Grower Stories - Bruce Rampton
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- Published on Friday, October 20, 2017
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Bruce Rampton will tell you that he owes 95% of his success on the farm to his grandfather’s decision to move. “My grandfather came to Canada and started farming elsewhere. Two years later he moved here to good soil,” says Bruce who farms near Dauphin, Manitoba. Bruce is a third-generation farmer with a family history in dairy farming, but a current love of grain farming. “I love the distinct four seasons in grain farming; you start something and you finish something,” he says. Cattle, on the other hand, are the same 365 days a year and don’t like change. For Bruce, farming comes with challenges, but he enjoys them. He explained his philosophy; “When things happen, we adapt and go forward.”
Soybeans are a relatively new crop on Bruce’s farm but he jumped in with both feet. He started growing soybeans in 2013 and they are an important crop on his farm today. The decision to grow soybeans, like every decision on Bruce’s farm, had largely to do with profit. But the extra appeal of soybeans was adding a crop that allowed him to diversify his rotation and the time management he gets from this crop. “Beans are not fighting to be first in the ground” says Bruce which allows him to spread his spring workload. “Soybeans are in their own time zone and they aren’t fighting for attention during the season or at harvest.”
The time of year that Bruce doesn’t like soybeans is when they are the last crop out on the farm and they still need a little more time. That’s where an early maturing soybean variety has worked for him. Bruce grows DEKALB® 22-60RYsoybeans because of their earliness; “Last year they beat the bad rains at harvest.” Bruce thinks that he was out harvesting his 22-60RY soybeans about a week earlier than other soybean varieties in the area. There’s a reputation that early maturity means a drag on yield, Bruce adamantly disagrees. “That might have been the case 4-5 years ago” but doesn’t hold true on his farm with the 22-60RY’s. Bruce looks at trial data in his area for soybeans and even considers soybean performance from farmer trials in Stonewall and Beausejour.
Disease is a huge problem in the area because if the sclerotia body counts are too high, it limits where farmers can sell their beans. Bruce ranks disease management right near the top of his priorities. Candidly, Bruce says that 22-60RY soybeans are “Short, ugly and have no wow factor” in the field; “If I had to pick in early July, I wouldn’t have picked them,” he admits. Even though 22-60RY is short and ugly, Bruce likes this variety due to its consistent high yield and excellent tolerance to white mould. When it comes to disease tolerance, Bruce says he will pick this variety every time over a soybean that looks like a million bucks.
When it comes down to it, farming is more than just profit potential and agronomics for Bruce. “What I like best about farming is working with professional people” he explains. “Whether its supply inputters, grain handlers or fellow farmers, everyone treats each other with respect.”
We thank Bruce for choosing DEKALB® brand soybeans for his farm and wish him a safe and successful harvest this year and for many years to come. Check out the results of farmer-managed DEKALB Market Development trials on DEKALB.ca this fall.
If you're interested in growing DEKALB this growing season...
