We get lots of e-mail around here and in late December we heard from Melissa Donald of Grandview, Man., whose life has been changed by the fallout from bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
“The effect of BSE is crippling our industry and our lives. But just for a moment this summer, everything seemed as it always had,” Donald said in her e-mail.
“No matter what happens to us, we still get up every morning, fix fence, feed cattle, move them to and from pastures and do the everyday business of running a ranch.”
Read Also
Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
Here is Donald’s story, This Herd of Cattle.
“As evening falls, out my window I can see some of our cattle. I watch them move to the creek for a drink, the calves following. I wonder about their future and the future of this ranch.
“On Friday we moved one of our smaller herds of Red Poll cattle to their summer pasture. They must go by my house on their way. Callie, my Shetland sheepdog, and I stood at the end of the lane to keep them from coming into the yard.
“They were led by one old cow who had been to this pasture many summers. She led the others straight for their pasture. Forty of them streamed by Callie and me, their hides a beautiful shade of red in the early morning sunlight.
“I recognized them all: the calves I had been up with all night and their mothers that I had helped bring into the world. I fell in behind them because I was loath to let them leave my line of vision.
“For 20 years I have made these cattle my business. I, along with my husband and brother-in-law, have nursed them, babied them, vaccinated and calved them. We have worked hard building this herd from 60 mismatched animals to 170 head of purebred Red Polls and Maine Anjou. We have sold breeding stock across this country and if the borders do not open for Canadian cattle it will all have been for nothing.
“My husband looks a little greyer, my brother-in-law looks worried and I am tired. Of all who moved that herd on Friday, Callie looks the same. She has the same enthusiasm, the same cheery look in her bright little eyes. As far as she is concerned, there will always be cattle to herd on a warm Friday morning at Mill Hill Ranch.
“As the last of the 40 go through the gate she spins and jumps and barks: ‘Look at me! Look what I did! I moved all these cows by myself!’
“For the first time in three weeks, we all laugh. We watch the cows graze and the calves nurse and for a moment in time all seems right with the world.
“Please remember, Canadian beef is safe.”
