About

Canada’s Largest Independent Seed Company

BrettYoung is a privately-owned agribusiness with headquarters in Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Proud of our 80+ year history in agriculture, we employ over 250 people in four processing and distribution facilities in Canada. In various sales territories across North America, we serve customers in three distinct markets:

• Agricultural Seed and Crop Inputs – we provide crop input solutions to Canadian and US farmers including canola, forages and corn, soybeans, and ag biologicals.
• Wholesale Forage and Turf – we partner with growers to produce forage and turf seed for domestic and export markets, serving 40 countries around the world.
• Professional Turf and Reclamation – we provide a wide range of products and services, including fertilizer, to the professional turf and reclamation industry in Western Canada and Ontario.

Our People

As an innovative agricultural business, we strive for the highest level of professionalism in everything we do. This is a basic prerequisite in offering our customers premium solutions that add value to their businesses. We realize the success of BrettYoung is really your success. Our employees share in the responsibility for the ongoing growth and success of the company by providing their personal best. BrettYoung is characterized by the dynamism of a committed privately-held organization that challenges staff to take risks, view roadblocks as opportunities, and to explore new ideas. Encouraging staff to demonstrate initiative and then working together to realize goals is what sets BrettYoung apart.

Our History

The origins of the modern-day BrettYoung is a 1930’s woodworking plant producing step-ladders, incubators, and coat trees for the T. Eaton Company. The transformation from a woodworking manufacturer to an international seed supplier started in 1934 when Bill Brett, owner of the woodworking operation, joined forces with one of his employees, Reg Young, and formed Brett-Young Seeds Limited — a seed trading company.

Over the years, we’ve added more seed varieties and products to the business. Chick feed, horticultural peat, and legume inoculants were the first to be added to the business mix. Then alfalfa, clover, and other forage seed varieties were added, and by the early 1950’s, production of turf seed varieties, particularly Kentucky Bluegrass, were added to the operation. BrettYoung completed construction on our first seed processing facility in 1953. By 1965, we completed a new and larger processing facility to handle the ever-expanding business. Around this same time a processing facility for creeping red fescue was established in Rycroft, Alberta.

A notable highlight for BrettYoung came in 1968 when we won an export award for seed sales to countries like the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Poland, Italy, and the United States.

1975 was a pivotal year in the history of the modern BrettYoung. That year, Peter Dyck purchased the company after having worked for it since 1947. BrettYoung continues to be 100% family-owned with plans to keep the company in the family for generations to come.

Over the years, BrettYoung has made a number of significant investments in order to better serve our customers and partners. A state-of-the-art seed coating facility was added and we’ve recently expanded our seed storage, blending, and bagging capacity in our Winnipeg facility and improved blending and bagging at our Calmar, Alberta location.

Throughout our history, BrettYoung has maintained a reputation for honesty and integrity.

“It is critical that this reputation be maintained for us to continue to be successful in exporting to markets in the US, South America, Europe, and the Far East,” said BrettYoung board chairman, Lloyd Dyck.

BrettYoung has kept its reputation and integrity clearly in sight, but Lloyd credits many others for the company’s success.

“We are grateful to our processors, customers, and suppliers who have made our long history possible and we look forward to serving them in the years to come,” he said.

BrettYoung Accreditation

Seeds Canada delivers accreditation and monitoring programs for the Canadian seed industry. Recognized by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Seeds Canada has been given the mandate to be the single point of contact for all seed establishments, seed laboratories, operators, and graders seeking registration, licensing, or accreditation. BrettYoung has the following accreditations with Seeds Canada and the CFIA.