WAYWAYSEECAPPO, Man. – Kelvin and Jewel Mazur’s farm sits in picturesque parkland five kilometres from Riding Mountain National Park.
It’s been a good place for a mixed farm, giving them land for grain, hay and pasture, and perfect territory for their commercial cow herd.
It’s also a nice place to experience nature. Moose, elk and deer sometimes wander out of the park into their area.
But that’s where the anxiety starts entering their lives. The wildlife brings the spectre of disease.
“There’s such a stigma associated with our area,” said Jewel, sitting at the kitchen table with Kelvin on a warm, sunny March afternoon.
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“It seems so unfair, but …”
Jewel’s voice trails off as she considers what the threat of tuberculosis means to their hope to expand the cattle operation so she can stay home and work on the farm.
“We’re having to renew our goals because we have two young kids,” she said. Their talkative and energetic son Kale is 31/2, and daughter McKiya is seven months old.
The Mazurs live in the zoned area around Riding Mountain National Park in which livestock has to be tested and monitored to ensure TB has not escaped from the wild, diseased elk herd in the park into nearby commercial cattle herds.
It means stress and uncertainty for this young family. Kelvin has a lifelong love of cattle and has been hoping to expand his herd and scale down the financial risk in the grain side.
He and Jewel started their herd in 1998, after Kelvin worked for years with his father’s cattle.
He has been planning to bring in some Limousin semen to build and strengthen his herd, but the fear that TB could infect his animals makes him wonder whether cattle production is becoming as risky for him as grain production.
“I’ve always loved the cattle, and we’re increasing our herd substantially, but the fear of tuberculosis is there,” said Kelvin.
Jewel added: “It wasn’t there when we decided to go this route.”
Kelvin has decided to become part of a possible solution to the TB situation, rather than just a victim.
He is a member of a federal-provincial-municipal task force that is developing plans to fight the disease and stop its spread outside the park.
He said he feels better working on solutions than simply being angry about the situation.
“We’re all pretty level-headed around the table,” said Kelvin, who is also reeve of his rural municipality.
“We’ve agreed we have to work with these people to make sure everything goes well.”
Kelvin said he is cheered to see federal officials today taking the situation seriously. But he doesn’t mince words about what he calls the park’s “mismanagement and negligence” in previous years.
“Where were they 10 or 20 years ago?” he wonders.
Jewel, who earned a master’s degree in natural resource management at the University of Manitoba, is kept busy as the manager of the local conservation authority that oversees soil and water issues in the area.
It’s a job that allows her to use her education for a local purpose.
“It’s nice to give something back to your community,” said Jewel, who grew up on a local farm.
But she has had trouble finding work like this. For her first five years of living on the farm, she had to pick up jobs here and there. She did contract work with a local soil management group, was an adjuster for Manitoba Crop Insurance, worked briefly with a Loui-siana-based bird study group, co-ordinated a local parents’ centre, and even taught figure skating.
“It sure was depressing for a while not being able to do what I really wanted to do,” she said.
But it didn’t sour her on country life, even though she hadn’t planned to move back to the Rossburn area.
“My intention was never to come back,” she said with a laugh.
“But I was here visiting Mom and Dad, and there he (Kelvin) was. And everything started coming back about my roots. And I got swept away.
“I’m really glad it happened.”
She admits “chasing” Kelvin, whom she had known for years, and has been happy to embrace his dream of farming since they were married in a “huge Ukrainian wedding” in 1994.
Building a cow herd close to Riding Mountain National Park now seems fraught with difficulties, but the Mazurs say they are going to stick with cattle, even if they have to be more cautious.
“If there were no animals in the yard it would feel empty,” said Jewel. Without cattle, Kelvin might lose his passion for farming.
“Kelvin has always been after the perfect cow, the perfect milker, the perfect calver, the perfect temperament. He’ll keep trying to get it.”
