MONTMARTRE, Sask. – When Bill Warnyca started selling purebred polled Herefords 30 years ago, he wanted to supply his neighbors with practical cattle that would work consistently in their herds.
In 1994, that’s still the main aim of W-T-K Polled Herefords although son Tom and daughter Kathy have taken over many of the breeding decisions of the 125-cow herd.
Breeding sound, functional cattle has meant W-T-K females and bulls sell provincially, nationally and internationally as well as to the Warnycas’ neighbors.
As Tom said,”we try to raise cattle that we can make a living with and the guy down the road can too.”
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Breeding and selling practical livestock may seem like a logical thing to do. But it doesn’t always win the prize ribbons, trophies and big money in the show ring – an arena sometimes criticized for rewarding extremes. Often the biggest and tallest animals win, not always the most practical.
But the Warnycas have been successful in winning ribbons too, not by breeding a special “show string” but by exhibiting the results of regular breeding decisions. They’ve won a number of championships at Agribition in Regina.
Last year the family was thrilled to have their home-grown bull, W-T-K Bond, named grand champion bull at the American Polled Hereford National Show in January in Fort Worth, Tex.
To a family operation like the Warnycas’, the win meant more exposure, more credibility, and more awareness of their breeding program. It has also meant that many of their bulls and females sold well during 1993 and are likely to continue to do so. Bond offspring have sold all over the world.
“It’s a win that a lot of Canadian breeders can take pride in and other family farm operations can identify with,” said Tom.
But the win won’t change W-T-K’s breeding priorities or decisions. Tom and Kathy spend hours on performance data and pedigrees, deciding which cow family and bull mating will result in good solid offspring that meet the W-T-K functional criteria.
Good calving ability
Tom said functional to him means good feet and legs, good udders and milk flow in females, good fertility, disposition and fleshing ability in both bulls and females. To Kathy, it means cows that calve by themselves, care for the calf, feed it and raise it.
Although keeping records on cows and bulls should mean a large degree of predictability, the purebred business is not a foolproof science. Not all the matings turn out exactly as desired.
“It’s also a business that takes some crystal-ball gazing as purebred people have to make breeding decisions which affect their business five years down the road,” said Tom, who was asked to judge at the 1994 American National Polled Hereford Show in Denver.
Must have people skills
The purebred business is also very much a “people” business – one of the aspects Kathy and Tom enjoy. Both attend numerous sales, chatting with fellow breeders, gathering information on pedigrees and how certain breeding lines work out.
Many fellow breeders come to the W-T-K production sale, an annual event for the last few years. It’s a family affair. Tom and Kathy select the sale cattle and help clip, Kathy takes the pictures of the cattle herself and designs the sale catalogue, Tom writes the foreword, Bill looks after fence and building maintenance and Michaelene, with her neighbor friends, bakes bushels of goodies for sale day.
The whole family enjoys visiting with neighbors and friends on sale day and whenever people drop by the farm.
But there’s more than just cattle to look after. The 3,200-acre farm is half crop, half pasture and hay land with cropping decisions to be made – which acres to sow to wheat, mustard, flax and feed grains.
“W-T-K is not a single enterprise,” said Kathy. “There’s fence to repair, hay to make and machinery to repair.”
And win or lose in the show ring, the herd values and goals of the Warnyca family remain the same.
“Our grandparents were people of the land and the soil, so are our parents – it just seems like the natural thing to do,” said Kathy.
