Name

Bryan Maynard

Occupation

COO (Chief Operating Officer) of Farmboys Inc.

What does your job entail?

Our farm grows potatoes, pulse crops, cereal crops, and forage crops in a rotation. Day to day Kyle and I divide up the responsibilities; I am the Farm Manager or Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Kyle is the Chief Financial Officer(CFO). In a nutshell, I manage the farm and Kyle manages the financials.

How long have you been involved in agriculture\food industry on PEI?

I have been involved in agriculture ever since I was born. I was born and raised on a dairy/ pork farm, and that is where I spent the first 6 years of my life. And then I moved just a few miles up the road to this location and I have spent the rest of my life here on this farm, which was “Arlington Farms” up until 2015 when Kyle and I bought a portion of it off our grandfather and turned it into “Farmboys Inc.”

What is your education/experience prior to entering your current job?

I completed Grade 12 at Westisle High School then I went onto getting a Business Administration Diploma at the Academy of Learning and then I came directly back to the farm.

Are you involved in any extracurricular or community activities?

We are both very active in the local Community Sports Centre so we enjoy playing hockey. We also enjoying golfing so you can find us at the Mill River Resort quite often. We don’t get to volunteer our time as much as we would like, as we spend the majority of our time on the farm or with our family. We are actively involved in sponsoring the Tyne Valley Oyster Festival and Rock the Boat Music Festival. We like to give as much back to our community as possible with the volunteer fire department and other activities.

What’s your favourite way to eat PEI products?

My favourite way to eat PEI potatoes is probably a toss up between hand-cut homefries or a good baked potato is hard to beat as well.

When you were a kid, what did you want to do when you grew up?

When I was a kid I was supposed to be an NHL superstar, but that was probably when I was quite young and didn’t last very long. No, I always seen myself in this farm office chair. I didn’t really realize the many different types of roles a farmer has. When you’re a kid you think running a farm is just starting a tractor up in the morning to feed the cattle and looking after the crops, but it’s really evolved and changed. Farming in general is always something that Kyle and myself seen ourselves doing.

What would you want consumers to know about your business and the agriculture/food industry?

The biggest thing I want a consumer to know is that there’s absolutely nothing going on in the Agriculture industry that isn’t completely necessary. People in the Agriculture industry are committed to increasing yields and profits obviously as if you don’t you won’t be in the Agriculture industry. But at the end of the day, it’s all about food safety and quality. We are one of the most highly regulated food chains in the world. So what really upsets me is when I hear people question the Canadian food supply chain because we are really held to the highest standards in the world.

Why do you do what you do?

I do what I do because to put it very frankly, I don’t think I could do anything else and be happy.

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