Posted By: Jesse Williams

As Penny Patton, Cattlemen’s Young Leader program graduate, puts it- our land is our place of doing business. We need to make sure it’s available for us to use in the future. Our land is our renewable resource in ranching, but the media often twists our story. So how does ranching make a POSITIVE impact on our environment? I can’t speak for everyone, but I can give you an insight into one project we have been doing on our ranch since we started in 2012.

Our ranch is nestled in the Special Areas of Alberta. This unique municipality received their name in the 1930’s when a huge majority of settlers in the area packed up & abandoned their homesteads due to extreme drought and impossible farming conditions, forfeiting the brown soiled land back to the government. So if there is anybody that knows about the importance of water on the prairie, its Special Areas residents. So much in fact, that my hubs made water our primary business, drilling water wells, providing solar watering options and completing livestock watering systems to ranchers in our area.

To protect our water sources, the wildlife & riparian species that depend on them (including us!), we have been fencing off our riparian areas (areas next to lakes, wetlands, springs, sloughs, etc.) to limit access to livestock during ecologically sensitive periods. This helps to keep the banks strong and lush with many vegetation species and clean water sources for all those that access them. In turn, we have been using solar watering systems to pump the water out of the riparian areas into troughs nearby. The interesting part is that cattle seem to prefer to drink out of troughs than in riparian areas, because the water is cleaner & free from their own contamination. How cool is that!?

Above: Photos of the Whiskey Creek natural catch basins that the creek fills, September 2016

The benefits to protecting riparian areas are many. If you follow my social media accounts you may recall seeing a picture I posted this summer of the Whiskey Creek flooding (below). While I said above that we are typically very dry, we had an unusually wet year this year. Our tiny little creek flooded vastly outside its normal creek bed, but luckily because it was a relatively healthy riparian area, the water was captured by vegetation, soaked into our soils and not lost to run off. The varying types of vegetation with different root systems and depths allow for healthy soil, good infiltration and strong, stable banks. We were very happy to see our water stay in our pasture soil and recharge our aquifers than run off as waste!

Top: The Whiskey Creek flooding on August 3, 2016 after 20"+ of rain this year.
Bottom: The Whiskey Creek on September 30, 2016, dried up, which is typical for this time of year. It will fill up again next spring to fill natural catch basins that are full year round.

Whiskey Creek’ flows through, we keep cattle off until after freeze up. This gives us a great hard grass feed source in the fall before we have to start supplementing with bales, plus once the banks are frozen  the cattle do a lot less damage to the banks, vegetation and riparian species. We take the cattle off of that native pasture before it thaws in the spring to ensure cattle aren’t mucking up the banks when they are at their most sensitive. This system works great in our pasture rotations plus it conserves our sensitive, ecologically significant riparian habitat. And the wildlife species that share this particular habitat are many.  

I think it’s important to remember however, that our riparian area management is forever evolving. This post is not meant to make people think we have it all figured out or that all the riparian areas at Whiskey Creek Ranch are 100% (they’re not). We are constantly working on improving our riparian management and sustainability, and decreasing our footprint. My favorite saying is “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” and I think that is essential in livestock production, including the ecological side of it.

Organizations like Cows & Fish are dedicated to helping ranchers meet the needs of their livestock operations while benefiting the ecosystem and in most cases, improving it beyond its natural state. Cows & Fish helped us come up with a list of considerations before fencing our riparian areas to ensure we were meeting the needs of all species, not just the cattle. There are also lots of local organizations to look into if you are interested. In my area we have the Chinook Applied Research Association (CARA) who has staff on hand to help with riparian area assessments for FREE! We have plans with them this fall to do a formal riparian health assessment on the Whiskey Creek, prior to completing our fencing, so stay tuned for blogs about our progress! CARA is part of ARECA- the Applied Research Extension Council of Alberta- and have partners across the province dedicated to the same type of work. Check them out!

As much as this post is about what we are doing on my ranch, I want to stress that we are not alone. Ranchers have been doing this for generations, but it is only recently that we have been talking about it as consumer concerns have escalated, watering technologies have evolved and ranchers are under more pressure to show their conservation efforts to the public. I also want to emphasize that this is just one tiny part of ranchers’ conservation and sustainability strategies that I am sharing today. If you are curious about what ranchers are doing, just ask! We love to talk about our land because as Penny said, it is our business, it is our renewable resource, it is our life. It is why most ranchers took up this occupation! And if you are a rancher reading this, I encourage you to share your sustainability stories. I know you have many! Why not take part in #AgMonth16 this October using the hashtag #OurFoodHasAStory? Or search it and see what others are doing. As the old 4-H adage goes “Learn to do by doing!”.

