AgriSuccess
Young farmer profile - Your farm is stronger with a supportive spouse.
Mark Cardwell
When Martin Boutin and Mélanie Chaîné met, they saw fireworks – literally. It was summer 1997 and the two were at a fireworks festival on the outskirts of Quebec City.
“It was like being struck by lightning,” recalls Boutin, then a 27-year-old professional agronomist and hog producer. He had recently purchased his family’s 200-hectare farm in the Bellechasse region near the provincial capital. “From the moment I saw Mélanie, I knew she was the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”
The feeling, it turned out, was mutual. Within weeks, they were engaged and building a home on Boutin’s farm, right next to his mother’s house. “It was like something out of a fairy tale,” says Chaîné, then 21. “Martin was my Prince Charming – and he still is.”
Chaîné easily took to country living. Born and raised in the nearby city of Levis, she ran her own salon and was impressed by Boutin’s business on her first visit – the first time she had ever been on a farm. “I really enjoyed the sights and the sounds and the space and being in close contact with animals,” she recalls. “I remember thinking, ‘Agriculture is beautiful.’”
They were married the following summer, and soon had the first of their four children. By then, Chaîné was pitching in with her new family’s business and adding urban touches to the property.
She started a home-based salon and planted industrial quantities of flowers and trees around the yard, creating spaces to relax and enjoy the rural surroundings.
“I think it’s really important to take the time to enjoy being in the country,” Chaîné says. “I think farmers sometimes forget that, because they’re always working in and around their homes.”
After a two-year program in farm management at a nearby college, Chaîné took over the nursery where Boutin rears batches of 2,000 piglets, allowing him to concentrate on his 4,000 hogs. “I learned about farming from the barn floor up,” she quips. “But I had to, because I wanted to be Martin’s partner.”
Chaîné used her $20,000 college bursary to buy a share in the farm. “It gave value to all the work she’d done and was doing,” Boutin says. “And it recognized her as my partner in all aspects of my life.”
Incorporated as Ferme Marnie (www.ferme-marnie.com), the farm has become known for sustainability and neighbourliness. They mail notification cards to their neighbours every spring, advising them when Boutin will apply pig manure to his fields. “It’s to give them a chance to plan ahead and avoid, say, putting their clothes out on the line all day,” says Chaîné. “And we ask people to call us if they have a kid’s birthday party or something planned outside for that day and we’ll change our dates.”
The couple also installed odour-blocking windbreaks and shelterbelts on the roofs of manure pits.
“I couldn’t and never would have done all this without Mélanie,” Boutin says.
For Diane Parent, the couple is a textbook example of how a happy marriage between a farming and non-farming spouse can benefit a farming business.
An agriculture professor and researcher at Université Laval, Parent studies young farmers and the technical, financial and social challenges they face. In one major study of young farmers, Parent found that one of the most important factors in the success of start-ups was the support or lack of support from the non-farming spouse.
“Marriage is a real and determining factor in the quality of the affective life of individuals and it is especially true on farms, where life revolves around the agricultural activities practised there,” Parent explains.
The couple is a textbook example of how a happy marriage between a farming and non-farming spouse can benefit a farming business.
Although there’s no data on the number of farmers who marry non-farming spouses, Parent believes the trend is likely on the rise. One reason is the decline in the number of farmers across Canada, which forces young producers to look outside the farming community. The professionalization of the industry also means that many young farmers meet a non-farming spouse at college or university.
For Boutin, the trick is finding the right partner, then encouraging their efforts to adapt to the farming life.
“I think it’s crucial that you sell your spouse a piece of the business quickly – and the same goes for parents and their kids,” he explains. “I’ve seen too many people keep shares in the family farm even after they’ve stopped working and their grandkids are almost old enough to take over. It just saps morale and puts pressure on couples who are eager to build their own lives.”
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