Plowing match showcased West Nipissing's ag sector: Historical farming community proud to share its local culture.

• Author: Romaniuk, Colleen

If you were trying to track down Daniel Olivier at this year's International Plowing Match and Rural Expo, you probably had to wait in line.

The fifth-generation farmer, who owns Ferme Longvallon Inc. in Verner, was hosting close to 80,000 people in his backyard.

It was 1968 when Olivier attended his first plowing match as an 11-year-old boy. At the time, he never imagined that he would one day play host to one.

The 2019 International Plowing Match and Rural Expo kicked off on Sept. 17 and continued on to Sept. 21.

The annual event is a five-day celebration of agriculture and rural living. This year, it showcased the culture and historical significance of the agricultural industry in the West Nipissing district, a largely rural municipality located along Highway 17 between Sudbury and North Bay.

More than 800 acres of farmland were transformed into a sprawling and powered tented city, competitive plowing fields, and a fully serviced RV park. There were over 500 exhibitors and food vendors present at the event and four stages featuring live entertainment.

The IPM held its first gathering 102 years ago on the site of Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. Since then, it has transformed from a simple plowing competition to an event expected to draw a crowd from across North America.

This year is only the second time in its history that the event was held north of Barrie. Ten years ago, the IPM was hosted in Earlton, about two hours north of North Bay.

Verner is 16 kilometres west of Sturgeon Falls. The predominantiy francophone community is well known for being the agricultural hub of the area. Many local farmers have ancestors who migrated from Quebec in the early 1990s when the government was giving land to anyone who could cultivate it. During the same period, immigrants from Europe also started to buy plots.

Olivier's father, who was an immigrant from France, took advantage of the government's post-war policies to get into the farming.

His operation, Longvallon Farm, has been in the family for five going on six generations.

His cash crop hay farm is the only ag operation in Ontario that uses organic fertilizer recycled from human waste. He sends his crop as far north as Moosonee and as far south as Florida.

"The raison d'etre of the agricultural community in Verner during the '30s, '40s, and '50s was to supply milk to INCO in Sudbury," said Olivier. "The region was 99 per cent dairy farming at the time."

He explained that the Northern mining...