\u201cEveryone needs food. Feeding people is a fundamental thing, and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0something I want to be a part of forever,\u201d he says. \u201cYou feel good when\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0helping your community by producing\u00a0good quality\u00a0food, and I want to see more young people embrace\u00a0that and be proud of being a farmer. It feels\u00a0good\u00a0and I love to teach them that with even the smallest tasks on a farm,\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0having\u00a0a big impact\u00a0on the overall food system.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A second-generation farmer, Liam owns and operates S. J Ritchie Research Farms as well as a veterinary clinic, Canadian Poultry Consultants (CPC). Both occupy the same piece of land in Abbotsford, and both came into his hands in 2023 after his father, veterinarian and farmer Stewart Ritchie, lost a battle with cancer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy dad was one of the top poultry veterinarians in Canada,\u201d Liam says proudly. \u201cI\u2019d actually say he was world-renowned, and everywhere we went around the world, people would say, \u2018Hey Chicken Stew!\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As a research-focused operation, S.J. Ritchie Research Farms works with universities and industry partners to push the boundaries of broiler performance and environmentally sustainable farm design, Liam notes.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He grew up in Abbotsford, and his first paid job was at CPC. Surrounded by people with a passion for poultry, he kept a particularly close eye on his dad. Stewart was the son of Bill Ritchie, a Scotch-Irish immigrant who co-founded Ritchie-Smith Feeds, one of the largest feed companies in the Fraser Valley.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Both men taught him the value of\u00a0hard work.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy dad liked to say the furthest he got in grandpa\u2019s company was cleaning the gutters,\u201d Liam laughs. \u201cBut the common thing between the two of them was grit and\u00a0elbow grease.\u00a0My dad also taught me the value of character \u2013 being good to\u00a0people and\u00a0leaving things better than when you found them.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When Liam enrolled in UFV\u2019s\u00a0Agriculture\u00a0Technology\u00a0program\u00a0in\u00a0<\/span>2018<\/span>, he found a kindred spirit and a mentor in agriculture department head Renee Prasad.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI met Renee in a pest management course, and I was impressed by how much she knew off the top of her head,\u201d he recalls. \u201cYou can\u2019t fake it around her because she knows so much, so you\u2019d better get to work and figure your stuff out. I love her approach, and I also find her to be very humble and approachable. She has a good radar for whether you care or not about what you\u2019re doing, and I appreciate that.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n S.J. Ritchie Research Farm<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0a\u00a0massive barn\u00a0with a lot on the go.\u00a0Liam\u2019s team always has trials in progress, searching for more efficient, safe, and sustainable ways to raise poultry.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On this day, UFV student\u00a0<\/span>Rachel Fiehn<\/span>\u00a0is inside the barn with a pressure washer, cleaning plastic trays. It\u2019s a dirty (and smelly) job, but she\u2019s doing it with a smile\u00a0reflecting a\u00a0<\/span>strong work ethic well suited to farm life<\/span><\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As she considers pursuing a career in agriculture,\u00a0Rachel is\u00a0soaking up this\u00a0experience.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI really like this job because\u00a0it\u2019s taught\u00a0me a lot about a\u00a0sector\u00a0I knew almost nothing about when I started here,\u201d she says. \u201cAlso, the people who work here are so amazing, and willing to teach me new things.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAny questions I have, they\u2019re answering them.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The biggest lesson Liam has learned that he passes along to Rachel and other students is not to be afraid to make mistakes. He\u2019s made plenty, and, as he says, \u201cthey can be a beautiful thing.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He laughs recalling the time he flooded the barn and ruined some flooring by leaving a sink running, so when UFV students make an error, he encourages them to keep their head up.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI love when they make a mistake, because\u00a0we both\u00a0learn from it, and then you have that knowledge moving forward,\u201d he says. \u201cMy biggest thing as a mentor is to\u00a0ensure\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0having fun and enjoying what they do, and part of that is not being hard on them when they do make mistakes, because\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0never their intention to do that. I always assume the best of my employees, and I give them as much respect as I want back.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In return, all Liam asks is that students show up prepared and ready to work.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRachel is awesome. She\u2019s in there right now washing the same dirty stinky trays and at the end of her shift she always says thank you. We both say thank you at the end of the day.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s that type of attitude and enthusiasm that gets me excited about what we\u2019re doing, and why I am always looking forward to welcoming UFV students to our farm. I have another student employee from UFV who isn\u2019t working today, but like Rachel, she has the grit, right attitude showing in each one of her shifts.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Posted from UFV Today At a time when there aren\u2019t enough young farmers taking up the mantle as older farmers retire, UFV alumnus Liam Ritchie is stepping up. Not only is he regarded as one of Canada\u2019s outstanding young farmers\u00a0(as a recent award nomination attests) Liam (Dip \u201920 Ag-Tech) is helping others find their way … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":12764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[444,171,7,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-alumni-spotlight","category-deans-office","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12763"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12775,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12763\/revisions\/12775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/55044990071_74b65667d7_k-1024x683.jpg\")
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