MAYERTHORPE, Alta. – Harvey Hagman hasn’t second guessed his decision
to sell his calves in July.
“It wasn’t a hard decision to make. We couldn’t find any hay,” Hagman
said.
“We had to do it to survive.”
When he could find hay, the economics of feeding calves on expensive
feed didn’t make financial sense to Hagman. Instead of selling the
calves in December like he did most years, the calves were weaned and
sold during the summer like hundreds of other calves across Alberta.
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The flush of second growth in late summer allowed Hagman to keep his
350-cow herd intact.
“That was our lifesaver,” said Hagman, who had planned to sell at least
100 cows before the rain germinated the seed.
“It looked like there was no way out.”
Instead, the cow herd, established in 1964, spent the summer grazing on
the steady flush of new growth on the 3,000-acre farm he operates with
his wife Mary Ann near Mayerthorpe.
He has managed to stockpile enough silage and hay to last his cows
until next June. He silaged one field twice because of the second
growth.
While crops looked dismal in July, Hagman managed to combine 245 acres
of wheat in September and 180 acres of canola later in the fall.
The wheat yielded 33 bushels per acre, down from an average 41 bu. per
acre last year.
But what he lost in yield he made up for in price, a surprising
consolation during a tough year.
It looks like he will net around $7.25 a bu. for his number one wheat
this year, compared to $5 a bu. last year. His canola is locked in at
$10 a bushel, plus a $2 premium for the Nexera canola.
