Del Rue is a true Icon. Born and raised in Watrous Saskachewan, Del had to fill his father’s shoes at a very early age. Del’s father passed away when he was in his teens, he found himself taking over the farm and assuming responsibilities. A lot of teens would shy away from a challenge of this magnitude but Del stepped in.
He became a certified seed grower. In this capacity, Del worked with University of Saskatchewan to develop new seed crops. They collaboratively worked to develop a Barley seed variety: Harrington which is still recognized to date. The Harrington barley variety is popular with farmers because it is better producing and has earlier maturity. He also helped the university to develop other seed crops for continuous cropping such as wheat, flax and canola. In this capacity, Del also tested and rogued seeds.
Though he loved the art of seed growing, Del remembers how tedious the process was, especially the paperwork involved. Besides the challenges he encountered, he continued seed growing for 20 years before passing the torch to his son Randy in 1983. Randy only did it for about three years.
In his “spare” time, Del volunteered in the community on different roles. He spent years as president of both Kinsman and Rotary Club in Watrous. He also spent a lot of time helping other farmers. To date, he continues to give his time by helping others.
After years of farming, Del decided to change careers. He became a real estate agent. He was a top realtor for 35 years. He could not walk away from farming with so much experience, he did something that a father does: he passed his knowledge to his sons Randy and Doug. Doug learnt a lot as a teen helping on the farm, especially with the animals. The Rue family was also very involved in hatching flocks of chicken and providing eggs for the hatchery.
Doug took his knowledge of farming and built his company Freshwater Land Holdings with the knowledge and understanding of the farming industry as passed to him by his Dad. He even took advantage of his Dad’s diverse database of local farmers, friends, business people plus more.
Today, Doug runs a very successful business and he still collaborates with his dad. You can tell farming runs in his blood because, Doug gets excited when he starts talking about the different types of soil, crops, new technology and many other farming topics.
Doug knows a lot of the farmers and he helps connect investors with good farmers who in turn rent the land and produce quality crops. If you are looking for land but have no knowledge of farming, no problem, Doug will get you excellent quality land as well as connect you with experienced farmers to rent from you or crop share. He owns land and collaboratively works with the farmers who are renting his land.
You can see what Doug Rue has been up to on his website or on his Facebook Page.