CALGARY (Staff) – Highland Feeders of Vegreville was named the 1997 recipient of the Alberta Cattle Commission environmental stewardship award.
Owned by brothers, Bernie and Michael Kotelko, the operation was selected for its unique management practices, ongoing research into waste handling and long-term planning.
Highland Feeders, with a capacity to feed 25,000 cattle, is one of the 10 largest feedlots in Canada and includes 3,800 acres of cropland where it produces its own feed barley.
Feedlot manure is applied to the farmland. The family conducts regular manure and soil analysis and monitors crop nutrition and manure application rates.
It has co-operated in feedlot runoff studies with the province and the Northeastern Conservation Connection group and was involved in writing a manure management code of practice for the intensive livestock industry.
