b'SEED GROWER PROFILE Ezri, Lori, Ward and Brie Oatway stand on their farm near Clive, Alta. PHOTO: WARD OATWAYA Voice for EveryoneWard Oatway has always focused on helping all seed growers, no matter the size of their operation.FOR WARD OATWAY, being a seed grower is much morethe SeCan board. His interest in leadership was fostered from a than just growing the seed. The Clive, Alta. producer has beenyoung age watching his father on their family farm.farming full-time for the last 15 years and for most of that time hes been involved with the Alberta Seed Growers (ASG) andFarming in the Bloodnow SeCan, in a leadership role. Oatways father, Grant, was working as a surveyor for an oil I wanted to really get involved with how things, as ancompany when he moved the family back to the farm in the organization and as a community, would grow, explains1970s. He then started looking into ways to expand the operation, Oatway in a phone interview. I wanted to be part of theand in the early 1980s he became a pedigreed seed grower and direction of that and know what was coming. And be able toOatways Seed Farm was born.guide it along in a way that would be beneficial to the majorityOver the years Grant was involved with the Alberta seed of seed growers. industry as it evolved and grew. In the 1980s he served on the The past president of ASG has helped the Alberta seedSeCan board, which cultivated Oatways future interest in it. industry through a decade of changes from ushering in theOatway worked on the farm growing up, attending college Variety Use Agreement (VUA) to lobbying for the removal ofafter high school. He then got a job working for Alberta fusarium from Albertas Pest Act.Agriculture and Forestry (AAF), where he worked for 13 years, Hes really well rounded, Trent Whiting, SeCans Alberta andwhile farming part-time. He then decided it was too much doing British Columbia marketing rep, says in a phone interview. Heboth jobs, so he quit AAF and started farming full-time. His father can look at it from the small, medium and large (point of view)then began to ease into retirement.and he doesnt lose focus on anyone. He doesnt pigeonholeThe farm is located on 1,200 acres, with usually more than half himself one way. devoted to seed production every year. They grow wheat, barley and Oatways desire to help every farm, no matter its size, ispeas for seed, and then canola as a commercial crop. Oatway enjoys what hes focused on as he starts in his new leadership role ongetting access to the latest new crop varieties as a seed grower.24seed.ab.ca'