Wagon Wheel Farm

I come from a few generations of Kaedings that had a plan and vision for where they wanted to end up in life. My grandfather homesteaded in the Churchbridge area in 1917, coming from the Eau Claire, Wisconsin area. He married Alvina Heuer from Wisconsin, who originated from a family of dairy farmers. Grandpa bought his first purebred Hereford cattle in 1944. At that time he was known as an innovator and was one of the first producers in the province to grow a foreign crop known as rapeseed, an industrial oil crop, to help support the war effort. Grandpa was a firm believer in education and ensured his four kids were given every opportunity to get one - resulting in my aunt being a teacher, my uncle a civil engineer, and my father taking Voc Ag at the U of S. Grandpa’s plan was to retire in the 60’s and have my father take over the farm. In 1961, my dad, Roger, married a young teacher from Saltcoats named Phyllis Maben. They bought the farm from my grandparents in 1962. They retained and increased the herd of Purebred Herefords, exporting live animals and genetics throughout the North American continent, as well as Japan, Korea, eastern Europe and Australia.

I have 2 siblings. My sister, Leslie Hicks, works as an accountant in Outlook and is married to Dale Hicks, who owns and operates his own seed business and organic farm in Mossbank, SK with his brother. My brother, Brad, is a retired RCMP Staff Sergeant in Whitehorse, Yukon. Brad is married to Jana VanKessel, who is an adult education instructor at the territorial regional college.

A discussion with dad in the early 80’s about him running the purebred cattle business alone while I was working out, resulted in us selling the herd in 1985. The same year, we started our pedigreed seed business. I graduated from the College of Agriculture in 1985. I bought my first farmland in 1983, paying 21% interest! Luckily dad was able to grant me 2 quarters of land I used for security, and Grant Devine, who was Premier at the time, reduced interest down to a “manageable” 14 % for us new farmers. While at University I met Carla Gatzke from Shellbrook. Her parents farmed there and raised purebred Gelbvieh cattle. We were married in 1984. In 1985, we moved to Regina where I worked for Imperial Oil Ltd. I was laid off after a year and promptly joined Hoechst AG as a territory rep based in Churchbridge. I was able to work there for 10 years and work full time on our expanding pedigreed seed business, Wagon Wheel Seed Corp (WWSC).

Thankfully, like his dad, my father was also an innovator, which allowed us to try a lot of “good” ideas over time. We grew lentils – didn’t know they could turn that many colors when it rained on them; chickpeas – how could something possibly take that long to mature?; safflowers – similar to harvesting thistles; willow herb – good experience, profitable on 2 acres, not 20; pumpkins- how many pumpkins come off 2.5 acres? Tonnes and tonnes of them; sunflowers – interesting combining between the kids’ hockey practices; and many more. Reflecting back, dad was a very patient man. His only rule was we weren’t trying anything new by the highway. But what was interesting as we tried each new commodity was, even though there was a steep learning curve involved, we were always able to source good advice.

In 1999, Carla and I were named co-winners of Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers. This is a tremendous group of young primary Ag producers from across Canada that are acknowledged for their innovative approaches to agriculture production.

At our peak we were cropping approximately 7500 acres over a 40-mile distance. Eventually, we settled on maintaining 6500 acres and reducing our footprint to about 20 miles. We were heavily involved in pedigreed seed production, growing and marketing cereals, pulses, forages and oil seeds on 70% of the land. We were also doing some secondary processing and shipping to markets in South America, Eastern and Western Europe, and Asia and North America. Approximately 25% of the product we marketed came from outside sources, such as contract growers, toll producers, and third-party suppliers. At our peak we employed a permanent workforce of three outside staff, as well as my father, Carla, myself, one permanent inside staff, and a commissioned sales person. Each summer we hired a crew of high school students to rogue and do yard maintenance.

We did have some permanent staff come and go over our time, but three very loyal employees stuck with us through 10-15 years of our operation, contributing mightily to our success.

Another important part of the seeds of our success were our two boys, Michael, born in 1989 (a mechanical engineer with Rockford Engineering Works in Regina) and Matthew, born in 1992 (an aerospace engineer currently working near Toronto). Both boys, since they could crawl did the same thing I did: played carpet farming, graduated through the operation cycle of farm equipment operation, and took part in most farm operations. They did, however put up significant resistance to rogueing the seed plots. This was our first clue that a career in primary production was not likely in their future.

Ultimately through our family dinner table discussions, as the boys were deciding their futures, the matter became settled as they responded to the farm-or-not question: You know Dad, we love fixing the stuff you broke, but we are not doing this for a living. That was the answer we needed, so the seeds of succession were planted.

As the frustration of the early 2000’s added up – the hail disaster of 2004, the low margin years of 2007-2009, the incredibly wet fall of 2010 (stuck 110 times before we figured out maybe duals on everything, including the quad, was a better idea), and seeding with an airplane in the spring of 2011 – I caught myself telling my father one particularly frustrating week that this just wasn’t as much fun anymore. On top of that, land values were starting to increase exponentially as the land sales were ramping up. At the time of our farm sale we owned 2500 acres and rented the other 4000 acres from 8 different landlords. In the fall of 2011, after a very active ag land realtor started calling in the area, 4 of our landlords who represented 65% of our rented land approached me wondering if I was interested in buying their land. I appreciated the fact they called me first, but it left me with a dilemma. I had just turned 50, and I finally had my long-term debt at a manageable level. Now I was being asked to take on another $6M and be in debt until I was 75! In one of our impromptu late afternoon office discussions with my father, I half-heartedly told him maybe I should list our land too… He said, “why not!”, and that started the ball in motion.

We met many potential farm family buyers from Germany, Holland, South Africa, Ontario, including the Hutterites. On one potential visit we had to retrieve the couple from Churchbridge, 3 miles away, with a tractor after 3 feet of wet, sloppy, wind-swept snow fell the day before their visit on April 29. They commented that the land looked so flat under 3 feet of snow. They didn’t come back.

Ultimately, we found a perfect fit for our sale in a young couple from Iron Springs, AB. Graham and Emily Sorgard and his parents became the proud owners of a large, pedigreed seed farm. Carla and I moved into a new house in Churchbridge.

We continue to market 5 grain varieties under the WWSC name that we retain exclusive production and distribution rights to.

I am currently serving as the MLA for Melville-Saltcoats, first elected in 2016.

Carla was the Town Administrator for Churchbridge, retiring in 2019. She remains the Program Manager for Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmer program.

Warren and Carla, Roger and Phyllis, Michael, and Matthew in 2009. Click the photo to enlarge it.