Roderick Morrison’s track record with the QFA is probably the longest of all the current board members. He has been involved from the very beginning and even a little bit before that. He was involved in Farm Forum as of the early 1950s, joined the QFA when it started in 1957, was the provincial president from 1968 to 1971, and was a director both before and after his presidential term. Morrison jokingly admits that he can’t really remember a time when he wasn’t a director.

Morrison grew up on his father’s dairy farm in Kingsbury and began his career as a farm man at the bright young age of five. “I’ve been farming since I was knee high to a grasshopper,” he says. “I can remember the first cow I milked. And it wasn’t with a machine!”

From the very beginning, he knew he was going to be a farmer. “I guess when you’re brought up on a farm, it’s in your system,” he explains. “I just grew up liking it.”

He and his brother bought the family dairy farm together in 1953 and Morrison sold it to his son, Doug, in 1991. Throughout his farming career, Morrison also did a bit of custom work such as grain thrashing and wood cutting. Although he now claims to be retired, Morrison still works with his son on a daily basis, partaking in both morning and evening chores. Also, upon his “retirement”, he bought himself a few Charolais-cross cows for beef production. “I needed a little something to do,” he laughs admittedly. Little? Last summer, he had over 60 cows.

Morrison’s dedication to the QFA also continues into his retirement and he has high hopes for its future. “I would like to see it getting along a little better than the past few years,” he admits. “And I would like the QFA to continue to push our governments for a fair deal for all farmers.” He also says he would like to see membership increase although he admits they will never be at the levels they were in the early years. “There’s just not that many farmers anymore,” he says.