MAPLETON – Luymes Farms and Custom Farming, located between Moorefield and Rothsay, was recently awarded this year’s Sollio Next Generation Award in the Farm Succession category.
The award, presented by Sollio Agriculture, was announced on Feb. 29 at a gala in Montreal.
“I’m proud of our family and everybody involved,” said co-owner Mark Luymes.
“[I am] thankful to our parents for all of their work and for giving us the opportunity to take over an ongoing farm, and thankful to our clients and vendors.”
Luymes Farms and Custom Farming began in 1980 with Elaine and John Luymes, and is now run by their sons, Mark and Rob.
They bought the dairy farm in 1975, and began doing custom work as Rothdale Slurry Spreaders in 1985.
“We [now] run a custom farming and cash crop operation,” said co-owner Rob Luymes.
“We have our own acres that we’re raising cash crops on,” consisting of corn, beans and wheat.
Rob explained they also do custom work for other cash crop, dairy and chicken farmers.
“We’ll grow forages for them on their farmland… they’ll hire us to do a bunch of the field work that they require,” he said.
Luymes Farms serves Wellington and Perth counties with tillage, planting, spraying, forage harvesting, combining, bailing and grain drying.
Harriston Agromart works closely with the Luymes’ and is their product supplier.
Tanja Checkley, sales manager and one of the owners of Harriston Agromart, recommended Luymes Farms for this year’s award.
“The Luymes family have been customers for over 25 years,” she stated in an email to the Advertiser.
“It’s been a pleasure to watch their business grow and see the transition to the next generation go so well.”
She added Luymes Farms has put “a lot of thought and effort” into this process and she “felt they deserved to be nominated,” adding, “Farm succession is a very important part to keep our farm business successful.”
Sollio Agriculture
Sollio Agriculture has been around for 100 years now, and was formed as a cooperative, according to general manager David Brand.
For over 20 years, the Next Generation Award has showcased the Sollio Cooperative Group and the Agromart Group farming families who have “successfully transferred or started a farm business,” states a March 4 press release.
“This program [is] one of its own kind to really identify those families and those operations that are taking a hold, and putting that time and effort into succession planning to bring those future generations into the organization to their farm enterprise organization,” said Brand.
“One of the foundations of Sollio, to this day, is to really support those farm families.”
Brand added he was one of the judges for the award, and Luymes Farms was chosen for its ability to display how it communicates.
“The reward is really understanding the dynamics of the family and how they support one another, and how grateful they were for the opportunity [to run the business] within their own family,” he said.
The award, in a nutshell, is meant to recognize the farmer and/or the farm family by sharing their story to help promote and tell others that “they can do it as well and share the success,” said Brand.
Sollio Agriculture is currently taking applications and nominations for next year’s Next Generation Awards, and the deadline is April 1.
If anyone is interested, Brand recommends reaching out to your local agromart.
For more information on Sollio Agriculture visit sollio.ag/en. More information on Luymes Farms and Custom Farming can be found at luymesfarms.com.
