Tough Road Ahead For Some Alberta Ranchers

Aug 13, 2021

To say that folks attending Ag-Smart in Olds this week were glad to be back together again, would be a serious understatement.

There was a level of excitement at the two-day conference that wrapped up Wednesday afternoon that was certainly palatable. The conference featured some fantastic speakers and displays and although it was a little cool and rainy at the start, no one seemed to care. Congratulations to the folks at Olds College for hosting such a great event. Some of that excitement was certainly tempered by the ongoing drought across western Canada this summer.

Crops around Olds aren't too bad, one of those few areas of Alberta that got rain at the right time Drive an hour south or a couple of hours east and the story is very different for farmers and ranchers. Ranchers are facing some very difficult choices right now, choices that could determine the future of their ranch for many years to come. There's little or no feed available and what is available is going for top dollar, in some cases to ranchers in Montana and North Dakota.

As one long-time rancher told me, word of federal and provincial money to help the industry won't suddenly make feed available and might actually raise the price of the stuff that's available, because the seller knows there's government money involved. He told me for ranchers unwilling to make the tough choice now, to cull their herds, including breeding stock, could lead to more problems weeks and months from now, especially if we head into the winter with little or no rain between now and then.

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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.