Brian and Glenys Weedon of Swift Current, Sask., are the 2011 recipients of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association’s environmental stewardship award.
The Weedon family received the award during the CCA semi-annual meeting and International Livestock Congress in Calgary on Aug. 10.
An annual award, it recognizes innovative sustainable management practices and stewardship initiatives that ensure a sustainable future for the beef cattle industry.
For more than 30 years, the family adapted their management practices to work in the semi-arid ecosystem of southwestern Saskatchewan to benefit their operation as well as the surrounding habitat and native grasslands.
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“What we are doing in ranch management is more like looking after an investment portfolio. Your water is your gold and without that nothing is going to happen,” Weedon said.
Grass management and the livestock are the other aspects of the investment that can yield long-term dividends. He does not think his practices are extraordinary.
“Over the last 20 or 30 years, driving around our area in Western Canada, I think what we’re doing on our ranch at one time might have been considered the exception but I believe now it is the norm,” he said.
The ranch is about 11,500 acres of native prairie range and 1,920 acres of tame grass in a sandhill ecosystem where potable water and grass management is a priority.
“Brian has taken a very good sand-hills ranch and he has made it a great ranch,” said his wife, Glenys.
The family has completed an environmental farm plan and enrolled in the verified beef production program in 2003.
