This is our Prairies

10 am - Depart Olds College for Alect Seeds

Our first stop is Alect Farms, a pedigreed seed farm owned by Garry and Karen Wiegum and their daughter, Sarah, just south of Three Hills, Alta. The farm specializes in growing pedigreed seed, the seed developed by plant breeders and sold to farmers for its genetic purity. The family grows wheat, barley, flax, peas and fababeans. As well as being an active farmer, Sarah has taken a lead role in commodity and industry organizations as a member, director and leader.

12 pm - Depart Alect Seeds for DNA Gardens

12:30 pm - Arrive at DNA Gardens

Our second stop and our lunch stop is DNA Gardens, of Elnora, Alta. If you’ve ever eaten a sour cherry, also called prairie cherries in Canada, chances are it can be traced back to Arden and Dave Delidais’ farm through their original plant tissue culture business. For almost 50 years the couple has grown, sold and developed a variety of prairie fruit trees, including apples, saskatoons, chokecherries, black currants, haskap and strawberries. This is one of the oldest, commercial saskatoon farms in the world. A few years ago they changed directions and established their own estate winery using fruit from their farm. We will tour their orchard, learn their history, have a meal, taste some of the wine and learn the stories behind their creatively named Backbreaker, Contraband, Sodbuster and Bootlegger wines.

2:30 pm - Depart DNA Gardens for GrainsConnect

2:50 pm - Arrive at GrainsConnect

Stop three will be GrainsConnect’s high throughput grain elevator with a 140-grain car loop for efficient grain rail loading. Built-in 2019, this is one of the newest and most modern grain elevators in Canada. Owned by Australia’s GrainCorp and Japan’s Zen-Noh Group, the 35,000-tonne capacity elevator handles mostly wheat and canola, but also feed barley, malt barley and peas bought from farmers throughout central Alberta. One of the most unique features of the elevator is the ring train track which allows grain cars to be loaded quickly and sent to the company’s FGT port at Vancouver in their own grain cars.

3:40 pm - Depart from GrainsConnect for HGB Bison

4:30 pm - Arrive at HGB Bison

Our final stop will be HGB Bison just outside Olds. For more than 36 years George and Heather Briggs have raised these massive animals that once roamed the continent in herds of millions. Through gentle handling practices and sustainable grazing practices, the roughly 120-head herd graze on pasture year round on their farm. We will get to ride on a wagon through the herd and see the animals and the young calves up close. The family finishes all their animals on the farm and sells the meat from the mostly Woods Bison cross animal through the family’s farm store.

5:45 pm - Depart from HGB Bison

6 pm - Arrive at Olds College

END OF TOUR