Interested in learning more? Caring for the Green Zone: Riparian Areas & Grazing Management is a great resource from Cows & Fish to start with! (PDF available)

This post is inspired by the Cattlemen's Young Leader Program as part of an advocacy challenge. Help me win that challenge (please!) by watching & sharing Penny’s video & you could help send me to the National Western Stock Show and NCBA-CYL/YCC Round Table in Denver!

Stats from: AgMoreThanEver.ca

This means, that for every 1 person involved in Canadian Agriculture, 7 people are completely removed from our industry. That's alarming, isn't it? I have to admit that statistic scared me! And with 7% unemployment rate in Canada (as of August 2016), and a rising 8.4% in Alberta specifically, now seems like the perfect time to encourage people to have a look at what our amazing agriculture industry can provide.

I am challenging each and every one of you to share, tag or show Ben Campbell's Ag Story video to SEVEN people in your life that aren't directly involved in agriculture for every ONE person in agriculture that you share it with. Then challenge your ag friends to do the same! For most of us, it is easy to get likes or shares on an ag photo or video, because we're preaching to the choir. But let's challenge ourselves to get the ag story out there to people in the cities, children in schools and beef consumers in the grocery store. Let's make an effort to tell our story to those 7 out of 8 people who may not know that ranchers give the back pocket of their jeans to make a cow more comfortable (see video, I'm not crazy!) or that a rancher doesn't have to wear a cowboy hat and ride a horse to take care of their livestock. Let's show Canadians what modern agriculture is all about!

Share the video & use the hashtag #CDNagchallenge
so we can see just how far it goes!

But don't stop there, you can show the video in classrooms, at a local event, in your office, to your family and on the street. Stay tuned to see where I pop up in my community to share our Ag Story!

To make it easier, here are some pre-typed Tweets & Posts you may want to copy & paste. The video link will make the video visible once you post!

For every 1 in ag/food careers in CDA, 7 are not. I challenge you to show 7 non-aggies this video #CDNagchallenge goo.gl/M7Ep6I

 DYK? 1 in 8 Canadian jobs are in ag & agri-food, employing over 2.1M Canadians! Yet, it is projected that from 2011-2020 there will be 38% of Canadian Ag jobs go UNFILLED! So I am challenging YOU.

Let’s share Ben Campbell’s story about his ag career below using the hashtag #CDNagchallenge. But let’s not stop there. Because for every 1 ag job there are 7 job options unrelated to agriculture, tag, share or show 7 people who normally wouldn’t be interested in an ag career and encourage them to do the same! Let’s shout ag from the rooftops, people! Let’s show Canadians how fulfilling careers in Canadian agriculture can be!  goo.gl/M7Ep6I

This Challenge is inspired by the Cattlemen's Young Leader Program as part of an advocacy challenge. Help me win that challenge (please!) by sharing the video & you could help send me to the National Western Stock Show and NCBA-CYL/YCC Round Table

Posted By: Jesse Williams

I am characterizing the month of August as my month of excitement, opportunity and generally just Wahoo-ing! It has been filled with exciting events at every turn, including the Inaugural Canadian Beef Industry Conference which was paired with the selections portion of the Cattlemen’s Young Leaders Program, our 5th wedding anniversary and drum roll please… ACTUAL PROGRESS ON OUR HOUSE BUILD! Can I get a wahoo!?!

One of my favorite parts was the very last evening where we went to Heritage Park for our wrap up supper. I was seated with people from Ontario, South Dakota, Rocky Mountains and all across the prairies. We got chatting about our biggest challenges in beef production. For the Ontario gentleman, he had too much water. His biggest investment was tiling his land so that he could divert the water away and be able to make the land useable. The couple from the Rocky Mountains, their biggest struggle was protecting their cattle from bear and wolf attacks, which took considerable amount of investment, time and a whole lot of regulation, paperwork and the frustration that comes with that. Another family expressed their biggest worry was being land locked by hutterites, unable to expand their operation size and therefore trying to change their ways of operating to make more money on less land, supporting more family members.

