Baillie recognized by seed growers
The Canadian Seed Growers’ Association has recently recognized James Baillie with the Robertson Associate Award, the highest award the CSGA can give its members.
Baillie is one of three recipients of the award from among CSGA’s 3,500 seed grower members, coast to coast.
Baillie is an agricultural innovator in the Maritimes and was nominated by the local Maritimes branch of the Seed Growers’ Association and selected by a national board for the award. Baillie will receive this honourable award at the CSGA’s 113th Annual General Meeting in Halifax.
According to the CSGA website, seed growers and seed grower groups have a special meaning for Baillie. “From his initial work on the Maritime Branch Board to his later role as president of CSGA, Jim has developed a mindset that welcomes change and strengthens not only the position of seed growers but of the whole seed sector as well.”
Originally from a family dairy farm near Tatamagouche, Baillie is a graduate of the former Nova Scotia Agricultural College, now Dalhousie University Agricultural Campus.
Upon graduation, he joined a farm wholesale retail group in Atlantic Canada and with them, specialized in the crop input service sector throughout the Atlantic provinces. Within five years he shifted to management of a major feed mill and farm centre near Charlottetown. Over the next 10 years, Baillie managed a number of feed and farm centres through Atlantic Canada.
In the mid-1990s, he decided the appeal of farming was his calling and developed a forestry harvesting and silviculture business in partnership with a field crop farm. In 1997 he added pedigreed seed production to the farm.
When consolidation of the seed canola industry ramped up, Baillie shifted to limited flax and cereal seed production for several years.
At the same time, the shift to increasing the development and management of wild blueberries became the main focus of the farm.
Jim recognizes the leadership benefits created by active farm organizations. He has been involved in each sector he has participated in over the years — from committee to board to executive positions, he allocates the time necessary to assist in the development of his sector. Participation takes time away from family and farm, but he is blessed with the support of his wife Brenda — also his key staff member.
The Canadian Seed Growers’ Association is a non-profit organization representing the interest of 3,500 Canadian seed growers. CSGA provides leadership as the only Canadian organization to monitor and certify pedigreed seed for all agricultural crops in Canada except potatoes.