I grew up on a mixed farm (grain and beef cattle) in East-Central Alberta. In 1988 I graduated with a BSc. In Agriculture, animal science major, being especially interested in animal nutrition and physiology.  My first ‘real’ job was at Calgary Masterfeeds where I specialized in poultry operations.  

Starting in 1993, I was an entrepreneur for 13 years but we were forced to sell the business in 2005 due to an accident that resulted in my broken, dislocated hip.  At this point, I sold our business and went back to school to get my secondary teaching degree with a major in biology and a minor in chemistry.  I worked as a classroom teacher for several years but in 2014 I took a  break and for three years and worked as the extension and environmental program coordinator at Battle River Research Group .  During this time, we decided to go back to our farming roots because of all the innovative and interesting practices that I was learning about at BRRG and I wanted to begin to apply them to our operations.  One of the most interesting experiences I had there was being part of the discovery and identification of a new disease in Canola, called pink root rot.  I identified and submitted some diseased plants to the Alberta Plant Health Lab in Edmonton and it eventually led to the publication of this paper in the Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology with me as a co-author: First report of pink root rot caused by Setophoma (Pyrenochaeta) terrestris on canola  

In 2017, I went back to teaching part time at the Brownfield Community School so that I would have more time for the farm. After completing two years there, I have resigned and am now ready to be dedicated full time to our farm and marketing our beef and our cabin, because that is really what I am passionate about.

Our animals are never confined to a feedlot.  We make every effort to incorporate year round grazing for our animal management by growing annual crops for three seasons of swath grazing, in addition to summer grazing on perennials. 

We do provide shelter from wind, bedding and extra feed during the most extreme winter weather.  Our cows have their calves during May and June as similar native animals do, when the weather and grazing conditions are the best.  The main goal for our cows is that they have long, healthy, happy, productive lives on our farm; in fact we currently have one mother that is 17 years old in our herd.  We do not brand our animals and we band all the steers at a very young age, the simplest most pain free method of ‘fixing’ them. 

We do our best to use stress free handling practices when administering all herd health treatments and we wean our calves in a two stage process that includes the use of the ‘quiet wean’ nose inserts which greatly reduces anxiety and stress for the calves and the mothers.  If you have any questions about any of these things, feel free to contact us below.