n THE CARILLON STEINBACH, MAN. C6 THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2025 Agriculture Now Titan Environmental on way to being a giant of industry
n www.thecarillon.com
by WES KEATING T itan Environmental at Ile des Chenes is no longer the tiny company of four men and a truck it was when it was started in a Grande Pointe garage, nearly 20 years ago. Today, the company, which has just moved its corporate headquarters to a new location in Ile des Chenes, has grown to seven locations in Canada, and one in the United States. Titan President Juice Lambert says while they started in agriculture, providing geomem- brane linings for hog lagoons, today their company’s expertise and high quality geosyn- thetics solutions are strongly focused on the mining industry. Those lagoon lining projects, although smaller in scale than the company would soon become known for, presented certain chal- lenges that shaped this growing company. Titan helped hog producing clients to reduce the risk of contaminating ground water, while protecting the environment as cost effectively as possible. Those early lagoon projects provided a blue- print for the company’s rapid growth and its mission to do more than help manage envi- ronmental impact by helping to improve how that management was done. Titan’s proven geosynthetics and specialty engineering solutions are designed to extend the life of vital infrastructure, while protecting precious natural resources. Today, Titan operates in Canada and the United States, and supports environmental projects in several other countries as North America’s fastest growing geosynthetics sup- plier, fabricator, and installer. Titan products are used in civil infrastruc- ture, water and waste management, mining, oil and gas, hydroelectric and agriculture, as well as sports and recreation. Titan Environmental is no longer known as “the liner guys”, who just supply and install geomembranes. Lambert joined the company in 2011, five years after it had its beginnings in a garage in Grande Pointe. At that time, he was brought in to establish and expand Titan’s product supply division to diversify the business and was em- ployee number five at the office, where there are now 47 people. The move to a new location, less than a ki- lometre from their former home, is a welcome one, he says, for at the previous location they were bursting at the seams. The Ile des Chenes location is company headquarters with offices in Regina, Leduc, Calgary, Surrey, Burlington, Ottawa and Hous- ton, Texas. The company has been enjoying many years of rapid growth, with the Canadian company having 190 employees. At headquarters in Ile
WES KEATING THE CARILLON
Titan Environmental president Juice Lambert at the company’s new headquarters in Ile des Chenes.
From agricultural lining work, Titan moved on to servicing municipal infrastructure proj- ects, such as lagoons, landfills and roads. Mu- nicipalities have been using geosynthetics for erosion control purposes and road building improvements. One such product includes Geocell, a prod- uct that has been available for more than 25 years, Lambert says. It consists of honey- comb-shaped cells filled with stone that are confined, allowing for heavy machinery to cross creek beds without creating a lot of ruts. The material is also used for erosion control and as a base for roadways, railways and re- taining walls. The Seine Rat Roseau River Watershed Dis- trict has used Geocell in a number of projects in the Southeast, and it has been a great way of allowing farmers to access all parts of their fields, crossing creeks, rather than using mu- nicipal roads to get from one field to another.
The company has been enjoying many years of rapid growth, with the Canadian company having 190 employees
Titan’s geomembrane liners allowed for a tremendous expansion of the Manitoba hog industry, especially in areas where material for compacted clay liners was not available. All lagoons need liners, Lambert explains, and where there isn’t sufficient clay content avail- able, that’s where geosynthetics come in. “We lined a lot of lagoons in Southern Man- itoba.” But Titan’s impact on helping to preserve the environment has gone a long way beyond saf- er manure storage; geosynthetics provided by the company adds life to other infrastructures, as well.
des Chenes, only four or five employees live in Winnipeg, Lambert explains. The rest come from all over, including St Pierre, Linden, Lor- ette, Ste Agathe, Niverville, St Adolphe, Stein- bach, St Malo, Oakbank, and of course, Ile des Chenes. Titan is a locally-owned company, with a number of employees owning a varying num- ber of shares along with majority shareholders. And though the company has gone from ‘ga- rage to global’, many of the projects have had a significant impact on the Southeast, and are continuing to do so, especially in the agricul- ture sector.
FLASHBACK ‘City of pigs’
September 19, 2002
triggers natural grazing pastures
they planted alfalfa, but now they are allowing the land to return to its natural state. Instead of controlling quack grass with chemicals, they fertilize it with hog manure. “Wherever you see a lagoon, you see quack grass,” he says. “We just sit back and let it happen.” He expects within 10 years their land will have returned to its natural state. Krentz says he is working towards a goal of spreading manure once a year – in July. This is the time of the year when the grass gets the most benefits from the fertilizer. There is also less danger of water contam- ination in July, because the water level is at its lowest. And odor problems are reduced through upward drifts of northwesterly winds. “Ninety percent of the smell goes up when there are northwest winds,” he ex- plains, adding the low-pressure east winds create all the odor problems. A key component of their success is rota- tional grazing. Evergreen Farms has divided its land into nine rotational sites. Each site is one section and divided into eight paddocks. At the center of each pad- dock is a water trough and a chute for loading and vaccinations. Each site has about 500- 600 head of cattle. “Through rotational grazing we are har- vesting the grass when it is at its highest (nu-
by WES KEATING A lmost 5,000 yearling beef cattle graze on 6,000 acres of natural grassland fertilized with manure generated by 100,000 pigs housed in 43 nearby barns. Four years ago, Robert and Jodi Krentz, who own Evergreen Farms near Pansy, sold parcels of land to hog producers. They held back grazing rights and made an agreement with the producers that manure generated by the hog operations would be available for their pastures. Robert Krentz says he triggered the barns because he wanted the manure. They now have a “city of pigs” in their neighborhood, supplying Evergreen Farms with all the good fertilizer they need. This unique partnership, along with their success in improving their pastures through an innovative rotational grazing system, was recognized by the Seine-Rat River Conserva- tion District naming Robert and Jodi Krentz the District’s 2002 Farm Family. “Our goal is to keep our soil healthy,” says Krentz. “If you keep the ground healthy, the forage on top will be healthy. You have to look at the bottom, not the top.” During the first two years of grazing cattle,
CARILLON ARCHIVES The newly formed Seine-Rat River Conservation District has named Jodi and Robert Krentz its 2002 “Farm Family-of-the-Year”.
grasses through participating in an Eastern Grasslands Society grazing trial, when he was 17 years old. He recalls his steer had gained two pounds a day. But he also remembers what happened in the fall, when they sold the cattle. “My father said the cattle did well, but they are only worth in the fall what they were worth in the spring.” Prices are low today, but not as low as they were in 1973, Krentz says. Even when prices are low, he says it is possible to compete in the marketplace, because production costs are much lower in southeastern Manitoba than in other parts of Canada and the United States. Krentz says Evergreen Farms’ success with grazing cattle demonstrates that adequate rainfall and an abundance of quack grass and hog manure help turn poor quality farmland into lush, productive pastures. - with files from Gladys Terichow
tritional) level,” he explains. “The calves al- ways get to eat young grass. Swamp grasses, which are usually consid- ered poor quality grasses when baled, are good sources of protein when fertilized with hog manure and harvested early through ro- tational grazing. Natural grasses have low maintenance costs – the only work needed to maintain healthy pastures is soil aeration. Their success with their grazing operation has resulted in the sale of their cow/calf oper- ation and feedlots. They have also discontin- ued seeding 2,000 acres of cropland. “We’ve turned it all into grazing,” Krentz says. The busy season is spring and fall, when calves are bought and sold. Additional staff is hired to help with the loading. The farm em- ploys two year-round staff to help with main- tenance and vaccinations. Krentz first learned about the high per- formance levels and cost benefits of natural
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