U of M student farmer aces biz award

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This article was published 01/05/2012 (4933 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRETT Sheffield runs a 1,700-acre farm near Pilot Mound and a fitness centre in the small farming community while studying full time at the University of Manitoba school of agriculture.

He was recently named 2012 Student Entrepreneur champion for Central Canada in a program operated by Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE), beating student entrepreneurs in Ontario and Quebec. Next week, he’ll go to Calgary to compete for national honours and a $10,000 prize.

Sheffield, 26, was originally planning to study physical education and went to school at Minot, N.D., where he played baseball and hockey.

But he changed his mind, came back to Manitoba, enrolled in agriculture at the U of M and grew the family farm into something much bigger than it was.

As for the Stay Fit Health Club, Sheffield said the gym was going to close and he didn’t want the community to lose it.

“So I bought it, and it turned out to be profitable,” he said.

Michele Rogalsky, director of the U of M’s school of agriculture, a two-year diploma program in the larger faculty of agriculture, said she doesn’t know how Sheffield can do it all, going to school full time and driving back and forth to Pilot Mound running his businesses.

But she said his success in the ACE program is testimony to the substantial skills required to run a modern farming operation.

“Brett beat out MBA students in Toronto (in the ACE program), where they really had no idea about the business of farming,” she said.

Her program specializes in the business-management aspects of operating an agribusiness.

“I love both sides of the business, but I’m probably more of a businessman first than farmer,” Sheffield said. “I like to focus on the economics of the farm. It’s a high-risk, high-input business that’s really changing the way we farm.”

Sheffield has a couple more classes to complete his diploma, and he’s got plenty of plans to grow his farm. He started with 160 acres and now has 1,700, the same size as his father’s, with whom he shares equipment.

“My plan is to expand once more and then focus on increasing productivity,” he said.

He’s also working on a value-added processing concept he’s putting the final touches on.

Right now, he’s busy seeding soybeans, wheat, barley and canola.

ACE is a 25-year-old organization started by some graduates at the University of Western Ontario to teach young Canadians to create a brighter future for themselves and their communities.

“Student entrepreneurs tend to hide, and it can be hard to find them,” Rogalsky said. “For a lot of these student entrepreneurs, it’s the first time they’ve put anything on paper. It’s the first time a lot of them even think of themselves as entrepreneurs.”

She said many of them operate their businesses as a way to put themselves through school. “The program is a way to shine a spotlight on them and get them excited about keeping the business going after they finish school,” she said.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca