EASTERN ONTARIO: Pemdale Farms at Inkerman takes home BFO’s environmental stewardship award

INKERMAN — Though there’s always something to learn on the farm, most aren’t what you’d call a hotbed of research.

But that’d be a fair description of Pemdale Farms at Inkerman, a beef and cash crop operation run by Jackie and Steven Pemberton. The farm has always had a focus on environmental sustainability, said Jackie Pemberton. The Beef Farmers of Ontario honoured the farm last month with its annual award for environmental stewardship.

The farm transitioned from dairy back in 2007 to a cow-calf operation and cash cropping. Over the years the Pembertons have been involved in countless small projects, she said. That’s included planting trees, putting in hedgerows for pollinators, protecting species-at-risk and managing a local wetland. Some of that work’s been done with the help of Alternative Land Use Services, now known simply as ALUS, a not-for-profit that helps fund on-farm environmental conservation.

One of Pemberton’s favourite projects, and one of the most beneficial for the farm, is the constructed wetland they built to mitigate barnyard runoff. It was cost-effective and had a small footprint, and would be especially good for a small or start-up farm looking for a way to handle nutrient runoff, she said.

Taking care of the environment has long been a passion for Pemberton and her husband. She also chairs the South Nation Conservation Authority’s Clean Water Committee.

Her connections there, alongside her work as an OFA director and OFA liaison for the BFO, also helped the farm get involved with its other major side project: research. They’ve worked with researchers from Carleton University, the federal government and even with an international research project.

It’s all been in service to sustainability. While it’s a bit of a buzzword these days, to the Pembertons it simply means they “make sure we leave the soil in good condition for the next landowner.”