By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot

Kevin Aitken of Grey County wanted to expand his beef herd but couldn’t find more land to rent. Blake Vince of Kent County wanted cattle to improve his land without purchasing an entire herd or building a barn. The like-minded duo formed a partnership so they could both get what they wanted.
    Aitken shared his story at the Grey County Soil and Crop Winter Meeting in Rocklyn in December and Blake Vince chatted with The Rural Voice over the phone to share how the partnership works and why it can increase productivity, improve the land and create community.
Kevin Aitken
Aitken explained he has been rotational grazing since 2011. “My whole farm is grass,” he said. He’s always trying to get more grazing days on the fields because having cattle on grass costs less than bringing in stored feed. During the winter, he does feed purchased hay.
    The cost-savings of grass led him down the path of looking at core crops and pondering if he could work with a cash cropper. It made him think way back to 2016 when he met Blake Vince of Merlin, near Chatham, at an innovative farmer’s conference. “He is a big proponent of cover crops and is no-till,” explained Aitken, who started following Vince on social media.
    “I saw amazing pictures of his cover crops growing and I talked to him a few times. A few years went by and then I saw a tweet from him that said, ‘I have the forage, who has the cows’?”
    That spurred Aitken into action. He travelled to Vince’s farm and the two came up with a plan. Vince would put up fencing, install a water system and would become an investor in the cow herd, essentially owning half the herd. The two would split the considerable cost of transporting the cattle from Holstein to Merlin and back again.
    The evolving partnership is a way for Aitken to grow his herd without buying land. Surrounded by expensive farmland and the Mennonite community, Aitken said it’s hard for beef farmers to compete with cash croppers for renting land. “I thought this idea would allow me to expand my herd,” he said.
    Aitken got his cows down to Merlin in May and things were “looking good”. There are no trees down there so shade was an issue but Aitken was impressed by the “tremendous amount” of feed in May and June. However, the summer was dry and Vince’s summer cover crop did not germinate. The lush feed in May and June was non-existent in July so the pair had to enact a contingency plan.
    “Unfortunately, all the cows had to come home. Luckily I had a cover crop growing at home so the first of September, the cows were put into sorghum and some winter yards.” Aitken had originally intended to take it off for feed to be followed by grazing. Luckily, he had some extra stored feed. “Having a plan at home really paid off,” he said.
    In his winter yards, he had sorghum, turnip, oats and forage brassicas. The cows really enjoyed it, even pulling up the turnips and chewing on them. “They also trampled some, putting it back into the ground for the soil health component.”
    In early November, the calves were on stockpiled grass and Aitken fed the first bales of hay in mid-November.
    Aitken will meet with Vince soon to discuss plans for next year and how they can do better. “We need to discuss contingency plans,” said Aitken, adding Vince has been “really great” to work with. 
    He is very proud and pleased with this new partnership but admits finding a “like-minded partner” who is willing to work outside the box can be a challenge. Trust is a big factor. “The cattle go down there and I have to trust he is moving them, giving them lots of feed and looking after them health-wise.” It all went well, despite the drought, with the major negative being the four-hour driving distance between them.
    When entering a partnership like this one, communication is key. “You have to work through challenges and understand what each other wants out of the partnership.” Both Aitken and Vince are united in wanting to make sure the cows do well.
Blake Vince
Blake Vince had been custom grazing for a nearby farm since 2021 when Aitken approached him about the plan to co-own cattle and transport them from one farm to the other to maximize pasture and cover crop forage. A cash-cropper who’d been called a regenerative farmer before he was ready to claim the title, Vince was eager to add more cattle to his farm and truly farm in a regenerative way.
    “We need the incorporation of ruminants,” says the Nuffield Scholar,  inter-generational cash crop farmer and international speaker who has been experimenting with cover crops for years. “I saw this as a huge opportunity to do something different. Even though yields are increasing with seed technology, our profit was declining. We were in a spiral … a slow bleed.”
    Moreover, as he ages, he’s becoming more and more eager to protect the environment and farm in a way that honors soil and water. Vince remembers way back to his University of Guelph years when students were forced to take “Land Resource Management” class. “We called it Tree Hugger 101,” he remembers. “Now I find myself more in line with tree huggers and want to farm in a way that improves the environment we collectively share.”
    Vince believes adding ruminants is the way to do that because it encourages planting of cover crops to feed the cattle. Cover crops help reverse effects of soil compaction while improving water infiltration, weed control and soil health. Cover crops in the rotation reduce the need for synthetic inputs. The beef cattle then feed on his cover crops, fertilizing the field as they go. Planting pastures creates carbon sinks and lets land rest between periods of grazing. 
    Having a role in raising cattle makes him feel more like a producer. “When my corn is going to make ethanol and my soybeans are going to make plastic and my wheat is going to make pie dough and crackers (which are unhealthy)  it doesn’t really make me feel proud as a producer,” he said. Vince said he started to feel odd realizing of the thousands of people who pass his farm (which butts onto Highway 401), “I do not sell a dime to those potential consumers.”
    Beef, on the other hand, is a nutritious, stable protein. It can be sold and marketed from the farm as a way to make money, but also to connect with consumers. Vince believes he will be able to “sell his story” and that will create the market for beef raised on his farm.
    Bringing beef to the farm did require some infrastructure. There were no fences and no trees in his part of the county so he had to wire around 150 acres of cropland as well as the permanent, rotational-grazed, pastures he planted. “Putting up fencing is not a one-year return. It’s similar to tiling in that it will be there for years,” he said. Indeed, this whole partnership is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It requires a vision, a purpose and a willingness to wait until the product is ready to sell. Their first calves were only born in 2023 so it will take time before they can sell animals into the meat trade.
    Vince has also examined what is important to him in his farming career. Taking risks is important, as well as analyzing the value of partnership versus ownership. “I feel I would rather put up fences and take land out of production to improve my lot in life; take a calculated risk to differentiate myself and spread out my risk load, than buy land at an overvalued price, which offered little return on investment. Plus, this opportunity allows me to contribute positively to the environment which for me is a win/win.”
    Neither is he afraid of partnership. Like Aitken, Vince says it’s important to be flexible. Low rains meant one of his pastures, a tall-grass prairie, didn’t see cattle this season so adjustments had to be made where the cattle would stay and feed. This, however, was an unexpected bonus for Vince. The grasses and flowers in his pasture attracted a slew of birds, which attracted birders. “I didn’t set out to attract people to the farm but it was one of the spin-off benefits,” said Vince. He remembers a conversation with a total stranger, who was hoping to photograph a Dickcissels. It just so happened that very bird was perched on the fence wire and when Vince pointed it out, the birder “looked like he’d seen Santa Claus.” It was a meaningful  moment for both, as Vince “never expected to have such a real impact on the environment in such a short time.”
   In terms of working with another farm, Vince says it’s important to find a like-minded person whom you trust, and who is willing to “think differently” or have a vision of what could be. “Kevin and I are not micromanagers either. I’m not there in his backyard looking over the cattle and neither is he looking over my shoulder.”
   Vince believes farmers have many such opportunities but they choose to ignore them because “we are such an independent lot.” Instead of looking at neighbours as competition, he thinks farmers should pursue ways to partner in business. An additional benefit is the creation of community, something being encouraged in mental health advocacy. He also thinks these kinds of partnerships are ideal for farmers who don’t have a successor for their farms. “They could introduce themselves to a young person looking for an opportunity to grow their business.”◊