Where did that banana come from?

Have you ever wondered or taken the time to think where your food comes from and who was all and what was all involved into producing it? I guess as a rancher I produce beef and know that story well… what about that banana? It to has a story and I guess if more people knew what it took to to grow it and what it did to the soil and water you might think twice about your eating decision. Contrary to what many think, bananas did not come from South America but rather came from southeast Asia. The banana and the industry around it has in many ways shaped the politics of central America and the term the banana republic certainly could not be more accurate http://www.mayaparadise.com/united_fruit_company.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana

We had a chance to tour some plantations and see first hand what the cultivation of this crop does in terms of soil erosion and what can happen in terms of water pollution.  Most Bananas are raised the conventional way but there are organizations that are trying t change how the crop is produced by looking at organic and more integrated approaches that are less detrimental to the environment. One such place we toured was Earth University.  http://www.earth.ac.cr/?lang=en At earth University students from around the world come to learn sustainable agriculture production systems so that they can go back to their perspective countries as agronomists and help to stimulate changes…. I know we learned a lot and I will never look at a banana again the same way.

THE PLANTATION

THE CHOP

THE BANANA TRAIN

THE SORT

THE LABEL

THE FAMILY TAKING IT ALL IN

Fix the Fence

Life on the ranch is pretty busy for most ranchers. Most work the equivalent of 14 months in a 12 month year …especially in the summer when it seems there is no shortage of daylight hours to burn… needless to say taking a holiday in the summer is often a difficult thing to do. In winter things slow down quite a bit and besides making sure the animals are well fed and cared for there is not as much to do… the only problem is trying to go camping with the kids is a bit tough when it is minus 20.  This year Erika and I have been married 10 years and so as celebration and as a way to get in some quality family time we took a winter vacation to Costa Rica. The kids had a 2 week break and the beef program goes into a bit of hibernation as we packed our bags an headed south. Yes we spent time on the beach, in the jungles and we saw a lot of country… however as any other rancher would do we also saw a lot of cows and saw another perspective of agriculture. Below is a clip of one of those adventures. It was long deserved and I certainly enjoyed all the one on one time we had together as a family….

 

2012 Alberta Beef Producers Environmental Stewardship Award

This past summer we were nominated for the Alberta Beef Producers Environmental Stewardship Award. In August a selection committee of 5 ABP members and staff came to our ranch and spent the day touring the pastures, forests, creeks and cows to see what Spirit View Ranch was all about. They came to see how we manage our pastures, look after our soils and water resources and in general how we look after our environmental impact of beef production. After our ranch the selection committee continued on to tour other ranches in Alberta. Three days later we were called and notified that we were selected as the recipients for the 2012 award. The award would be presented in December but before that they wanted to have a film crew come out and do a mini documentary about Spirit View Ranch.  In September the crew showed up on a beautiful fall day and thsi is the result. We are very honored and proud of this award and look forward to being ambassadors for the environment and the beef this province produces.

Family Fall Processing

When Erika and I started ranching it was Erika, I and the dog…working cattle was a chore and took some time because it was just the two of us. Then came the 1st child Pasco and it tool more time because now one of use had to where a back pack with a baby in it and work cattle…. then came the next and then another and another…..It seemed every time when we worked cattle it took a little longer getting the cattle processed …. however finally we have hit the tipping point…. and now our kids are becoming our crew. They are helping out in a big way and we are getting quicker and more efficient at getting cattle processed. Its a lot of fun working as a family and hopefully what they learn by helping us will instill some good work ethics later in their life….if we are lucky maybe even one or two new ranchers.

The Turkey Ranch

We are proud on know that on our ranch we have well over 130 different bird species that frequent, live or pass through our pastures and forests. Everything from common chickadees to ravens to owls, ducks, geese, falcons and eagles…. Till now however wild turkeys were not part of the mix….. well that is until last week. A friend of ours who does all our bale hauling usually takes the in winter off to hang out in Mexico and said he had a problem.  The problem it was were a flock of turkeys that moved into his yard and that had made themselves at home… they had become his pets and now he felt guilty that by him leaving for Mexico they might be frozen and starved turkeys if they were left alone in the Peace Country Winter…. So last week Erika and the kids went on a Turkey trapping expedition… needless to say they were successful and now they are a part of the Spirit View ranch scenery… very entertaining to say the least and we can safely say that they have adjusted well to the move.

