Sarah Leguee, Jake Leguee and and Erik Nikolejsin of Leguee Farms are the 2023 Saskatchewan Outstanding Young Farmers (Twitter/AgProducersSK)

By Alice McFarlane

2023 Saskatchewan Outstanding Young Farmers

Leguee Farms named receives prestigious award

Jun 23, 2023 | 12:00 PM

A family farm from the Weyburn area has been named the 2023 Saskatchewan Outstanding Young Farmers at Canada’s Farm Show in Regina, Sask.

The third-generation operation is a team effort which includes Sarah Leguee, her brother Jake Leguee and their brother-in-law Erik Nikolejsin.

Jake said having three family members involved in the operation requires good communication.

“We have some structure on our farm between the three of us and our employees, as well, about how we manage our roles in this business because once you get a few family members involved it takes some structure to make sure the job gets done and gets done right,” he said. “Then everybody feels like they’re contributing in a way that they think matches with their skill set.”

Leguee Farms grows canola, durum, wheat, lentils, peas, and flax on roughly 15,000 acres between Weyburn and Fillmore.

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Jake said their vision is to create a business for the next generation.

“Everything we do around trying to push the next level on production, financial management, and marketing is really driven by that goal, that mission, that we have to try and make things better. Not just for ourselves, our farm, and our families, but also for our communities and the agriculture industry as well,” he said.

Leguee Farms was established in 1956. In the late 1970’s Russ and Sharon Leguee took over the farm and in the late 1980s started minimum till. They grew the acreage base by nearly 700 per cent. In the early 2000s, they began phasing out the cattle to focus on crop production.

In the early 2010s, the couple turned the management of the farm over to their children Jake and Sarah who became partners in the operation. Erik, who is married to Russ and Sharon’s youngest daughter Amber, joined the farm team in 2017.

Jake said when it comes to the big items like land investments the decisions are made as a group.

“My dad chairs our board. When Sarah, Erik and I are in the room our votes are all the same, we all have the same share in this business. That helps keep us on track,” he said. “We’ve never had a situation where we had to have a tiebreaker vote, but the structure is there for us to be able to come to decisions if things do escalate into conflict, which they never have, and I doubt they ever will. But the structure is there to protect the farm.”

Leguee Farms will represent Saskatchewan at Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmer competition in Montreal this November.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW