Chris Ford of Southern Irrigation: Promoting Center Pivots in British Columbia
The second cut of alfalfa at Frolek Cattle Ranch near Kamloops, British Columbia.
Dick Ford researching irrigation systems in the Columbia basin in 1974, the year he founded Highlands Irrigation.
Irrigation Leader: Please describe your family background and the development of Highlands Irrigation.
28 | IRRIGATION LEADER | March 2022
Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about the present-day operation at Highlands Irrigation and how it is related to Southern Irrigation. irrigationleadermagazine.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MIKE ANFIELD AND CHRIS FORD.
W
hen Southern Irrigation bought Highlands Irrigation in 2020, two established family businesses joined forces to provide agricultural solutions to growers and cattle ranchers across British Columbia and beyond. In this interview, Chris Ford tells us about his family background, which spans from New Zealand to British Columbia, and explains how Southern Irrigation supports a variety of irrigated crops in a climatically varied region.
Chris Ford: My dad, Dick Ford, is from Rotorua, New Zealand. In 1929, my granddad—his father—had acquired a government lease on vacant land and started grazing dairy heifers and sheep. My granddad spent his whole career developing Highlands Station. Today, Highlands Station is still in my family and is the reason why, many years later, my mom and dad named their Canadian irrigation business Highlands Irrigation. During the era of my dad’s childhood, my granddad farmed 5,000 sheep and 500 cows. My granddad was one of the pioneers of red deer farming in New Zealand. My dad tells great stories of waking up for an early morning pre-chore hunt to the sound of red deer stags roaring on the farm. My mom, Donna Ford, is from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She met my dad in England, where they were both traveling during their early 20s. My parents were married in Vancouver in 1967. While waiting to marry my mom, my dad found work at an irrigation company, supplying wheel lines from Vancouver up to ranches and farms in the interior of British Columbia. Once married, they moved to New Zealand to work on the family farm. After 2 years, they wanted to move back to British Columbia, both to be near my Canadian family and because my dad wanted to pursue work in the irrigation industry there, which had caught his interest a couple of years earlier. In 1969, my dad found employment as an irrigation salesman in Williams Lake, British Columbia. Today, more than 50 years later, they’re still there! When the company my dad worked for went into receivership in 1974, he and my mom created their own company, Highlands Irrigation. In their first year in business, my dad traveled through the Columbia basin in Washington State. The extent of pivot irrigation got his attention, and by 1978, he was selling and installing pivots in the interior of British Columbia. My dad drove hundreds of miles to remote cattle ranches to help owners come up with suitable irrigation development solutions. Beef cattle operations in nearly every part of British Columbia need irrigation to grow forage crops. The irrigation land developed in the 1950s was using wheel-line and handline systems. Where land was being flood irrigated or was still undeveloped and labor was in short supply, it was obvious for dad that pivots were the most efficient solution. Highlands Irrigation’s focus on finding the right solution for the grower, along with being a dealer of Lindsay Zimmatic pivots for 40 years, has made us a leader in British Columbia’s irrigation industry.
