b"SEED GROWERGrowing Grass in the PeaceAfter 30 years spent growing grass seed, Dave Wuthrich is looking at what the future has to offer for him and other seed growers in B.C.DAVE WUTHRICH HAS spent his life growing grass seed inOver his 30 years in the industry, Wuthrich has been involved the Peace River Region of the British Columbia. The northernin the seed industry as a director of the B.C. Seed Growers, the production area straddles the border with its AlbertanB.C. national rep for the Canadian Seed Growers Association counterpart and is a small but mighty region. (CSGA), a Canadian Food Inspection Agency crop inspector, Wuthrich have been growing seed since I was legally 19.and a Canadian Seed Institute auditor. Before that as a kid, we did all the rogueing and helped myOn Wuthrichs farm, they also grow pedigreed barley, oats parents with their seed production 30 years I've been a seedand peas, and for a while had a seed cleaning plant. He farms grower, he says in a phone interview. with his wife Karen and son Miles. His son recently finished PW Farms Ltd. is located near Cecil Lake, B.C. on 5,000his post-secondary edcuation for agriculture and is now back cultivated acres. Wuthrich grew up on the farm, which hisworking on the farm. They also hire seasonal workers when parents, Paul and Susan, started in 1965 after immigratingneeded.to Canada from Switzerland. They started in the grass seed growing business in the mid-1970s, and then expanded intoThe Art of Grass Growinggrain later. Growing grass seed is slightly different than growing other The thing we like with the grass seed, it breaks up yourpedigreed seeds.harvest cycle, it gives you nice rotations, he explains. WellThe majority of the grass seed that we grow, is multiplied and have a field in Fescue or Timothy for five, six, seven years andthen it goes off to a processor, they clean it, they sell it, they do then you can roll it back into cereals or oilseeds or whatevereverything. So, its a little different, Wuthrich says.you want. So, you get that nice break. Growing grass seed is a multiple year endeavour. The seed Wuthrich has worked on the seed farm his whole life. Heis planted and the following year there is a clipping crop, started working fulltime on the farm after attending post- Wuthrich explains. There will then be two or three crops in secondary education for agriculture and working in the oilfield.years following. After that the grass becomes sod bound and is A crop is planted on PW Farms Ltd. is located near Cecil Lake, B.C. PHOTO: DAVE WUTHRICH40seed.ab.ca"