TAMWORTH — Lennox and Addington Economic Development awards committee got it right when it singled out 67-year-old Paul Burns for a special Lifetime achievement award.

The Tamworth beef farmer survived one of the worst periods for marketing beef the industry has known. He has between 25 and 30 cows and calves but he survives mainly in the business as a backgrounder, buying about 600 young stockers annually at local sale barns.

He has everything counted down to the penny and says that the Canadian dollar has to drop to 80 cents before he can start making money again.

His farm covers 950 acres, mostly marginal land, on which he grows 400 acres of corn silage and hay. The rest is pasture and scrubland.

He sells some surplus hay, but says apologetically that he buys in some grain to finish about 30 head and bring along some of the heavier stockers.

Several events stand out as significant, events that changed his way of thinking and attitude towards life. The first occurred when he was in Grade 12 and his mother wouldn’t let him quit school. He went on to complete Grade 13. It was a defining decision in his life. Going that extra grade gave him confidence. He went on to serve as reeve of the Sheffield Township council, organized cattle sales at local fairs and lead the way in the red meat programs, transforming the industry in the 1980s.

Paul is a true home-body. "I never lived more than 150 feet beyond the house in which I was born." And he also never worked off the farm.

For his 1967 Centennial project, he wrote a best selling history of the township. He sold 300 books, one book for every four people in the township.

Another dramatic event came about in 1973 when his first wife died suddenly of a heart attack. "I sat around for a year and a half and then I realized I had to get involved. I couldn’t just sit here."

He began to support other people in their endeavors. "Much can be accomplished by several people working together," he says. Today he works in a partnership with his son Terry and lives happily with his second wife Beth.

His final piece of wisdom: "Success in life comes down to being blessed with a good wife."