Farming Forward - Director - Chad Ritter

Chad Ritter

I was born and raised on a mixed farming operation located directly south of Stony Plain, AB in Parkland County, here I continue to farm alongside my father. Currently, our family farm consists of approximately 800-acres of annual crops which include wheat, barley, and canola, with additional hay and pastureland to support our 100-head cow-calf operation of commercial Simmental and Angus cattle. We have also been growing corn for the purpose of winter grazing our cattle herd for over the passed ~15 years, which has proved to be very beneficial to our farming operation. In the recent years I have also added a small fold of registered purebred Highland cattle, with the intent of learning practices involved in maintaining a registered purebred cattle herd, one day hopefully shifting to additional or alternate cattle breeds.

Agriculture has always been a passion of mine, so when selecting a career, I knew I wanted to stay working in the agricultural field. This goal led me to Lakeland College where I graduated from the Crop Technology diploma program in 2019. I was fortunate enough to continue working for Parkland County following my role as a summer student where I have worked in various roles such as Agronomics Assistant, Supervisor Agronomics, ALUS Coordinator, and now currently the Acting Manager, Agronomics.

During my time working for Parkland County's Agriculture and Environment Services department my love of agriculture has continued to grow, and I am always looking for ways to grow my knowledge of agriculture as well as looking for ways how I am able to give back to the surrounding agricultural community.

I believe agriculture to be one of our most exciting industries, as it continually provides opportunity for innovation and collaboration, and I consider myself to be very fortunate to work as a primary agricultural producer and for my municipalities agricultural department. I look forward to the future of agriculture, and what is yet to come.