This is just a small sampling of the conversations that were had. It was by far the best networking opportunity I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing, and I truly believe that some of those connections will be lifelong. This conference reminded me how blessed I am to be part of such a diverse, hardworking, pride filled industry that brings protein to tables across the world. I would highly recommend attending next year’s conference, again in Calgary, AB.
 

The above, middle photo pictures my highlight of the week! On my left is CYL alumni and Beef Advocate Amanda Broadhagen (@AmandaBrodhagen), and to my right is fellow farm blogger, friend & self-proclaimed range nerd Jill Burkhardt (@Crookedlakecows, Crooked Lake Farm) and her newest ranch hand! I admire both of these ladies very much, having 'met' both of them on Twitter, and now actually have gotten to meet them in person! Thanks for tweeting up ladies!

As mentioned above, it was the Cattlemen’s Young Leaders (CYL) program that led me to the first ever Canadian Beef Industry Conference. I applied with a written essay in March of 2016 outlining my ranching operation, my background and where I wanted to improve my abilities within the Canadian Beef Industry. I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the 24 semi-finalists from across Canada that were awarded registration to the CBIC in August where the selections process would occur, dwindling down the 24 to 16 finalists. The selections process was amazing. Of course it was also incredibly nerve wracking, out of my comfort zone and beyond intimidating. That room of 24 semi finalists blew me away. In fact, I couldn’t believe I was actually chosen to be present there with those individuals, as it truly was a room full of unbelievable talent, passion for our industry and expertise that was way above my head. Over the course of a day we participated in 5 roundtable discussions about topics affecting our industry, all while being judged by facilitators on our performance. Topics included farm succession (by far the most heated of discussions in my opinion!), global beef market outlooks, advocacy, social media and mentorships.

The whole experience was beyond what I ever imagined. I kept liking it to what I imagine 4-H for Adults would be. It reminded me so much of my 4-H days, including the lasting relationships that often accompanied 4-H programs. I would recommend that anyone between the ages of 18 and 35 that is in any way involved in the beef industry (you don’t have to be a primary producer) give this opportunity a whirl.

I was fortunate enough to get the email on August 23 that I was one of the lucky 16 to be chosen for a mentorship in the 2016-17 CYL program year. I am so honoured, humbled and beyond thrilled to have been awarded this opportunity. I have not yet heard who my mentor will be but I did request a production focus, so I look forward to sharing with you all my adventures and learnings throughout the next year. Thank you to everyone that made this experience a possibility for me!

On August 20 Clay and I celebrated our 5th year of wedded bliss by attending our dear friends’ wedding, Tommy & Gabrielle, in the Handhills. In my opinion it was an excellent way to spend the day and super fun to reminisce about our big day all those years ago. You can look back on our wedding day with us in a blog I wrote called
Married {with Cows] for 5 Years!

In 2014 I designed my dream house plans. It took until August of 2016 to actually make those dreams into a reality, and I am still constantly asking my husband to pinch me because it can’t be true! The papers are signed, the building permits are sent away and I am SO EXCITED to announce that ground breaking on our dream ranch house will occur in September 2016!!!
I will keep you all posted on the blog and via social media through the hashtag #buildingafarm. Stay tuned to watch my dreams be built one nail at a time! WAHOOOOOOO!
 

Breaking ground at the ranch
CYL Mentorship Announcement
Maybe some relaxation? HA!

July 2016     June 2016            May 2016          April 2016            March 2016              February 2016          January 2016

Posted By: Jesse Williams

Well actually, I've only been with cows for 4 years, but the marriage part has been a solid five!

I know this post is a few weeks late, but anyone who has been married for 5 years will tell you that the day-of celebrations are out the window and you get to it when you can... Regardless, on August 20, 2016 the hubs and I celebrated 5 years of wedded bliss and we are still here to talk about it. Can I get a wahoo!?

Five years ago we said our 'I do's' at my parents ranch near Brooks, AB on a beautifully sunny, hot August day. I remember freaking out the week before because showers were in the forecast, but the day of our wedding we lucked out- and Clay even got a sun burn!

Here is what that fabulous day looked like 5 years ago...
(The first song 'Look at you girl' by Chris Ledoux is the song I walked down the aisle to. The second song 'Wildflower' by Dean Brody was our wedding song)

I thought I would share some of our life then versus now, as a lot has changed in 5 years, let me tell you.

