Beef Initiative Group Canada-Great BIG C !

[cowman]

220 cows in partnership with a nonagricultural partner on some very expensive land (of his) just north of Calgary AB. Mostly purebred Welsh Black and Galloway cows, selling about 25, 2 year old purebred bulls and some breeding females each year. Feed comes from waste Timothy hay from export plant next door. Supplemented with pellets from Calgary and a small silage pit (purchased). Involved in a verticle natural meat marketing program putting our cull steers and heifers into high end restaurants in Calgary.

Very much for avoiding Cargil and Lakeside. They have very simply taken advantage of a devastating problem that their suppliers are facing with no remorse whatsoever. Yes is was handed to them in oversupply and government bungling, but they could have shown a tiny bit of sympathy with some kind of new ideas, but never had. I only wish I knew what they have in mind for the future.

[jensend]

calve out about 190 cows; crop 2500 acres for grains and grow about 75% of our feed requirements. pencil and try to estimate benefits of retained ownership each step of the way. an alberta ex-pat moved to sask 3 years ago. wouldn't go back but sask will have to get into the 21st century sometime in the next couple of decades.

[pandiana]

Calve just under 100 purebred Gelbvieh and small commercial sheep enterprise. Sell about 15 to 20 bulls and replacement females. Lambs are sold farm direct as well as rail grade. Chronically short of feed and land but reluctant to spend more to make less. Will cut back on all fronts if given a chance because I see little future in making money in agriculture. Love my cows and sheep and the life, but tired of subsidizing an industry that is undervalued and underappreciated.

[cswilson]

jensend what part of sask. did u move to-and we's in the footur gots the power,the oily roads jist lik alburta do plus weez got da casinos lol.

[jensend]

cswilson - we're just nw of ft. qu'appelle. took the course from your neighbour this past winter.

[cswilson]

Ohh your up in that Lipton country I'm guessing-I ran yearlings down there in one of our many droughts. How did you like the course.

[jensend]

liked the course. have some accounting in my resume so it gave a look from a different angle but it was useful. my 13 year old son should take it; it would make good sense to him too. we're about 15 mi. w of lipton. sw of sysart, se of cupar. good cropland on our west and good cowland to the east.

[grassfarmer]

Am building up a cowherd at the same time as improving a farm (difficult given the drought having started with a very run down place in 2001)Calving 125 cows this year. Establishing a Purebred Luing herd from pedigree and grade up bloodlines. Was intending to max out on cow numbers and sell preconditioned calves in December. Am now experimenting with selling grass fed beef direct to customers and may move to a smaller cowherd, sell breeding females and bulls and fatten steers for a more rounded operation. Run cows on a management intensive grazing system with all feed bought in - much of it cereal byproducts from the ajoining Hutterite colony. Eventually aiming for 8 months grazing and 4 months feeding which I think is feasable.

[blackjack]

in a family farm business that runs approximately 900 cows and backgrounds around 1500 head . Usually sell as yearlings at approximately 900 lbs. Raise all our own silage and hay and buy the grain and straw.