Every year since 1966, the Red River Exhibition Association has recognized one farming family in Manitoba for their success and commitment to prairie agriculture. This year, they’ve selected a family from Niverville.
At a reception on June 17, as part of the Red River Ex, the association’s Farm Family of the Year honour will be given to Grant and Colleen Dyck.
“The purpose of this annual award is to profile the diversity of agriculture in Manitoba, as well as the traditional values of farm families, like Grant and Colleen, who have contributed to the success and resilience of prairie agriculture and the rural way of life,” says Garth Rogerson, CEO of the Red River Exhibition Association.
The Dycks are the owners of Artel Farms Ltd., priding themselves on their role as global food producers and embracing their responsibility to respect the land and share the harvest. They’ve also made a name for themselves through innovation and progressive farming techniques.
Consumers may best know the Dyck family through GORP Clean Energy Bars & Mixes, a highly successful company started by Colleen almost ten years ago. Their all-natural products, made locally right at the family farm, have been marketed all over North America—and more recently, as far away as China. Colleen was the recipient of the prestigious Mompreneur of the Year award in 2016.
The couple owns and operates a variety of other successful agricultural business, including Artel Inland, a grain-drying, handling, and storage operation located east of Niverville. Alongside two partners, Artel Farms also invented the T-Rex Ditcher, a high-speed rotary ditching tool that has been developed and manufactured locally.
The Dycks are involved with MCC Manitoba’s Grow Hope campaign, which donates its proceeds to the Canadian Food Grains Bank. In March of this year, Colleen participated in an exchange program with the Canadian Food Grains Bank which sent her to Kenya for a couple of weeks.
“We are incredibly honoured and feel this award also speaks to the calibre of the amazing people who work with us side by side every day!” says Colleen. “Our extended farm family is our staff and we couldn’t do what we do without them.”
Grand and Colleen are the parents of four children, all raised on the family farm: Moses, Leo, Oskar, and Georgia.
“The Dyck family is deserving of this award because they truly embody what it means to live in rural Manitoba,” said Eleanor Cassels, chair of the Farm Family committee. “They engage with their community, are exemplary stewards of the environment, and have built a farm business that is progressive, diverse, and a welcome place to work and visit.”