EDMONTON – Maybe Barry Strachan stepped in one too many cow pies or fixed one too many fences, but while working on a British Columbia ranch near 100 Mile House, Strachan decided to make a board game about raising cattle.
“I thought maybe I should make up a game about this stuff and all these different obstacles,” said Strachan during Farmfair International where his board game Raising Cattle debuted.
When he designed the game, Strachan took real life obstacles and placed them around the board: broken fences, BSE, poachers, step in cow pies, grasshopper infestation, American-Canadian border closed and cow stuck in a swamp.
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“I’ve worked on ranches all my life and gone through all these obstacles,” said Strachan.”I don’t know how many cows I’ve pulled out of a swamp.”
At the beginning of the game, each player starts with 10 hay cards. Each time players go around the board, they collect a calf card. To win, players must have 12 calf cards and one bull card. Bull cards can be won through landing on a cow pie square and picking a card from the pile.
Strachan said it took 21/2 years of designing and redesigning to get the board completed and the right look to the goofy cow and its barnyard friends. The finished game came off the assembly line two days before Farmfair, which was held in Edmonton Nov. 5-13.
He said so far the game has had a lot of positive comments from the farmers and ranchers at Farmfair and the Canadian Finals Rodeo.
“The reception has been really good.”
If it becomes a best seller, Strachan might even buy a bigger ranch, he said.
