FEATURED GROWER
Peter Pepneck
Hi, my name is Peter Pepneck. I have been farming in the Vauxhall area for 49 years. My farm name is P & G Pepneck Farms Ltd. The G stands for Glenna, my life partner and yes, we are married and have been for over 30 years. We have raised three children who are now married and away from home. I started renting land and farming even while I was attending university. It was how I paid my tuition and living costs.
Growing up farming was always a big part of my life this played a major factor in the reason why I am farming now. My parents very much believed in education so after I graduated from high school, I attended the University of Lethbridge where I received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematics. I studied with the intention of having banking as my potential profession. While I did enjoy University and learning I still was more attracted to farming and the lifestyle it could give me. In the 1980s when there were strangling interest rates, foreclosures, and bankruptcies I suddenly felt no attraction to be in the banking profession. It reinforced my view that farming was a far more desirable career.
Our operation mainly centers around a joint venture with my two brothers and their wives. Each of them also has a son who is involved in the farm. We share production contracts, equipment costs, input costs and profits together resulting in the benefits available to a larger unit. Lower input costs and more efficient operations are the result. The sharing of equipment costs means we can justify better and newer equipment than each of us could do on our own.
We grow sugar beets, edible beans, hard red spring wheat, registered seed wheat, hybrid canola for seed and hemp. We also grow barley and durum wheat as the cereal if the market warrants the change. We also have potatoes on our land as we trade land with a neighbor. We grow beans on his land, and he grows potatoes on ours.
I would like to say I am an idealist and of course I grow sugar beets because I love sugar beets and love everything about growing them. This is partly true because most of growing sugar beets is very satisfying and feels good but to be more realistic, we grow sugar beets for a number of basic and sensible reasons. One, I grow sugar beets to earn a living. Sugar beets have been a great crop for paying the bills. They have provided a very steady and dependable income for all these years. Two, I love growing sugar beets because it always seems to reward extra effort. We spend extra time and sweat on our sugar beets because inevitably they reward that effort. This is one of the things that makes farming such a great way to make a living. Three, beets are a great rotation with the other crops that we grow. Good rotation is better for the land as well as translating into better yields for the crops we grow following in our rotation. Four, sugar beets with their steady returns allow us to invest more in equipment and inputs. This equipment often is used across the farm to improve yields and returns on other following crops. Sugar beets help pay the bills.