Our Great Great Grandfather William George and Great Great Grandmother Elizabeth Colborn settled and established the Colborn Farms Limited location. They chose the site because the winding creek reminded them of their homestead in England.

Great Grandfather Henry Colborn retrofitted the horse barn into a chicken barn. Our first introduction to improving the housing for the hens.

Keith Colborn graduates from the University of Saskatchewan with a Diploma in Agriculture.

Keith and Cliff Colborn build their first barn dedicated to table egg production. Today, that barn is still in use as the calving barn for our cow-calf operation.

Keith and Cliff Colborn construct a modern poultry barn for table egg production and pullet barn. The eggs were picked by hand and graded on the farm. Eggs are sold to the OK Economy stores in Saskatoon under the Colborn Brothers brand.

Keith Colborn was instrumental in establishing the Saskatchewan Egg Producers. Keith sat as Board Chair and as the Saskatchewan Representative for the national egg marketing board known at the time as the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency (CEMA)—now, the Egg Farmers of Canada (EFC).

Clifford sat as director with the Saskatchewan Egg Producers for 12 years. His focus was on bettering the Saskatchewan Egg industry.

Ken Colborn begins farming with his father, Keith and Uncle Cliff. Ken’s passion for grain production leads to more interest in land expansion.

Ron Colborn starts his farming career with his brother Ken and father Keith and Uncle Cliff. They double the size of the flock to 18,000 hens and renovate the barn to conventional housing units with automatic feeding systems and water in the cages. An egg packer collected the eggs at the end of the row. Manure removal was simplified with the use of belts. Ron’s interest in cattle and ranching leads to an opportunity to utilize the existing natural pasture land that the family-owned.

Darren Colborn returns to the farm in 1992. He enjoys working in the poultry barn with his father, Cliff but also enjoys grain farming. Farming and land practices improved with the introduction of genetically modified canola, direct seeding, and glyphosate (roundup). With this, we had a significant improvement of topsoil, minimized tilling and wastage of resources. 

We also begin to see yield improvements do to better moisture conservation from to direct seeding and genetically modified crops.

Shawn Colborn graduates from the University of Saskatchewan from the School of Agriculture 50 years after his Grandfather Keith. His final year assignment was to complete a business plan for his family’s farm. The farm was made up of 90 cows, 1600 seeded acres, and 18,000 laying hens. The late 1980s and early 1990s were difficult. As a result, in 1998 the equipment is dated, and production became limited. Ken, Ron and Darren Colborn form the next Colborn Farms Ltd. company and begin expanding in all aspects of the operation: grain production, eggs and cattle.

GPS technology is introduced to help manage overlap with aspects of fertilization in chemistry.

With a new generation of farmers and technological advances, we saw a need to focus on the farm’s business management, including risk analysis and strategic farm planning. Today, we’re constantly reinvesting in our operation, from the upkeep of buildings to the construction of new ones to the health and welfare of our animals. We aim to be sustainable in every aspect possible to ensure we continue ‘Growing for Generations.

Keith is inducted into the Saskatchewan Poultry Hall of fame for his commitment to the industry.

Ken, Darren and Ron focus on improving the egg production on the farm and construct a new egg barn. This project enhances the hen's performance while reducing hen mortality and increases the egg production per hen. Due to their experience with poultry, they recognize the value in genetics and begin to focus on breeding a commercial cow herd with similar aesthetics and performance.

The transition to purchasing the first generation of crossed replacement heifers (Red Angus x RedSimmental) from other producers and crossing these with Charolais Bulls results in the even, tan-coloured calves they hope the feedlots appreciate. They always knew the existing farm was more suited for pasture and hay production and began transitioning the lighter texted fields into native pasture and grass; while renting better quality land for field crop production.

Colborn Farms celebrates a century of family farming and is commemorated by the Saskatchewan government in 2010.

Shawn Colborn starts on the farm full time bringing 13 years of agriculture input supply knowledge, along with a strong interest in financial management of the farm business. Drawing on this experience, he sets his focus to work on the grain farm with his father Ken and cousin Darren.

Monitoring cows and calves during a blizzard, nothing stops on the farm even in the worst weather conditions. 

Jeff Colborn returns to the farm business working with his dad Ron on the cattle ranch. He loves working with the cattle and starts looking into breeding first-generation cross-bred Red Angus/Red Simmental replacement heifers. His goal is to have two cow herds. 

 Herd 1: Commercial cows with calves sold into the beef value chain.
Herd 2: Purebred Red Angus used for replacement heifer for the commercial herd. Also to be sold as replacement heifers to other cattle producers.

With changes in consumer demand and adjustments to the code of practice in egg production. The farm chooses to build an enriched hen housing barn that allows for more natural hen behaviour. The housing has more space, hen perches and private areas for laying eggs, plus room for the hen to dust bath. This type of housing system will be the standard moving forward for Canadian table egg production.

As part of the families succession plan, cousins Darren, Shawn and Jeff form Colborn Farms Joint Venture. They choose to keep the family business together versus farm separately. With help from farm business advisors and guidance from previous generations, they continue to grow the farm business.

Cliff Colborn is inducted into the Saskatchewan Poultry Hall of Fame. He served for 12 years as a director on the Saskatchewan Egg Producers board.