Originally published in Farmers’ Voice magazine, May 2019
For Don Connick, farming means having a special connection to, and appreciation for the land.
His family’s farmland, located just south of Gull Lake on the first rise of land into the Cypress Hills, has a long and rich history – not only for the Connick family, but also for Canada.
Don’s grandfather homesteaded the land long before Don and Norma took it over in 1977, and Don remembers spending many afternoons as a young boy dreaming of how these native grasslands may have looked before the settlers came.
“There’s a tremendous historical and recent heritage here,” he says. “The remnants of the Old Dollard Trail are still visible in our pasture. We are a pretty young country and I think a lot of people identify with that. It’s part of who we are as a nation.”
