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Cam Fairty and family are owner, operators of nu.Fairgreen Sod Farms. The family run business began with a 350 acre farm at Steeles and Markham Road in Markham, Ontario. Howard Fairty, Cam’s father, moved to the farm from the big city when he was 14 years old.
He cleared the land and began dairy and beef farming. Upon seeing how successfully his neighbor Parkview Golf Course grew grass, he thought he’d give it a try, becoming one of the first sod growers in Ontario.
Once the sod was grown it had to be harvested. This was a very labour intensive process. The sod was cut using a Ryan hand operated sod cutter.
Then rolled and lifted onto the back of a single axle truck, which could hold 8 skids of sod.
One crew could harvest 3500 rolls of sod a day under ideal conditions, if the equipment and or staff didn't give out!
Today Fairgreen uses a Trebro Auto Stack harvesters to harvest sod. This state of the art equipment is capable of cutting, rolling, stacking and harvesting over 35,000 rolls of sod per day
per unit.
This sod is then
delivered by a fleet of 7 fork lift equipped trucks to customers throughout Ontario. Delivery
is available for as little as 20 rolls of sod to large tractor trailer loads.
Today nu.Fairgreen Sod Farms
main farm is located at 10378 Hwy. 48 in Markham. This year Fairgreen
will be growing sod on over 1600 acres of land, on eighteen different farms in the Markham, Stouffville, Zephyr, Virginia and Beaverton areas. These farms are equipped with the latest in irrigation technology to ensure healthy sod.
Fairgreen employs four full time, and approximately thirty seasonal
employees. This number is comprised of the sod cutting crew, the men
who maintain the sod fields and work the land, the truck drivers and
staff in the front office.
Fairgreen also supplies
garden soil. Soil is also available for pickup in bags, by the yard, truck load, or the SOS ( Sack of Soil) system. The S.O.S.
is over 1 cubic yard of garden soil, in a re-sealable, reusable, environmentally friendly bag. These bags can be delivered by our fork lift equipped trucks. These specially equipped fork lifts with wide turf tires, allow placement of the S.O.S. bag right where you want it.
Fairgreen Sod Farms is also a proud sponsor of many local organizations such as the Markham Stouffville Hospital, Markham Fair, St. Patrick’s Church, Markham football, soccer and hockey clubs and the Markham Santa Claus Parade.
Drop in and visit our retail outlet at our main farm in Markham for all your sod, grass seed, soil and fertilizer needs. We also carry sod staples, sod tarps and seed and fertilizer spreaders.
Fairgreen Sod Farms continues to be a family run business. The original principles of growing quality sod and providing good service espoused by Howard and Muriel Fairty are still upheld today. We do not strive to be the biggest sod grower in Ontario, just one of the best.
Hours:
Monday to Friday 7am-5pm
Saturday 7am-2pm
Trebro Auto Stack harvester and
covered delivery transport trailer. |
