Alberta Farmer Participates in #fromthefield Spotlight Series

Jun 18, 2013

Alberta Farmer Participates in #fromthefield Spotlight Series

It is time to shine the spotlight on growers who have not only been doing an exceptional job at farming, but multitasking to be self-reporters from their fields. Brandon Gibb is one of those farmers who have been tweeting #fromthefield sharing pictures of his crop progress. I encourage you to take the time to read his profile and follow his tweet reports.

Farm name: R&B Gibb Farms LTD
Twitter handle: @rbgibbfarms
Location (i.e. state, province or region): Southwestern Alberta
Types of crops grown: Wheat, barley canola and hay

How has using Twitter enhanced your farming business?
Since using Twitter, access to information has become easily accessible. I find that questions can be answered much quicker and being engaged in topics helps me to learn new ways of doing things.

What is an interesting fact about your farming operation?
I am 31 years old, and we are a 5th generation farm. I bought the farm four years ago with help from my parents and we have since doubled in size. We are currently at around 1,000 acres and also run 40 cow calf pairs. I also do field management for what I believe is the largest grain farmer in Canada. Hengerer Farms LTD. This farm operates roughly around 80,000 to 85,000 acres - it keeps me busy in addition to my own farm. I do all my own spraying and harvesting, as well as raising a family with my wife and two young sons ages three and one.

On a side note, I went to University at BYU- Idaho and got a B.S. in Agronomy. I have had the opportunity to work in intensive potato production in Michigan and Idaho - this taught me a lot about intensive farming.

What makes you proud to farm?
What makes me most proud to farm is the growing processes of seeing seeds planted develop into a crop that can be harvested.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.