An Abbotsford man who was “born to farm” is the recipient of the 2015 BC and Yukon Outstanding Young Farmer Award.
Abbotsford chicken grower Kerry Froese and his wife Anita, both 37, received the prestigious award during a small ceremony in Abbotsford, Jan. 15.
Froese’s parents began with a broiler breeder and raspberry farm, later adding a broiler farm. After Froese began managing the farms in his teens, the family converted the entire operation to broilers.
“Having multiple barns in multiple locations made management a challenge and cleanout of the barns after each eight-week growing cycle long and difficult,” Froese recalls.
In the early 2000s, the family consolidated the quotas into Triple F (Froese Family Farm) Enterprises and built two double-decker 500x52-foot barns on a new 20-acre property.
Froese has since added in-barn cameras, weigh scales and innovative LED attraction lights to improve production and a large air compressor and thermal jet fogger to make cleaning and disinfection faster and more thorough.
Kerry and Anita Froese will represent B.C. at the national competition in Edmonton in November.