The Rural Voice, 2001-10, Page 24Scott, Brent, Jeff and Bob Robinson find
ways to give each an area of his own.
More �,, • n one
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together on
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Story and photo
by Keth
Roulston
/t's the dream of most farm
families — that someday the
children will grow up and become
part of the family farming operation.
Often, however, there are problems
making the dream work. The answer
requires some planning, say members
of one successful family operation.
The Robinson family who operate
Vista Villa Farms near Walton
involves father Bob and three of the
five children: sons Scott, Brent and
Jeff. The company, well-known as a
producer of breeding stock, has 2500
sows in a farrow -to -finish, three-
phase system in which the nursery
and growing phases are contracted
out.
About a quarter of the pigs raised
are sold for breeding stock with
another 10 per cent used for their
own replacement stock.
The family owns about 600 acres
of land between them, but the
contracting out of nursery and
growing phases gives the operation
access to more than 3,000 acres more
land for nutrient management
purposes.
Bob Robinson took over the
family farm 34 years ago after 10
years of selling feed following his
graduation from Ontario Agricultural
College in Guelph.
After a few years he decided it
was important to be involved in more
20 THE RURAL VOICE
than just production of market hogs
and he began producing and selling
breeding stock. With a young family
and added work with the breeding
stock, he had to come up with a
back-up plan for getting the work
done and that involved hiring one
worker.
Not only did the additional worker
make it possible to expand, it made it
necessary because now the farm had
to support not only the family, but
the worker as well.
Over the years all three sons and
two daughters became involved in
the fame from an early age. Through
these chores the children were
exposed to the work the family was
doing.
From the beginning, Bob says,
"we felt we had to pay the kids. They
had to learn that if you work, you
earn."
Son Brent recalls those early
chores, starting with creep feeding
the pigs and growing in
responsibility as they grew older.
During his high school years,
Brent took part in the kinds of
activities, like sports, that most
teenagers do, but there were also
chores to be done at home. Juggling
these various activities "eases you
into responsibility," he says.
As they grew older, the young
Robinsons were encouraged, to work
off the farm. "This work is important
for individual decision-making
relative to long-term farm
involvement," Bob says. It also
meant that some other employer was
teaching the young people the
responsibilities of working for a
living. It "let somebody else do some
of the tough work" of training the
kids, Bob jokes.
For'Brent, that training meant
everything from spraying crops to
bridge building.
"You learned what you did not
want to do (for the rest of your life),"
Brent says. "As many jobs as there
are, you learn perspective if you're
going to be on the other side as a
boss."
After they went to college, the
boys were also encouraged to work at
something other than farming for a
few years. "If they decided they
wanted to be part of the farm, then
they'd have experience off the farm
to judge by," Bob reasons.
Brent went to the University of
Guelph. The university experience
was probably more a great place to
learn the social side of life than just
absorb the lessons in the classroom,
he says. "I knew I liked agriculture
but I didn't know where I wanted to
be involved," he recalls. Always
interested in environmental science,
he decided to take resource