — young Savannah was aware that every day on the farm was part of an agricultural education.
“I always associated the farm with family,” she said. “It was always: ‘We’re going to see Grandpa!’ And my brother, Kolton, and I learned a lot of tips and tricks of the trade over the years when it comes to animal handling.”
It was, in fact, Savannah’s great grandfather, Gordon Crack, who founded the farm in 1967. The next generation — represented by grandfather “Butch” Crack — took Crackholm Farm into the world of dairy cattle genetics, a passion that Savannah and her younger brother Kolton share to this day.
Started with 4-H
That passion started young as Savannah became a devoted 4-H member. Soon she was showing Crackholm heifers at locals rallies and fairs and setting her sights on the TD Classic at the Royal Winter Agricultural Fair in Toronto.
“I was 12 the first year we went,” Crack said. “And I’ve gone every year ever since — except the year they didn’t have it during COVID.”
The TD Canadian 4-H Dairy Classic competition requires participants showing their cows to have already shown in four other rallies that year in order to qualify. So life for the Crack family often consists of practicing the finer details of cattle showing and, of course, loading up the cattle trailer to make it to a regional show or national competition.
“It’s normally me, my dad and brother in the truck when we head to the Royal,” Crack explained. “Along with the trailer, holding our cows and pretty much anyone else’s from the region who is showing in Toronto that year.”
Wins racked up
And the Crack family has racked up quite the impressive trophy collection in the past few years. Just this year their Holstein “Midas-Touch Montery 1127-ET” won first place for Best Udder in the 4-Year-Old category; another placed third in the Spring Heifer category; in 2022, the family brought home the First Prize Female ribbon in the Junior 3-Year-Old category.
“My brother and I generally do pretty good at the Royal,” said Crack with characteristic understatement.
“Although every year, nothing goes according to plan. I’ll have a heifer who behaves well in every other show ring, and then when we start showing at the Royal, she won’t walk. There’s always something that’s off. Every calf that I’ve shown.”
But any setbacks in showing don’t seem to be affecting Crack’s success. In October, she won the Merle Howard Award at the 56th World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, (where she also won the Junior Showmanship Contest in 2015, by the way). The award is the highest recognition a youth showperson can receive at World Dairy Expo — and Crack is the first Canadian to ever win it.
FMT grad
But you won’t hear Crack gloating — or even mentioning — those awards and honours in conversation. Instead, she’s more focused on her integration into working full time on the family farm, having graduated from Macdonald Campus’ Farm Management and Technology program in April of this year.
“Every day, I get up and milk, feed my dry cows, go back for breakfast, then check on the heat, check on the cows that don’t feel good and she who needs to be vet checked,” she said, with a tone that reveals this young farmer has no fear of hard work or long hours.
“What makes me feel good is when I can sit down at my computer and look at the data and see that our cows are hitting a 40-kilo average,” Crack said. “That makes me proud. And that’s what makes me feel really good about farming.”
Cutline: Savannah Crack of Crackholm Farm in Cleveland, Que., has shown a lot of cattle. In October, the 21-year-old became the first Canadian to ever win the Merle Howard Award at the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin.