Anne Dunford can still remember the incident. New in the job as market analyst for Canfax, she was speaking to a group of producers in northern British Columbia. It was one of her first times behind the podium and she was not overly confident.
She talked about markets and asked for questions.
An old rancher at the back of the room rose to his feet. “You know, the only thing wrong with the cattle market is women like you don’t stay home and cook more beef.”
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Dunford was speechless. She stood there, and after a moment asked for the next question.
“He sure got a greenhorn there,” laughs Dunford.
After almost 10 years of analyzing cattle markets, she no longer gets such comments and can spar with the most difficult audience.
“Now I’ll take them right on.”
Provides predictions, summaries
As senior analyst with Canfax, the Canadian cattle market information service, Dunford is contacted daily by cattle producers, feedlot operators and politicians, who depend on her cattle price predictions and weekly market summaries.
From the time Dunford’s day starts in the Calgary office, she is studying Canadian and American markets, watching the Canadian dollar, monitoring futures prices and trying to predict what it all means to producers.
About 80 percent of her time is spent on the telephone, talking with Canfax members. After years of monitoring cattle markets, she finds it’s not difficult to predict the usual ebbs and flows in the markets.
It is in the grey areas where Dunford’s experience in interpreting the market signals comes through. “I ride a lot on the feel.”
Experience doesn’t make Dunford infallible. A run of correct predictions can easily be followed by a miscalculation.
“The market just doesn’t let you get powerful. No one will ever know the market.”
Even though she doesn’t always call the markets correctly, she loves the unpredictability of her job.
Dunford got her market education through the industry. She grew up in a small Alberta community and moved to Calgary after high school.
Working up the ladder
In 1980, she landed a job as a secretary with the Alberta Cattle Feeders Association, then hopped over to a secretarial position at the Alberta Cattle Commission.
Not content to remain a secretary, Dunford learned more about the markets and was given more responsibility.
Five years after taking the secretarial position with the cattle feeders, good timing and determination got her a position as a market analyst with Canfax – the first female in the position in its 25-year history and one of a handful in North America.
Dunford says she was “tested” by cattle producers and industry specialists but looking back, she doesn’t think the testing was because she was a woman.
Any new analyst would have received the same treatment.
Her best advice to women who ask her about market career choices is to develop a thick skin and go after the job. “It’s not gender specific.”