In 2011 Clay and I were living APART. I was in my between my third & 4th year of university and I had taken a job in Devon, AB with an agriculture company doing canola yield trials as a summer student. Clay was fresh out of university after earning his engineering degree and took a job with a fracing company, where he worked all around Alberta, travelling in their convoy of frac trucks. I think he was supposed to work 2 weeks on, 4 days off, however his schedule was never what it should be. I remember him phoning me the Thursday before our wedding and telling me he *hoped* he would make it back in time...

Take it back a few months before and Clay was in Houston, TX doing some fracing training. This was to fast track Clay to an international opportunity and I found myself delaying my 2nd last semester of university in hopes of following the hubs to Abu Dahbi in the United Emirates for a 1 year frac job... Well, as exciting as that sounds, Clay and I were homebodies. We didn't want to travel across the world to a country where I couldn't even wear a tank top, and where we certainly wouldn't be herding cows. So before Clay was to depart for this big trip, he solidified a engineering position with Husky Energy, much, much closer to home, in downtown Calgary. I jumped back into university to finish my degree and we bought our very first home together- an acreage near Strathmore, AB. And  more excitingly... then we bought our first yearling heifers!

Well, you know what life now is like, on account of the blog! But in short, it consists of building our very own ranch from the ground up back in Hanna, AB, expanding our cow/calf operation and running our own business. Clay is busy, busy, busy with his water services company Legacy Drilling, where he drills & maintains water wells, and provides a whole host of agri-services from livestock watering systems to solar installations to pipe & panel sales! I keep busy with my dream job- I am an agricultural fieldman for our municipality, which allows me to be immersed in agriculture & our community on a full time basis. When I'm not doing that, I am pouring over plans for the new house & ranch yard, riding pastures and dreaming up new ways to improve our operation. I must say, five years blew by SO FAST, but we are right where we wanted to be, and darn that feels good!

Posted By: Jesse Williams

PART 1:
12 cups of chopped Zucchini, seeds removed (can shred if you prefer the texture)
4 cups chopped yellow onion
2 cups chopped red pepper
2 cups chopped green pepper
2 jalapenos, chopped (remove rubs & seeds for mild taste)
¼ cup pickling salt
PART 2:
8 cups chopped tomatoes (can used canned dice, or fresh with skin removed)
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups pickling vinegar
2 tsp chili powder
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 crushed garlic cloves (large)
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp dry mustard
2- 13oz cans of tomato paste

PART 1:

1. Combine all ingredients in PART 1 in a bowl. Refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.
2. Once refrigerated, put in large colander or use cheese cloth over a pot to drain any juices. Leave in refrigerator for several hours. Discard juice.

PART 2:

1. In a large pot combine chopped tomatoes, drained zucchini mixture, garlic and tomato paste.
2. In a separate small bowl combine the brown sugar, spices and corn starch until mixed. Add pickling vinegar. Add to large pot with veggies.
3. Bring pot to a boil, stirring frequently for 10 minutes. Then let summer for 1 hour, continuing to stir frequently.

PART 3: CANNING

1. Place your clean glass jars, lids and rings into a large canning pot of boiling water. This will sanitize your jars to ensure a proper seal.
   
2. Remove one jar at a time using tongs or a jar lifter. Be careful as they will be very hot to touch. Fill the jar with salsa leaving about ½” of space at the top.
3. Wipe any excess salsa off the rim of the jar to ensure a proper seal. Place the sanitized lid and ring on top. Tighten as much as you can.
   
4. Place back in boiling water bath for 30 minutes to.
   
5. Repeat until all salsa is canned. Leave jars overnight to allow them to seal. You should hear popping noises when they seal. If not, you may have to re-can.

Enjoy!

Posted By: Jesse Williams

July, where did you go?! This last month was rare for us, as typically we rarely ever take time off the farm, however we had several great long weekend trips with family and friends! When the hubs and I decided to make the big move back to the farm from the city we vowed we would spend more time doing fun things with friends and family- but everyone says that don’t they? I must admit that I really didn’t think it would happen, yet July came and went with nearly every weekend jam packed!

In between all the fun we managed to squeeze in some haying between the constant rains and the swarms of hungry mosquitoes. Clay is still laughing at my drought ’16 prediction…

July 8-10 brought one of my favorite trips so far this year. We wrangled up the horses, hooked up the holiday trailer and headed to Indian Graves Provincial Park in Kananaskis Country of the Rocky Mountains. My sister, her family and my parents also joined us with their ponies for this whirlwind trip. I must mention that our prairie quarter horses aren’t used to trees, let alone going up and down mountain trails, so it was quite the learning adventure for both horses and riders! Clay brought our home raised paint colt along, who added roping, climbing cut lines and swimming (up to his neck!) to his list of talents. I am so proud of that horse (and his rider, too!).

