BASHAW, Alta. — When Jess and Cindy Hudson’s children asked for a quad, the family sat down for a meeting.
If the children wanted the four-wheeled toy, Cindy would have to go back to work as a teacher to pay for it. The family had to choose between her staying home or going to work.
In the end the children, Evan, 10 and Lane, 8, decided they could do without a quad.
You have to involve your kids in the goal setting, said Cindy, who added it felt good to have the children understand that their wants have a consequence.
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These kinds of tough choices and goal setting have allowed the Hudsons to raise a family without working off the farm.
“It’s been a hard go. We’ve made do with less. We drive old vehicles to allow us to meet other goals,” said Jess, whose 23-year-old farm truck left him stranded a week earlier.
But for $1,000 he repaired the truck and he’s not working away from the farm to make payments on a new one.
Their goal is to find a balance between earning a living on the farm and spending time together as a family.
The 300 quiet Red Angus-Shorthorn cows are bred to a Gelbvieh bull for easy calving so the family is not burned out after calving season and
doesn’t need to hire additional help.
The cows calve in April and May to lower the cost of feed and eliminate the worry of the calves freezing at night.
During the winter the cows graze on swaths to lower the cost of putting up feed and allow the family to take a few days away from the farm.
“We plan and choose how we lead our lives,” said Jess. Each year the family makes a point of taking a holiday. Not to Disneyland, but usually to camp and hike at a provincial park.
“We want to show the kids the farm isn’t a prison,” he said.
Balancing act
Since the couple began to set goals and make priorities, their lives have become more balanced and not like the treadmill they were on, said Cindy.
“I don’t think we lack.”
Cindy grows a large garden to help lower the grocery bill.
“Our needs are all met, easily,” said Jess.
“We enjoy our jobs and our lifestyle. We don’t want to go back and work to subsidize the farm. We’ve done that and you run yourself crazy,” he said.
Part of spending time together as a family is working together on the farm. The children help move cows, open gates and ride horses with their parents. They’ve switched to branding calves the old-fashioned way on horseback to turn the event into a social occasion with the neighbors.
Both Jess and Cindy help in their children’s school. Cindy is chair of the school council and helps lobby government and the local school board. Jess is past-president of the Bashaw Agricultural Society and they’re both active in the local Catholic church.
“We both like to be involved in the community. We both like to make a difference,” he said.
Their life wasn’t always as planned.
Jess grew up on a farm near High River, on the outskirts of Calgary. When they lost the lease of some land, they had to either quit farming or find new land. In 1994, they moved to their present location with 320 acres. They rent land to graze cattle throughout the summer. Because of their limited land base, they make the most of each acre by using electric fences to rotate the cattle around the pastures.
They test all their feed and buy hay that complements their own feed.
Their central Alberta farm location is becoming more popular and they are forced to travel farther to rent pasture and hay land. Some of their fields are 160 kilometres from home because of the tremendous bidding war for pasture among cattle producers.
It’s hard to rent $1,500-per-acre land and justify that with a cow herd, Jess said.
Because of the high land prices, the couple works closely with a budget. They plan a profit in their yearly budget after cost of living expenses are removed.
“At least we don’t take care of the bills and live on the leftovers,” he said.
“We’re not living off someone else’s plan.”
