Industry interest increasing for Legacy Farm development project

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Interest in the development of the Legacy Farm update is beginning to peak, following the open house hosted June 15 in regards to the project. 

“During the COVID-19 time, there was not very much interest at all, but especially since the beginning of this year … we have had quite an increase in interest,” said Bruce Klaiber, owner and developer of the Legacy Farm Area Structure Plan (ASP). “We have had an increase in interest from certain educational bodies interested in doing agricultural research here, we have had interest from farm individuals both on the fertilizer side and on the vertical farming side, and even organic farmers interested in doing test plots for us on their farms.”

The Town of Strathmore passed second reading for the ASP, Feb. 25, 2022, which proposed the development of 48 square hectares of land into an agri-tourism, business, and research campus. 

The June open house was hosted to provide a public update, and presented updated plans for the five-stage development, beginning this fall with the historical barn site.

“The project has three themes to it; one is history of course, because we have this amazing historic site where the CPR built a demonstration farm in the early 1900’s and operated it,” said Klaiber. “We have another theme, which is agriculture. We plan to show agriculture past, present and future. 

“And the third one that we are going to promote is tourism. We really want to start attracting more tourists to Strathmore and area. We think it is going to be a great boon not only for the Town of Strathmore, but to agri-tourism in the County of Wheatland and the region around.”

Concerning agricultural research and development, Klaiber added the Legacy Farm team is already working with potential industry partners to launch test plots to do comparisons as far as fertilizers, sprays, vertical farming, and organic farming are concerned. 

“On the tourism side, we hope to have some signs up on the highway fairly soon that will identify our location and what we are all about,” he said.  “We hope that will start attracting people in the short term as well.”

No exact date has yet been specified as to when shovels will officially hit the ground for the Legacy Farm project. Klaiber explained he had hoped to have seen development started in 2022, though the timeline was pushed back due to pandemic-related complications.

More information regarding the development and its phases is available online via the Legacy Farm website.