Canadian Beef Industry Conference
Cattlemen’s Young Leaders Experience (wish me luck!)
Our 5th Wedding Anniversary (WHAAAT!?)

June 2016            May 2016                      April 2016                     March 2016       February 2016               January 2016

Posted By: Jesse Williams  

If you didn’t catch Part I of the two day Women’s Grazing School Review, click here.

While Part I focused on the on-site tour of Nature’s Green Acres, Part II will be an overview of the classroom portion of the event, which was jam packed with great information.

Dylan Biggs is a Special Areas rancher who has made a name for himself in low stress cattle handling, teaching the subject and working with ranchers across the industry to improve their methods. He believes that every step an animal takes should be voluntary and not relying on force or fear. When it comes to calving, branding, turning out bulls or weaning, Dylan Biggs believes there is a stress free way to handle your cattle. And I would have to agree.

I had seen Dylan speak about his techniques before this Grazing School, but a refresher course never hurts- no matter how long you’ve been in the game. While his methods aren’t anything out of the ordinary, he reminds us to use cattle psychology to make the right things easy and the wrong things difficult when handling cattle. I think every rancher would have to agree that sometimes emotions run high in the sorting pen or when that bull won’t cut from his herd, voices may raise, tears may fall and wives will storm off (come on ladies, you know it’s true!).

Whether it’s Dylan Biggs or another herdsman of your choice, I encourage everyone to take a few minutes to refresh their low stress handling strategies and I challenge you to share those methods with someone else. Whether it’s your spouse, your neighbour or your kid, remind them where those blindspots are for a cow, or how to indirectly push from the sides, or maybe just to remember its ok to back up and give that cow some space! With so many consumers looking ever deeper into our operations, it never hurts to reinforce low stress livestock handling methods with your ranch hands.  To learn more about Dylan Biggs and his cattle handling techniques you can visit his website at www.dylanbiggs.com or read more in this Grain News Article.

This was probably my favorite presentation from the whole event. Karin Lindquist, Forage-Beef Specialist with Alberta Agriculture, was an absolutely fabulous speaker. I think I enjoyed her presentation so much because of the immense passion that she spoke with- she truly is a “Range Nerd”, as she put it.

She stressed that the best way to manage our farms is from the ground up. Start by managing your soil first, as it influences what can be grown and how well. I think over the last few years our industry has been doing an amazing job encouraging producers to start thinking about their soil as their top asset. 2015 was deemed the International Year of Soils by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and boy did our local research associations do a great job promoting it. (You can head over to http://www.chinookappliedresearch.ca to see what was and still is going on in my area!).

Karin then reminded us that to manage your forage, you need to know what plants you have. This can be easier said than done if you don’t have an agriculture degree or a self-proclaimed Range Nerd nearby! However, Karin gave us some great resources to use to identify the plants in our pastures, and assess the health of our range:

Alberta Range Plants & Their Classification
Range & Pasture Management When Dealing with Drought
Alberta Tame Pasture Scorecard
Management of Canadian Prairie Rangeland
Pasture Planner- A Guide for Developing your Grazing System  

Abby Verstraete, Alberta Agriculture & Forestry’s Rural Business Specialist, was on hand to chat about the importance of Human Resource Management on the farm. This topic is all too often overlooked when it comes to employees on farms and ranches, maybe due to the seasonality or wide variance in positions. Country Guide recently interviewed Abby about attracting and retaining workers on the farm. You can read it by clicking here.

Overall, the two day Original Grazing School for Women was a fun, information filled event that I would recommend to others. With such a diverse group of ranching ladies from across the province and experts from across our industry, this event and others like it, are worth the time and investment in my opinion. After all, the best way to improve your operation is to ask questions, meet other ranchers and learn from their experiences!

Posted By: Jesse Williams

If I had to pick a theme for the month of June I would definitely pick RAIN. We have had probably about 8" of rain this May & June on top of that 8" of snow we got in April (read about that here). Which is FABULOUS for our part of the world, especially because we were bracing for a drought this year- HA! Compare that to last year and throughout May and June in 2015 we had 2-3" overall. Needless to say, we are very very thankful for these rains, even if the daily thunderstorms are getting annoying.

