YELLOW CREEK, Sask. – Kristin Wielgosz believes farmers need to make the most of what they can control on their farm to be successful.
For Kristin and her husband, Stephen, who run a 200-head purebred Charolais herd and commercial cow-calf operation in north-central Saskatchewan, that means providing their customers with animals that will stand above the rest and bring them top dollar.
Contained within the mission statement of their operation, Creek’s Edge Land and Cattle, is their goal to maintain customer satisfaction by continuing to change and improve the breeding program as the industry changes. They sell purebred bulls and have been showered with awards at Canadian Western Agribition in Regina and the Saskatoon Fall Fair.
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Both graduates of the University of Saskatchewan, the couple, now in their 20s, decided to settle on the Nemeth family farm.
“I always knew I wanted to come back,” said Kristin of farm life.
They both agreed good land for livestock and support from an extended family brought them here.
Stephen no longer works off the farm but Kristin continues her job selling chemicals and fertilizers and handling field and disease scouting for Viterra at nearby Ethelton, Sask.
She said that has helped her better understand what’s going on in agriculture while also providing flexible hours to fit in a busy farming life.
Stephen, whose family has a purebred Charolais herd at Rose Valley, said he likes the breed’s high rate of gain, calving ease, disposition, udder quality and milk.
Creek’s Edge calves early in the year, marketing bulls through its website, by attending sales and showing cattle and through newspaper ads.
Stephen prefers to stay as a mixed farm, growing grain to offset the fluctuating cattle market cycles.
“You always want to do a good job of both. It’s more important to raise quality animals even with poor prices.”
“The only way you’ll make money with cattle is to have high quality consistent animals,” he said.
“You have to try to get the high end of the market.”
They share the workload with Kristin’s parents, Kathleen and Larry Nemeth, who live near them and Kristin’s grandparents, the first Nemeths to farm here.
Leslie and Elizabeth Nemeth started this farm in 1952 and raised five children. He traded a John Deere dealership in Yellow Creek for a quarter section of land, a two room shack and a barn with a straw roof.
Leslie, 85, a Hungarian immigrant with a Grade 6 education who arrived in Canada as a child, helps when called upon and keeps current by learning new technologies like GPS, EZ Steer and Outback technologies.
Leslie takes a keen interest in the addition of corrals and improvements made to the farm.
“I never closed my mind,” he said, with a hint of the Hungarian he still speaks present in his voice.
The livestock operation benefits from the presence of so many workers on site, each one helping out when the others leave for work or holidays.
The family has taken numerous driving holidays over the years and looks forward to the 16 kilometre horseback cattle drives they participate in each year.
“Too much work is no good,” said Leslie, who enjoys fishing with Elizabeth at nearby lakes.
This day, blinding, blowing snow in mid- January failed to separate the Nemeths from their daily chores of providing feed and bedding for the herd.
Larry stoked an outdoor wood burning boiler that heats the shops and three homes in the yard, while the Wielgosz couple checked newborn calves in the nursery barn and hauled bales into the yard.
The weather has not co-operated with the Nemeths in recent years, said Larry, citing wet spring conditions and a blistering hot July that downgraded crops.
All families own their own herds, homes and tracts of land, but Larry, Kristin and Stephen share farm machinery and farm close to 5,000 acres of land, including rented land where they grow canola, wheat, barley and oats.
Larry’s brother, Daniel, also operates his family farm but shares the machines and labour with the rest of the Nemeth clan.
Larry, who maintains a 50 head cow-calf herd, said it makes better use of machines that sit much of the year in sheds. It also keeps the younger generation from buying before they are financially able, they all agree.
“You can have a better machine and make more use of it instead of having two old machines,” he said.
Larry is as adept at carpentry as his father is at mechanics, and the Nemeths’ farm is largely self-sufficient.
Kathleen, who instructs classes in emergency first aid, calls herself the family organizer.
“I keep myself organized so I can be where they need me to be when they need me,” she said.
Kathleen thinks the family’s career choice in farming is based on a number of positives. The farm is established and the family has made good decisions and operates with good management, she said.
Both Leslie and Elizabeth say the prohibitive cost of starting a new farm is keeping many away.
“You can’t just jump in and out. It takes a lifetime,” Leslie said.
Kristin said the family farm opened doors for her just as it did for her father in 1972.
Leslie encouraged Larry to start farming with him rather than starting a new operation elsewhere, and now Larry said he is poised to step back to accommodate any of his four children’s present and future interests in farming.
In addition to Kristin, Larry’s daughter, Lisa, also has an interest in farming and has acquired land in the area.
Larry chose farming because of its endless variety. He keeps cattle to make use of marginal lands, provide year round work and keep in shape.
“It’s a way of life. You do so many different things, you’re always doing something different,” said Larry.
