Wheatland & Area Hospice Society’s Farming for Hospice initiative took a new format this year; their barley crop was pre-sold on Team Electronic live Auction Market as cattle feed and they celebrated the end of their harvest season yesterday afternoon with a meal in the field. 

Farming for Hospice is where a quarter section of the crop is grown in the Wheatland area, and community members are able to sponsor their very own acre of inputs. Nutrien donated the land and Brandt supplied some of the equipment but what is fundamental to this project and makes the project so successful is that neighboring farmers come and help with the entire process.

Director and Community Relations for the Wheatland & Area Hospice Society Teri McKinnon explained that the whole commodity of the seed becomes a donation to the Hospice Society. 

"We have had a successful year and we couldn't do it without the farmers. We couldn't do it without the feedlot owners that buy the commodity and so the price that we got was phenomenal."

"It was 155 acres and the yield was around 121 bushels an acre, counting all acres," Farm for Hospice Director Keith Clayton explained. 

McKinnon said that she is most excited for the end-of-harvest dinner that they are going to be having in November. 

"Drew Gregory, who is another amazing partner and farmer friend of ours, will be at our harvest dinner where he'll do another acoustic evening and all the money goes to the Hospice Society. Acres of land will be up for auction that evening to where people can just bid on an acre and we will reimburse the people who come out with their equipment."

MLA for Chestermere - Strathmore Chantelle de Jonge made an appearance and talked about what it means to her to come to a grassroots initiative like Farming for Hospice.

"This is an incredible initiative and what it really emphasizes is the way that the Community is able to come together and it's through these sort of collaborative efforts. We can accomplish really great things like the farming for Hospice project and you know, I'm really grateful for all the sponsors and the donors that have donated that time and effort and resources to making today possible."

Barley is a versatile cereal grain that has been cultivated for thousands of years and is known for its nutritional value and adaptability to different climates. Feed barley is specifically grown and harvested to provide a cost-effective source of nutrition for livestock, such as cattle, poultry, swine, and horses.

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