CLANSWILLIAM, Man. – When asked if buying cattle at her first auction was overwhelming, Charlotte Crawley provides a quick and definite answer.
“Yes, yes and yes,” said Crawley. “I’m not intimidated anymore, but it was very intimidating to begin with because I had no clue what I was doing.”
Nearly four years after that first auction, Crawley, 27, now runs a 220-head, feeder steer operation near Clanwilliam, Man., 60 kilometres north of Brandon. She buys five-month-old steer calves in the fall, feeds the animals over winter and has them on pasture over summer, before selling off the herd the following autumn. After the sale, she heads back to the auction mart to begin the process again.
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Although she admits it’s unusual for a young woman to run her own cattle feeder business, Crawley learned at an early age that gender doesn’t restrict one’s role on the farm.
“My parents have always taught me that being a female is not a limitation in this business,” said Crawley, who lives in her grandparents’ former home, 400 metres from the home of her parents, Glen and Annette.
“I’ve never really understood why women can’t farm,” said Glen, noting that times have changed since 40 years ago, when farmers had to hand pick square bales and carry bags of fertilizer.
“That stuff doesn’t happen anymore … it’s mostly operating. Why can’t a woman run a loader or drive a tractor or a combine?”
While there are no limitations based on gender, there are clear divisions of labour on the Crawley family farm, which has been in operation north of Clanwilliam since 1897. Crawley runs the cattle operation and Glen is in charge of the family’s 1,800 acres of wheat, barley and canola.
Crawley doesn’t just run the cattle side of their business; she has transformed it since she returned to the family farm in 2005.
After graduating high school in nearby Minnedosa, she attended the University of Manitoba and earned a degree in animal science.
“I was always interested in the animal side of it (growing up). I was never interested in the business side (of farming),” said Crawley, who laughed frequently as she mocked her own character flaws.
After graduation she took a job in High River, Alta., as a meat inspector, but she learned that a career that involved standing around and watching was not for her.
“I didn’t like it … too much routine,” she said.
So she quit and took a job at a cattle feedlot east of High River, at Brant, Alta., where there was more action taking care of 16,000 animals, everything from handling incoming cattle, sorting steers, vaccinating and castrating.
“I loved that job. I like the hands on…. I like to get kicked, I guess.”
After two and a half years working in Brant, Crawley decided to take her skills and experience back to the family farm in Manitoba.
Her dad was running a cow-calf operation, but Crawley wanted to re-create a feeder operation like the one she worked at in Alberta, only on a smaller scale.
With her animal science degree and know-how, she had the basics covered to move out of cow-calf and into the feeder business. But learning the management side of a feeder operation was a challenge.
“I pretty much knew nothing when I came back here,” she said about managing input costs and the marketing skills it takes to run a farm.
When she goes to the auction now, Crawley restocks her feeder herd with a strategy in mind. She tries to avoid bidding wars for the best animals. Instead, she goes after moderately priced steers.
“I know my costs down to the last penny and I always try to stay within budget,” Crawley said. She has learned that paying too much up front can kill profitability. “You won’t ever get that money back.”
In addition, she relies on her knowledge of animal health and care, to improve the steers while they fatten in her feedlot.
Her knowledge, enthusiasm and willingness to learn more, have impressed John Popp, a livestock specialist with Manitoba Agriculture in Minnedosa.
“She does a really good job and is very keen on the things she wants to do,” said Popp, who works with Crawley on feed formulations and ways to build profitability.
While it’s hard to say exactly where her enthusiasm comes from, her dad Glen said the family focused on the positive when Charlotte and her sister were growing up.
“The tendency is for many kids not to consider farming as an occupation,” he said. “We tried not to focus on the black humour… and the broke farmer jokes.”
Like many producers whose families have worked the same land for generations, Glen said he’s pleased that the family tradition will continue with Charlotte. And he’s even more pleased that she’s doing it for the right reasons.
“It has to be more than just tradition. It has to make sense and has to be something she wants to do.”
