Vic and Winnie Rowley are in their mid- and late 80s; they want to stay on their central Alberta farm as long as they can
CLIVE, Alta. — At 88 and 86 years old, Vic and Winnie Rowley have no intention of retiring and moving off the farm.
“I like to go to town in the morning for coffee and that’s it,” said Vic, from his farm north of Clive, Alta.
“I don’t think I’d like living in town. It would be pretty hard. It’s a different lifestyle. Why leave? We have a nice home. We’re surrounded by dairies. If we wanted to sell out, we could sell it for pretty good money, but I want to stay here.”
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“Who wants to live in town?” said Winnie. “As long as we can, we’ll stay here.”
The only concession to retirement for the couple is sending their 30 head of Red Angus cattle to their son’s farm for calving.
“I thought it was really hard to let the cattle go, but I couldn’t look after them,” said Vic, who gets around the farm in his truck and side-by-side.
He is looking forward to the cattle coming back home this summer to graze in the pasture surrounding their home.
“I can drive around and check them.”
Cattle have been part of Rowley’s life forever. He was raised on the same farm that once belonged to his father and grandfather. For 35 years, the family had 60 head of dairy cattle, but sold the herd and quota in 1985 when Vic got sick. By the next year, his health improved and he bought Black Angus cattle and have continued in Angus cattle since.
“I didn’t know anything about the Angus business when I got into the Angus business,” he said, but he picked it up well.
“It was a really good herd. I bought a lot of good cattle from a lot of good people.”
In the 1970s, Vic took a course in artificial insemination and just happened to buy semen from two of the best bulls in the business at that time, Traveler and Sunset.
The calves from the bulls were in high demand and eventually became the foundation for his herd.
“They turned out just great,” he said about the cows that calved easily and grew quickly.
One bull in his herd produced both Red and Black Angus calves. A farmer from High Level, Alta., bought all the Black Angus cattle and the couple began to specialize in Red Angus.
“He likes black and I like red and the red sold well, “ said Winnie.
In 2011, a stroke limited Vic’s mobility, but with help from family, they continued to farm and raise cattle.
“It is hard to retire,” he said.
Winnie said they would like to do more travelling, but have plans to rebuild fences around the farm this summer.
“I used to travel, but when we could do more travelling and have more fun, we were too busy making a living,” she said, adding it isn’t as easy to travel now.
“I’d like to go to Newfoundland,” said Vic. “We went to the Maritimes a few years ago and travelled around for three weeks. It was the best holiday we ever had.”
