Sollio Next Generation Award: Luymes Farms & Custom Farming - No Cell Phone, but Lots of Communication

After a big premiere last year, the Sollio Next Generation Award is making its second foray into Ontario among The Agromart Group retailer customers with three finalists—three farms working in grain production, each with their own niche: one uses its harvest to brew beer, another grows large-scale crops while making its machinery more profitable with contract work, and the third focuses on seed production.

Competition judges visited, videos were produced, and the finalists and their Agromart retailer representatives attended the gala during Sollio Cooperative Group’s annual general meeting. The Sollio Next Generation Award plays an important role not only by highlighting successful models of new farms or transfers—which has been its mission for the past 21 years—but also by amplifying the reach of great stories and opportunities for cultural exchange between farmers across Canada.

When farmers get to trade business practices and share their cultural heritage through a competition, everybody wins.

Soybean threshing has just finished in the Moorefield, ON area, northwest of Kitchener, and the corn is still slightly too wet. Even between these two intense periods, the Luymes clan is raring to go, starting their day with a team meeting in the garage, right next to the office, the kitchen, and the coffee maker.

In a nutshell, Luymes Farms & Custom Farming is the brainchild of brothers Rob and Mark Luymes, who took over from their parents John and Elaine. The brothers’ sister, Mel, a graduate in rural sociology and an agricultural consultant, is also involved in the business, wearing multiple hats as resident ecologist (windbreak hedges, cover crops, no-till farming, etc.), IT and government subsidy expert, and facilitator of harmonious human relations.

As for figures, the family business has 2,000 acres under cultivation and works on an additional 8,000 acres for neighbouring companies, planting, spreading, mowing, baling, spraying and harvesting. That’s a lot of customers keeping the phones in Rob and Mark’s pockets ringing. John, though, doesn’t take the same approach. “I decided not to have a cell phone, in order to make transferring the business to the boys go more smoothly,” he explains. “Customers call them directly, without a middleman.”

This isn’t to say that communication is poor between the pillars of the company. There are radios in every tractor and in the garage, where someone is always on call, ready to rescue broken equipment or an operator with a family emergency or an appointment. Communication may be formal or informal, but above all, its constant.

The company’s trademark contracting service started as part of John and Elaine’s dairy business, when they began selling manure spreading services. At some point, the mountain of manure that needed to be spread became too much work for them to continue milking cows twice a day. They’ve since diversified, and revenues are growing steadily and naturally by word-of-mouth alone—no advertising needed. “Our customers count on us, and we count on them,” says Rob. Mark nods: “We know all the surrounding fields like the back of our hand. For example, we know that there’s a two-day growth differential between the north and south of our 20-kilometre radius of action.” Once a week, they exchange information with their Agromart retailer representative Tanja Checkley Sales Manager and Partner from Harriston Agromart. Topics include disease and insect management, the best crop protection products to use, and the price and availability of various inputs.

It was when the duo took over the spraying service that they began building up their own assets. Profit started coming in from the very first year. “We know our machinery, its condition, our operating costs per hour and per acre, when exactly it’s better to invest in something new rather than spend hours in the garage doing repairs,” explains Rob. The two brothers were practically born with a steering wheel in their hands: they’ve been operating heavy machinery since they were 10 or 12 years old.

Sunday is sacred for the family. They always take the day off, even when there is a good weather window. As a result, they have always had an easy time recruiting and retaining their human resources, guys Mark and Rob’s age, in their mid-thirties, dedicated, self-reliant and efficient. Sundays are supplemented by one week off in summer and one in winter.

While Rob takes care of the marketing, Mark does the accounting, so both are aware of the money coming in and going out. Apparently, their profitability is so good that their bankers are eager to increaser their borrowing capacity for new projects and machinery upgrades. Parents and children sometimes have different viewpoints regarding the acquisition of new, more efficient equipment: is it just an expense to tally up or a well-calculated investment to make the farm more financially comfortable? The important thing is for those viewpoints to be reconcilable, and for the acreage to be sufficient to justify a new toy.

What is the group most proud of? Generous in nature, the brothers are already discussing the idea of building a business big or diversified enough to accommodate their own young children. For his part, John is proud of having helped create jobs for his children. As for Elaine, she’s proud of the good family relations they’ve maintained, which, as we all know, start with good communication—whether by cell phone, landline, or face-to-face.

Photo by Christophe Champion

READ ALL ABOUT THE WINNERS OF THE SOLLIO NEXT GENERATION AWARD  2023 : 

• MacKinnon Brothers Brewing Compagny - Adding Value to their values
• Matt & John McRae - Of seed, oil and maple syrup
• Luymes Farms & Custom Farming - No cell phone, but lots of communication