The Canada's Outstanding Young Farmers national awards ceremony takes place Friday, November 30 at the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg.

Brooks and Jen White (Borderland Agriculture) of Pierson will represent Manitoba at the event.

The couple own a fifth generation farm with a focus on integrating bison production with a cash crop system. Brooks says about 75% of their grain farming practices use intercrops, with a lot of attention paid to building soil health.

He gave his thoughts on the week ahead.

"I think the biggest thing I'm looking forward to is meeting some new people that have some different aspects of their operations from ours and what we might be able to learn from them. The couples from other places in Canada that are doing some things with direct marketing, I'm really interested to learn more about that and how we might have a fit for that in the future on our operations."

Brooks notes it's been a whirlwind since the couple won the Manitoba award back in March, adding they've been busy tweaking their presentation for the national judges.

He says the coming week is filled with tours and other networking events that will keep them busy right up until the awards ceremony on Friday night, when two winners will be selected at the event.

Related: Manitoba's Young Farmers Honoured