S h a n e m c l e o d, ceo

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I was born and grew up in Toronto, Ontario.  When mom married my stepdad, we moved out to Caledonia, Ontario. It was a big change for me. My stepdad had a smaller farm with about 100 acres and 30 beef cows, and I was introduced to agriculture by helping him on the farm. Then, in grade 5, I got my first job working on my neighbour’s chicken farm. I worked there twice a week before school.

In the summer of grade 7, I started working on a dairy farm. I loved it. So I started getting more involved on this crop and dairy farm, taking on more responsibilities, learning about the business, and working additional hours before school and on the weekends. I got to wear several hats and get hands-on experience.

In 2007, I was offered the opportunity to rent a piece of land. It was difficult to get started as a first generation farmer, as a result, I decided to invest in crops that would have the fastest return, like beans and wheat. I also opened a snowplowing business for the winter months. 

Since then I have been growing consistently. I now have two full time employees and 15 seasonal snowplow operators working with me. I have diversified the crop rotations with corn, hay, canola, red clover, and market garden vegetables and, IP soybeans. I am able to offer custom farming services such as planting, tillage, combining and grain/equipment haulage, to other farmers. 

In 2020, we added the Market Garden and sold our home-grown sweet corn right from the farm in the months of August and early September. In 2022, Sunrise Harvesting has added water delivery, tire services, and undercoating to the services that we can provide.