Born and raised on the land he currently farms, Chris Judd, current QFA Vice-President and treasurer, is a dairy farmer in Shawville, Quebec. His farm, which has been milking pure bred Holsteins since 1895, is very much a family business. His wife Jeannie, their three children, Scott, Robin and Keena, as well as their daughter-in-law Jennifer, are all very involved in the day-to-day operations of the farm. They currently have 140 cows, sell a bit of corn and silage, and farm just over 1,400 acres of land.

In addition to being a very busy farmer, Chris is involved in a panoply of agricultural and community organisations. He is an icon of the Pontiac region and Eastern Ontario and is a well known-figure across Quebec and Canada. Despite cutting back his involvement in recent years, due to a stroke that has limited his mobility, Chris still has a difficult time enumerating all of his activities. “I just lose track!” he jokes.

Currently, in addition to being involved with the QFA, Chris is the President of the Outaouais-Laurentides syndicate of the Milk Federation, on the local board of Pro-Mutuel, on the finance committee for the Ottawa Valley Fine Meats Co-op, an Agro-Pur Coop representative, and on the Assembly Yard Committee for the Quebec Beef Federation.

In the past, he was also involved at all levels of the UPA for 25 years, a Shawville municipal councillor, a member and a leader of the Shawville 4-H Club and was a charter member of the Quebec Young Farmers. Chris is also responsible for naming the paper that you hold in your hands today!

“I always liked working with people,” he says of his numerous involvements. “I felt I could do something to help, so I would get involved. I have gotten lots satisfaction from the networks and contacts and friends I have made all across the country.”

Chris also has a long-term track record with research and innovation in the farming industry. For over 20 years, he used to test plots for grain corn and made the information available to anyone who wanted it. “This way, farmers had a real look at what the available varieties were,” he explains.

In the early 1990s, Chris also grew 12 acres of industrial hemp as a test project for a private group that was researching the viability of growing this plant, which can be used for clothing, oil, or even animal feed. “It was very, very hard to work with,” explains Chris who participated in this project only one summer. “I’ll try anything once,” he laughs. “But it destroyed most of the equipment we used on it. It wound in the balers, rakes and combines, and destroyed all the bearings. Once was enough.”

Chris has been involved with the QFA since the mid-1960s and continues to be a proud promoter of the organisation and its many roles. “The QFA has been and is still going to be the voice of English producers in Quebec,” he says. “We need to introduce the rest of Canada to Quebec and vice versa because a lot of the problems we have are due to misunderstandings. We are bridging the gap between the two cultures.”

He also strongly supports the QFA’s role as an English information source. Chris explains that although the QFA may not have the resources to cover all facets of communication, it does have a role to play in getting the information out to farmers. “It may not be our job to decide what to tell,” he explains. “But we can make sure that they get told.”