There is literally standing water in our flat tame pastures, our dryland garden (no we still haven't hooked up the water!) is looking great, and our hay will probably yield the best it has in the last 5 years (if we can ever get it cut!).

Bulls are out! Actually they went out the last few days of May, but they spent June getting down to business and hopefully breeding the majority of our cows so that we can calve the beginning of March in 2017. We decided to back up our calving by two weeks compared to last year because the early calving fits our lifestyle better. To read more about our decision to calve in the winter, click here.

Below: Photos from our Gelbvieh breeding group

This year we are focusing our efforts on producing replacement heifers so that we can expand our herd in the future. Because of this we have three separate main breeding groups, which makes things a little more complicated than usual. Our main herd is bred to purebred Charolais bulls to get hose strappin' big tan calves that bring us big bucks in the fall, but we also have Gelbvieh and Simmental breeding groups. We hand picked our best Simmental cows to be bred to purebred Gelbvieh bulls, and our highest performing red Angus cows to be bred Simmental. Our hopes are that we can make some really great red white faced, moderate sized heifers with maternal characteristics, high milking ability and tame demeanors. We shall see next year if our crosses worked!

Below, Left: A Charolais x red Angus cross steer out of a second calver
Middle & Right: Red gelbvieh cross calves out of first time calvers

Because I was certain it was going to be a drought year, we secured several rental pastures in addition to our home pastures. We have been busy running around to each one, checking on the health of our herd and grass. We are also very fortunate to be able to utilize the Bullpound Community Pasture, which is only 7.5 miles from our home place. We trailed a selection of pairs to the Community Pasture on June 23, 2016 with the help of Grandpa & Grandma Griffith (in their truck, below) and Clay's Uncle Bruce. Big thanks to them as it wasn't the funnest ride being poured on with a straight sideways wind for the last 1.5 miles, but we got 'er done!

Below: Trailing to the Community Pasture

On the home front we are actually FINALLY definitely making small steps toward progress! Due to some 'interesting' dealings with a certain house moving company, our house plans were put on hold since March. While we don't have the 2400 sq ft home we purchased and expected to arrive the first week of June, we are happy to announce that we officially have our completed blueprints for our DREAM house. And now when I say dream house, I mean DREAM. Clay and I actually designed this house in 2014 but changed our minds for cheaper options- several times. We since decided that because we are going to live in this house until we die, and are putting it on our brand new yard site we are designing from scratch, we might as well build our dream home to match. I will keep you updated over the summer but we are hoping to have a basement in July or August!

Mountain horse trip to Indian Graves
Montana trip to celebrate love!
Hopefully, more house progress
#Hay16 (if it ever stops raining)

May 2016                      April 2016                     March 2016                   February 2016               January 2016

I absolutely LOVE learning and I think there is so much to learn from visiting other people’s ranching operations. I find this is true no matter how many times you’ve visited or how good of friends you are. I literally learn something new every time I go to somebody’s branding, help move their cows, or even just go for an evening beer. This is why I am so excited to share with you what I learned at the Women’s Grazing School. I took lots of notes so this is basically a condensed version of the entire school… thus it’s being delivered in two parts!

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend The Original Grazing School for Women hosted at the Circle Square Ranch near Halkirk, AB. Over 50 ladies from all over Alberta gathered to be part of this annual educational event aimed at sharing livestock grazing practices to increase production, return on investment and biodiversity on the ranch. This was my first grazing school and if anyone is interested, there is another one happening called The Southern Alberta Grazing School for Women this July 27-28 in Elkwater, AB!

Day one brought us to two different ranching operations near Killam, AB. The first stop was at Nature’s Green Acres, owned and operated by Danny and Shannon Ruzicka. Their farm raises grassfed beef and pork that they direct market to consumers and in particular, the Rge Rd Restaurant in Edmonton, AB. Danny, Shannon and their kids were very gracious to let us tour their farm and gave us some insight into their rotational grazing strategies.

Because they restricted direct access to the creek, they needed to provide a new watering source for their cattle. They decided to create a wet well off the creek, installing a Nose Pump with two watering bowls that will suit up to 100 head of cows. While they raved about their nose pumps I am a bit more skeptical, based on our own recent experiences.

