ECKVILLE, Alta. – Bunny and Stuart Caton carried on a tradition last weekend that has been in their family for 100 years – farming at Eckville.
It’s a matter of family and a matter of survival.
“There are easier ways to make a living. Ways where you get time off and more recreational time with your kids. But there aren’t too many lifestyles like this one either,” Bunny said.
The Caton Creek Farm has grown from two quarters in 1903 to eight, with a purchase two years ago of 160 acres.
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“The difference is that in 1903 that much land would support eight families and there would be eight families to farm it,” Stuart said.
Bunny pointed out that “now it’s just one and half people farming that much land.”
The couple along with their two children, Cody, 17, and Teala, 13, background calves from their 260 cows. Their herd number is up this year because of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and its destruction of the cull cow market.
“This farm has been up and down. It survived poor health, it went through the 1930s. It’s seen low cattle and grain prices, but still it carried on. This year is about the toughest we’ve seen though,” said Stuart.
“In 1921, Grandpa had to sell a quarter of land and 80 cows, that seems like a lot, to pay for a trip to Rochester for throat surgery. It took him nine years to buy that land back. The shed blew down in 1981. Each time we got hit hard, the neighbours were there to help, and we kept on going,” he said.
Today the couple says despite the damage BSE is causing the Canadian cattle industry and having to pull their cattle from the community grazing range because of drought and grasshoppers, they are going to keep farming.
“One hundred years and probably most of it good. You have to think about the good and survival,” said Bunny.
Survival in the past 25 years has come in large part due to Stuart’s hoarding mentality, she said.
“He hoards everything, especially feed and bedding,” she said, while pointing out the family’s dining room window toward a row of canola bales made from their neighbours’ lost crop in 2002.
Drought may have forced the couple’s cattle off pasture three months early and 60 extra cows are still chewing their cuds in home pasture, but as a result of “farmer hoarding for tough times, we’ll have enough feed to carry the cattle through the winter.
“That’s how we last,” she said.
Self-sufficient
The couple uses most of their seeded acreage to supply the cattle with winter feed.
“We don’t very often haul (grain) to town,” said Stuart.
They choose to spread calving over three months starting in February to accommodate spring seeding and to beat the often muddy spring conditions of the Rocky Mountain foothills.
A heated calving barn helps reduce losses in the coldest part of winter.
The Catons say the life of their farm and that of Eckville have been intertwined so much that “writing our history (for an anniversary celebration held Aug. 23) is a lot like writing that of the neighbours or the community as whole,” said Bunny.
“The Eckville Credit Union is 65 years old and for most of that time a Caton has been on the board. Grandpa was on the first board and Stuart served for 20 some years,” she said.
“I think some of that time, with intimate knowledge of what was happing on other people’s farms, might be where some of Stuart’s hoarding comes from.”
Horses are another tradition for the Catons.
“There were horses here as work horses in 1903 and we still have horses today. Different horses, but they still work,” she said.
Four years ago the couple started a new farm venture with the purchase of some Andalusian horses. The rare horse of Spanish kings is part of what the couple hope will be the future of their farm.
They don’t plan any bullfighting for their horses, but do offer breeding services from their stud and have a few mares and produce Quarter horse crosses for sale to recreational and ranch riders.
“We’d hoped to grow that part of the farm, but the BSE is keeping a lid on any growth plans for another year or two,” said Stuart.
