CRESTWYND, Sask. – Not many university students can say they spent the day moving cows, artificially inseminating them and then driving 250 kilometres, round trip, to write a final exam in the evening.
Jordan Newhouse did that last week. And he’ll probably do it again.
The 20-year-old is running 40 purebred Red Angus cows, 110 Angus cross commercial cows, taking a business degree at the University of Regina and playing junior football.
When people comment on his schedule he jokes he’s burning three ends of a candle.
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“I like to keep busy,” he said.
But he clearly understands responsibility.
Newhouse has maintained this workload for the last three years with help from family and neighbours – although he is the only resident of the township in this rural area southwest of Moose Jaw.
His family bought the ranch on the north side of Old Wives Lake in 1996. They already owned pasture near Shaunavon, Sask., where they ran cows in the summer; an uncle at Frontier looked after them in winter.
Rock Creek Ranching was named for the creek on the Shaunavon property and the name was retained when the new property was bought.
Since he was 10, Newhouse made the trek with his dad Glen from their Regina home to the ranch. He, his older brother Jamieson, now a banker in Rosetown, Sask., and younger sister Rebecca, who is finishing high school this year, all became involved in the Old Wives 4-H Club and in ranch life while remaining city kids.
All three are partners in the purebred herd they started in 1999. They were successful right out of the gate when they won senior champion bull at their first Regina Bull Sale. An older sister is studying opera in France.
Jamieson lived at the ranch and ran it until he completed his education and moved. Jordan took over when he finished high school. He said ranching was his dad’s dream but one the children embraced.
Glen, who was well known in rural Saskatchewan as president of Buffalo Oil, was diagnosed with cancer in 1998, just two years after buying the second ranch. He died in August 2004.
“Dad, he believed running a farm is like running a business,” Newhouse said.
He tries to incorporate what he learned from his dad with his own ideas.
He sells about 10 bulls each year right off the ranch or at the Regina Bull Sale, and purebred females at an Angus sale in Saskatoon. Calves are usually marketed through Heartland Livestock.
Newhouse would like to take a more value-added approach with the calves. He has plans to improve the ranch facilities and start backgrounding calves.
He practises rotational grazing and advocates a low-input style of ranching. He doesn’t have the equipment necessary to put up feed, and haying conflicts with football season, so a neighbour does all the hay for both of them in return for half of the production.
Newhouse buys grain as needed.
He estimates he puts on about 60,000 kilometres a year travelling to school, football and the Shaunavon ranch.
Together, the two ranches total about 3,000 acres. Newhouse also uses the Old Wives community pasture. He gets to the Shaunavon ranch once every couple of weeks to check cows. Otherwise, a neighbour does that.
The cattle are grazed until January and fed through the winter. The purebred cows calve from January to mid-March. The commercial herd calves on grass in April.
Newhouse rides through the pastures on horseback twice a day. Branding in June is also done with horsepower.
Newhouse said he doesn’t get lonely living alone on a ranch in a sparsely populated area. He admits it’s neither the lifestyle nor location most 20-year-olds would choose.
“School is kind of a social event,” said the marketing major.
He doesn’t take a full course load and was able last semester to schedule his classes into two full days. He also takes summer classes and will complete his degree in two years.
Newhouse attends university on a football scholarship. He played two years with the university’s Rams team and was an Academic All-Canadian both years for maintaining at least an 80 percent average.
The linebacker switched to Regina’s junior team, the Thunder, last year to get more playing time but broke his arm halfway through the season. He had to work rehabilitation into his hectic schedule.
Spring camp for this season begins this weekend.
While he foresees the day when he won’t be playing football, and he’ll get a job in marketing, he can’t imagine not ranching.
“It’s good work, rewarding,” he said. “You can see every day what you’ve accomplished.”
