EDMONTON — When rancher Patti Scott missed a couple of the neighbourhood cattle brandings this spring, friends wondered where she was.
With Scott’s face now on billboards, television and newspapers promoting Alberta beef, they now know what the Sundre, Alta., rancher was doing.
“I didn’t tell anyone. They’re all going to be shocked,” said Scott the day after the launch of RancHERS, an updated version of the popular “If it ain’t Alberta, it ain’t beef” promotion.
“I don’t want to go back to town,” said Scott, who is more comfortable at a branding than handing out promotional photos of herself.
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The three cowboys leaning against a corral fence in the last beef promotion have been replaced with women.
“They’re always fascinated with cowboys, I hope they’re fascinated with cowgirls,” said Scott of the worldwide attention the previous promotion received.
She is one of three women featured in the new advertisement.
After the day’s photo shoot, she wouldn’t trade her life as a rancher for one as a model.
“Never,” said Scott, who added the day was freezing and the wind howling at the Longview ranch where the photos were taken.
Scott’s friends entered her photo and ranching qualifications when they heard the Alberta Cattle Commission was seeking women ranchers for its promotion.
“My kids are thrilled,” Scott said.
The three women were chosen from more than 50 applications.
Industry involvement
Scott, Lenore McLean and Erin Butters are all active in the Alberta cattle industry, an important selection criteria, said Michael Bird, chair of the Alberta Cattle Commission’s beef promotion committee.
The women are expected to become ambassadors for the beef industry, said Bird after the campaign’s launch.
This summer the women will help promote Alberta beef at the Calgary Stampede and the World Championships in Athletics in Edmonton.
“They have fantastic histories and stories of their own,” he said.
Scott, a 37-year-old single mother of two, operates a Red Angus cow-calf operation northwest of Sundre. She comes from a long line of ranchers. For four generations, the Scotts have been an integral part of the success of the Glenbow Ranch west of Calgary. Scott’s great-grandfather Felix Desjardins rode in the first Calgary Stampede.
Erin Butters, 22, is a fifth generation rancher. The university student is an equal shareholder in Butters Ranching Ltd., a commercial cow-calf operation near Cochrane.
Butters’ great-great-grandfather, Everett C. Johnson, was the ranch foreman for the famous Bar U Ranch in Longview, Alta. He inspired author Owen Wister to write The Virginian, the first book to establish the cowboy as a folk hero.
Lenore McLean, 61, is a third generation rancher and operates a guest ranch near Longview.
In 1993, McLean received a commemorative medal from then Gov.-Gen. Ray Hnatyshyn for her contributions to her community and fellow Canadians.
Lenore’s grandfather, James Garson Bews, came from Scotland in 1889 with the Hudson’s Bay Co. to work in Edmonton.
The quarter section he lived on is now the site of Alberta’s legislature.
