BRETON, Alta. – Duane and Christie Movald think everyone should go through the selection process required for Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers’ program.
It wasn’t easy to answer the extensive questions during the busy calving season, but the process forced the young couple to look back to where they started and recognize what they’d accomplished.
“It is work. It does make you look at what you’ve done and look ahead and get you thinking of what you can do in the future,” Christie said.
“It gets you motivated.”
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The Movalds were selected as the Alberta winners of Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers’ program. They return to Calgary in November for the final competition with winners from across Canada.
It’s an event the couple is looking forward to attending. Christie said they came away from the regional competition rejuvenated about agriculture and the future of their business.
“When we talked to the other people, everybody’s so positive,” she said.
The Movald family has been raising Simmental cattle since the late 1960s when it worked closely with a test station in Lacombe, Alta. The station had imported Maine Anjou, Charolais and Simmental, but the Movalds liked the look of the Simmental breed and have stuck with it ever since.
Duane said spending time filling out the paperwork gave him a larger appreciation for how much has been accomplished on their farm since his grandfather homesteaded in the 1950s. Much of the land needed to be broken, seeded, fenced and improved.
Looking forward, Duane believes genetics and keeping track of the parentage of each animal will be an important part of their operation. With scientists discovering more information about the meat tenderness gene, growth and carcass quality, knowing which animal the superior carcass came from will be an important sales feature.
“As everything becomes more identified, we can tap into that,” said Duane, who works closely with his parents, Morris and Linda. The family farm southeast of Edmonton is close to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
Duane said the family has always concentrated on investing profits back into livestock and the farm rather than in expensive homes and buildings.
“We live modestly,” he said.
Duane and Christie’s trailer is on the same spot where his grandparents built their home. Across the neatly trimmed yard is his parent’s home.
“We couldn’t do this without the generations before us,” he said.
Everyone helps out driving tractor, silage wagon or packer during silage and haying season.
During the busy calving and breeding seasons, everyone is on watch to help spread the workload in the 370-head cow and 2,320 acre farm.
The family begins calving in January and once that’s finished, the intensive breeding season begins. Cattle are checked three times a day for heat detection or to sort cattle into the appropriate pasture with bulls.
“It’s run like a dairy farm,” Duane said.
Through their intensive breeding program, the Movalds continually try to improve the breed and raise the animals their buyers want.
Each March the family joins three other families to hold the Bullrush Bull Sale in Rimbey, Alta., where they sell and highlight their bulls. While most of the cattle are sold to buyers in central Alberta, their cattle have also been sold to Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan.
Last spring, Duane set up a custom spraying business to meet local demand.
The service works for the Movalds because it doesn’t take Duane away from the farm for extended periods during the busy season.
This year he’s considering selling composted manure. It won’t require new capital and it may be another service that the family can offer the community.