Live from London

I am starting to sound like a Willie Nelson song….. On the Road Again.  I left on the 12^th of November and I am on a 2 week marketing trip to see importers, distributors and end users of our beef in Europe. Stopping countries include; Denmark, Germany, England, France, Switzerland and Italy. While I was just over here a month ago I had to come back to follow up with leads gained during the ANUGA food show and to line up our shipments for the coming year. It is a hectic pace, however not near as hectic as for Erika on the ranch.  All was fine and well when I left but we got a snow storm this past week and not only do we have 30 cm of fresh snow we now also have night time temperatures of minus 30!!!! Its times like this I really hate being gone… it’s a huge responsibility for Erika to look after… not only does she have 4 kids but 500 plus cows and as many calves and yearlings to look after. Needless to say the last week will go by quick and in the end all will work out fine. In the meantime I have to focus on the task at hand and that is to sell more beef and meet all our customers that are proud to be…. “part of something good”

It Was Wolves

After an extensive investigation and a good heap of evidence it was established by our Fish and Wildlife officers that the murder was committed by a pack of young wolves. This is not the first time that we have had wolves attack livestock on our ranch. Two years ago in June we lost a 3 month old calf and 2 years previous to this Erika was witness to 2 wolves tearing down a mule deer right in front of our house! How do we feel about this?…. Well I say shit happens and as long as it does not become a monthly occurrence we can live with it. We will be compensated for this kill and hope that it will be the last one for at least another 2 years. If it happens again then we will have to revert to either trapping, snaring or shooting them if we were lucky enough to see them. In other parts of Canada wolves are becoming more prevalent and the picture below comes from a wolf that was trapped at Risky Creek ranching west of Williams Lake B.C. Looking at his size you could imagine that he had a good appetite for Angus beef. Needless to say knowing we have wolves on our ranch tells us that we have good wildlife habitat and that’s a great feeling knowing that we have bio diverse lands.

Murder on the Ranch!

One of the things that I love the most about ranching is working and living with nature…. everyday there are things to discover and see as we go about our days raising and looking after cattle. From spring migrations to watching mating rituals of ducks to seeing moose calves born in our pastures along side the cows.  Having this abundance of wildlife also means we have an abundance of predators…. While we are always conscious about the predators ( Bears, Wolves, Coyotes and Cougars) they are not usually a problem. However every once in a while something does happen. Two years ago we lost a calf to wolves and this was the first time that this had ever happened….then everything stayed quite except for a few pesky coyotes… Last week while we were gone to our producer retreat our intern Eli woke up to find all the fresh weaned calves had been scattered through several fences during the night and when she came over the hill found a chewed up dead calf…We immediately called our fish and wildlife officers and began the CSI investigation… When Eli called I thought wolves, but upon closer investigation and skinning of the dead calves it became apparent that it looked like a cougar is in our midst. Cougars don’t normally go after calves but then again they have not been taught to read the text books either…. The investigation goes on and we hope to conclude thsi affair…. as far as getting the culprit, unless it happens again we will let him/ her be

Blowin the Lines

Water is one of our most precious resources and when you have a ranch you are very dependent on it to grow your grass but also to water your livestock. On our ranch we have completed numerous wetland restoration projects… in fact over 120… These wetlands are not only a windfall for the wildlife but also serve as backup reserves for our herds and help to grow a lot more grass if we have a drought. From these wetlands we use various techniques to water our cattle including solar water pumping and gravity flow systems. These all work well but nothing beats our pressurized water lines that feed all our pastures from the home base. In a nutshell we have running water like your house in our pastures… as far as 4 miles from the source!  This all works well until winter starts to set in the lines start to freeze where the lines come out of the ground. So every fall we must blow out the lines so that the lines don’t crack and most of all so we don’t have to wait till June for the lines to defrost and tart working again…. This year we got it just right… the day we blew he lines it was 6 degrees in the morning the next day it was minus 20.

Fall Cattle Drives

Well its that time of the year, when we start to bring cattle home from our grazing lease and outlying pastures….In some circumstances its to wean the calves and in others just to pull the bulls after the conclusion of the breeding season, to move the cows to new pasture and to booster vaccinate the calves. Depending on the distance and the area we have to drive cattle through, we may do it ourselves with our ranch crew and kids or we may call in the troops so to speak…. Yesterday we called in the help of the cowboys from the Birch Hills Hutterite Colony south of Wahnam, Alberta.  The drive went well, as we had the cattle ready to go in the corner of the lease in advance and once we got the herd stretched out we snaked our may to new pasture 6.5 km down the road.  Tomorrow we will move them another 5 km and then they will stay on the pastures till mid December. The calves fro our mature cows will stay on the cows till the start of March  – we have ample grass, and hay, so thought we would try something different rather than wean the calves in December like we have in past years due to drought.  here a a couple of videos from yesterday….It was cold , however when you have crews organized the show must go on.