Now I am a numbers girl so the burning question I had was what their increased grazing days or production was. Shannon explained that they hadn’t really monitored the before/after as that was just one more thing that would have stopped them from finally getting their rotational grazing system up and running. I can’t blame her, but I fully intend to monitor the difference in our cow days/acre once we get ours fenced! Hopefully we can share this information with you next year! 

Danny and Shannon also shared with us their “bush raised” pigs. Of course the first thing I asked was What is a bush raised pig!? Simply put, they are pigs that are raised outside in rotational grazing paddocks that have heavy tree/bush cover, versus the traditional corralled or indoor conventional methods. Now I must give my kudos to the Ruzicka’s, here. I think this is a genius marketing strategy- they sound different, natural, and leave me wanting to know more! While I don’t think I will be able to provide bush raised animals on my flat, treeless prairie landscape, maybe I will have to try prairie raised pigs!

The farrowing sows, sows with piglets and weanling pigs were all separated into different paddocks. Each paddock had significant tree/brush cover that allow the pigs protection from the elements. The pigs graze the grass growing between trees, root up the soil and help break down the deadfall. When asked if the pigs harm the healthy trees, Shannon shared that it does take some management to ensure the pigs are moved from paddock to paddock before they overgraze and begin damaging healthy trees.

The Ruzicka’s shared with us that the breed of pig is very important to rotational grazing. Because the pigs are outside year round, it is essential that they use heritage breeds. These breeds are more adaptable to harsh weather and have thicker hides and longer hair for cooling/heating. Pigs that are raised in indoor facilities would not be suitable for their situation. They did say that you should check with your slaughter facility prior to purchasing heritage breeds as the thick hide is often a source of contention during butchering.

They don’t seem to have issues with predators, but one excellent question posed by a participant was “Will they decrease gopher populations?”. It is a very intriguing question as they may destroy the gopher tunnels through rooting and perhaps they could even eat them? If anyone has any experience I would love to hear about it!

Day one of the Women’s Grazing School was definitely worth it for me. I came away with great ideas, some what-to-do's and some what-not-to-do’s, and enjoyed visiting with participants from around the province. If you are interested in other grazing schools for women, visit the Grazing School for Women Facebook page or contact your local Ag Fieldman.  

Posted By: Jesse Williams

I think the best description of May 2016 would be "Branding Month" in our part of the woods! May, being the first really nice month of the year meant that we spent every second we could outside, soaking up the sunshine... and even some rain!!
Here is a look back at our month...

We rang in May with our branding on the 7th and it was a gorgeous day! The sun was beaming and I even got my first sunburn of the year. We had about 45 wonderful friends, family and neighbors come help us brand about 200 head, a combination of our calves and my husband's parents'. Many hands made light work and the branding was over before we knew it! Thank you so much to everyone that helped!

Because we had so much great help at our branding, we needed to return the favor. So far we have attended 6 brandings of friends and family that attended ours. By our calculations we have three more to do in June and July. Let the fun begin!

You may have read in my previous spring posts that we were really, really worried about moisture around here. Well our crossed toes and fingers must have worked, because the clouds opened up and delivered 2" in one shot, then another 1" after that, with some intermittent sprinkles on top! I am certain I can hear the grass growing!! And HAY! We think we are actually going to have a bit of hay to bale this year. Can I get a hallelujah!?

There was no shortage of work around the ranch this month. We spent a bit of time on our horses moving cows from pasture to pasture after branding. We were very happy with our decision to hire a liner to move our cows to some of our further away pastures this year. Last year Clay spent 4 days moving cows with our trailer, and this year we moved more cows to more pastures for cheaper, in just one day. I call that winning!

On the 28th & 29th we also put our bulls out with their ladies. This means our cows could start calving as early as March 6, 2017.I thought for sure we were going to get rained on but we got the boys to the yard just as the rain started. Score!

We started #plant16 with our very first garden on the new farmyard! It is excessively large with a fence that isn't done and water lines that are yet to be hooked up- but it is planted!! I will post later about what we planted and how it's doing throughout the summer. A big thank you to Clay's brother Cody for the cultivating, Clay's aunt Connie for the rototiller and my dad for the post pounder! The support we have in our life is tremendous :)

Looking ahead to June, we are still busy, busy, busy! I am hoping to share with you all...
    Hand Hills Lake Stampede (Happy 100th!)
    Garth Brooks Concert in Saskatoon
    Hand Hills Ball Tournament
    Original Grazing School for Women 
    More Brandings
    Finalizing the blueprints of our new home!