Aug. 22 is not the time to be pulling cows and calves from summer pasture, but members of the Rocky Mountain House Provincial Grazing Reserve had no choice this year as they got together at their pasture’s gathering station.
“Heck, it’s a month better than last year,” said cattle producer Bob Aasman of Rocky Mountain House, Alta., as he sorted cows in the cool early morning dew at the pasture’s gathering station.
“Last year it was five weeks. But it’s still more than two months too early.”
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Fog mixed with forest fire smoke is the only moisture the dry pastures have seen in nearly two months.
Aasman and his neighbours keep about 1,140 cow-calf pairs on the 16,000 acres of rugged hill and swamp in the Alberta foothills 50 kilometres west of Rimbey.
Rick and Ila Anderson manage the pasture and say 2003 has been the second tough year in a row for the cattle and their owners.
“Last year it was drought and heat. This year it was drought, half the heat and grasshoppers,” said Rick Anderson.
That combination shortened the grass and the season and left producers with few choices but to take their cattle home.
Rick Fink of Eckville, Alta., relies on the pasture for summer grazing for his 200 cows.
“We just took a load of steers in (to the packer). The price was 39 cents (per pound). On the five that were overweight, about 1,450 (lb.), we got docked pretty hard. How does ‘we got $250 apiece’ sound?” said Fink.
“Now I’m hauling cattle home and this week we’ll be feeding greenfeed leftovers from 2002. Thank God we have that because there’s no pasture at home and as you can see, we can’t go trying to sell them.”
The producers say the effect of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy crisis, as well as poor pastures, mean that not only will they be feeding this year’s cows and calves at home, but also their culled animals and in some cases, market steers.
Herb Wylhuizen Sr. said last year’s drought caused him and his son to reduce their herd by 40 head last fall and the effects of BSE and poor pastures will have younger Wylhuizen working as many hours off the farm as he can.
Herb Wylhuizen Jr. said it makes him wonder about the future of farming for him and other young producers.
“If we don’t have a big (Net Income Stabilization Account) because we haven’t been at it 40 years. What do we rely on in a business that has such awful margins and no support from the government?” he said.
“It’s a bad business this year. Makes you not want to take these cattle home.”
He yelled to some of his neighbours sorting cows: “Hey, who wants these cows?”
Fink replied: “Don’t you put those things on my truck. We’ve already got enough problems.”
Ken Buchta of Eckville said he worries about the younger producers in his area.
“If I was in my 30s or 40s again and this was happening to me, I’d be getting out of here. Getting a job and never telling my kids about farming,” he said.
“Instead, we’re packing up our animals and heading home to feed them whatever we can lay our hands on for another winter.”
Aasman agreed.
“We hope that better prices come back. We hope it rains. And then we conveniently forget and buy some more cows.”
