Up and running with no grants, no formal training
Tristan Sparkes pastures 55 head of cattle, awaits sugar-bush quota
Tristan Sparkes is setting himself up in life much the way his ancestors would have when first settling in the Townships: acquire the land, build a shanty, get some cattle out to pasture, build a barn, then eventually the house.
He lives in a 10-foot-by-12-foot oneroom cabin he built on skids two years ago, after buying 105 acres of farmland outside Island Brook, well over halfway from Mount Orford to Mount Megantic.
The long view west to Orford is spectacular—as are the prevailing westerlies that hit Sparkes unobstructed from many miles away. A temporary shelter in his pasture blew over in the late-april windstorm.
In his case of settling, the cattle came first, thanks to a camper he lived in after first buying the land. Then the municipality told him he couldn’t live in it permanently, so he converted his first calving hut and tool shed into a one-room-with-a-sleeping-loft home. It features a woodstove for heat—about two and half cords a year—and no running water. Electricity was added recently.
Down the south slope from his cabin, over 50 head of red and black Angus cattle were pasturing on the late April day when I visited. His is a cowcalf operation, selling calves to other farmers who want to build up their herds of beef cattle.
He started with 100 head but had to downsize to finance part of his farm build-up.
Sparkes, 24, now works part-time off the farm, at Lionel Roy’s feed lot in Learned Plain. Seven or eight years of full-time work there gave him the savings to buy his own farm—with no formal farm training and no government grants.
Many young people coming out of agricultural school today are eligible for as much as $50,000 in grants to get
their farm started.
From 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sparkes works at his feedlot job, then returns to his farm for its responsibilities. “I’ve still got to come home, feed the cows, and then there’s other stuff I’ve got to do. It’s a hard thing.”
His dream? “Definitely I’ll build a house, and I’d like to start the sugar bush. Then I’d like to sell [food to customers] at the farm.”
Sparkes applied last fall for 5,000 taps of quota to get his sugar bush going but wasn’t accepted. He said he’ll have another chance to apply again this year. If successful, he’ll borrow about $260,000 to build a sugar cabin, buy the equipment he needs, and set up his operation.
Sparkes grew up in Island Brook, where his father farms, and his father grew up in Birchton where his
grandfather farmed. Young Sparkes rents pasture in Ascot Corner from his mother’s father. “I’m from generations of farmers,” he said, “but we just keep switching spots.”
He would like to acquire more land himself, eventually, but his focus now is on earning as much as possible with what he owns, and he looks forward to the sugar bush, especially, to make that viable.
“That’s my number one priority. The house will come later. The house won’t make me money, that’s for sure.”
Family will likely come later too. “Definitely, I’ll have kids some day,” he said. “But first I’ll finish building up the farm.” And his girlfriend? “She likes it, I guess. She likes the lifestyle too.”