Women in Simmental Country
Transcription
Women in Simmental Country
Women in Simmental Country Written by Lee Hart In-laws have a great bond at Mader Ranches R onda and Jill Mader are a generation apart, only related by marriage, but when it comes to hard work, commitment to family and the ranch business, they are like two peas of the same pod. As mother and daughter-in-law, respectively, at Mader Ranches, both ladies appreciate the challenges of sometimes being pulled in six (or more) different directions within a day — working at off-ranch careers, raising young children, attending school and sports activities, getting meals on the table, looking after a household, tending to the books and record keeping, helping out with cattle and the ranch when needed, being involved with marketing livestock, guests to welcome to the ranch, yard work to tend to; the list goes on. It is any of these activities in a combination that happen during the day. Yet when asked, both agree, The Ladies of Mader Ranches “I don’t think it is any different for me,” says Jill, who married Ryley, the youngest of the three Mader children, in 2007. The pair now have two children of their own, Stella, 6, and Hawkin, who is coming up 4. “My main focus is our children, but I still have my work with the ranch, and marketing cattle. I help out where I can; family comes first but I still want to be a part of the ranch and contribute to the decision making, so it can be a challenge to make it all work. But it just does.” “Nothing special going on here, it’s just what we do.” Both Ronda and Jill admit they married workaholics, so it was pretty hard to not get swept up in a non-stop routine — always another chore to attend to, to keep the family and ranch business moving forward. Mader Ranches is a second, coming-on-third, generation family operation producing and marketing prize-winning Simmental cattle, for more than 30 years. Jill, Ryley and their kids live in the main yard, while Ronda and Randy built a new home, just down the road, a few years ago. The herd has grown over the years, today standing at roughly 260 head of red and black Simmental females and they market about 100 bulls per year. Randy started with Simmentals in 1973 on his family’s ranch near Okotoks, just south of Calgary. He and Ronda married in 1977. Ronda was born and raised on a mixed ranching operation with Saler cattle near Carstairs. She obtained her degree in education, and Randy obtained his bachelor of Commerce “Probably the biggest challenge was trying to juggle everything,” degree, both at the University of Calgary. says Ronda, a retired teacher, who along with husband Randy “We didn’t know each other at university,” says Ronda. “We established Mader Ranches, located west of Carstairs, in 1984. actually met at a cattle sale in 1976 and were married 10 months “On our ranch it doesn’t matter if it is Saturday or Sunday, if there later.” She did point out one little story about the courtship. was work to do you did it.” They met in the late fall, but Randy didn’t call Ronda again until January because he didn’t want to spend money on a Christmas present — apparently everything worked out well after that. In their own breeding program they use a lot of A.I. and embryo transfer work to improve their own herd’s genetics at a faster rate. The ranch will be hosting its 28th Annual Bull Sale, held in mid-February in 2017. Mader Ranches has two calving seasons. This year for example, about 190 head calved in January and February, while roughly 70 head will calve in June and July. They’ve been expanding the summer calving herd over the past eight years. The Mader family raised cattle, while Ronda taught school full time in communities near Calgary in the early days. In 1984 they bought property west of Carstairs and moved there in 1985. Randy and Ronda have three children, Robyn, 33 who obtained an agriculture business degree in Texas, Rayel, 31, a hairdresser, who owns a real estate company in the Carstairs area, and Ryley, 29. He actually completed the land agent program at Olds College, but quickly decided to focus on the beef business. “Part of it has to do with spreading out the workload in the winter, so not everything is calving in that January and February period,” says Jill. “Part of it too, is to produce those over-age bulls, that are about 18 months of age when they go into service. More commercial operations are looking for those bigger, slightly older bulls that can service more cows.” Mader Ranches is in transition. Succession of the ranch from Ronda and Randy to Jill and Ryley is well underway. Jill and Ryley took on half of the ranch ownership in 2012, and plans are in place to complete the transfer over the coming years. Along with the ranch, Ronda taught school for 30 years, including 16 years working part time while the children were in school. Along with the beef operation, Randy has been involved as a successful real estate agent for the past 20 years. They’ve also always had a full time employee over the years helping with ranch work. Chase Miller is now part of the team, helping Ryley with much of the day-to-day operations. Jill was born and raised on her family ranch, in Sedgewick, Alberta, south east of Edmonton. The ranch produced mostly commercial cattle with some purebred Simmental. She attended the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) in Edmonton, to obtain a business diploma, with a major in marketing. After college she worked as an events co-ordinator for Northlands Exhibition in Edmonton, quite involved in planning Farmfair International. The matchmakers in Jill and Ryley’s relationship were Jill’s brother Jaron, and Ryley’s sister Robyn. Jaron and Robyn knew each other, and decided that Jill and Ryley should meet. The couple will have been married for nine years in 2016. When Jill first moved to Carstairs area she worked in the office of DynAgra, a southern Alberta-based ag retailer, and services company “I really enjoyed being there, but realized my heart wasn’t in the crop side of the industry,” she says. So when she and Ryley were planning their own family, she joined Mader Ranches full time. While Mader Ranches has had Simmental cattle since the beginning, it also ran a herd of Saler cattle for several years. It’s another good breed, but with more market demand for Simmental, the Saler cattle have been phased out over the years. “We’ve always had red and black Simmentals and the focus has been on producing good quality cattle that work for the commercial cow-calf operator” says Jill. “Our focus is on producing cattle with calving ease, good feet and legs, good fertility, and being over all easy keepers.” While Ronda says she will always be part of the ranch she is pleased to see it transferring to such a capable next generation. “I see in Jill the same commitment and values that I had when we were starting out,” says Ronda. She’s glad to be able to take things at a bit slower pace. There were plenty of hectic days of teaching school part-time and later as a substitute teacher, then picking up her own kids and getting them to sporting activities, helping with 4-H projects. Then coming home, preparing an evening meal, (the family always had dinner together), and then perhaps looking after some paper work or record keeping for the ranch. Ronda also helped out with Randy’s long-running real estate business — plenty of phone calls to answer, and around the ranch she helped out on days when needed. “I was always the other person.” “ We’ve always had lots of visitors with the purebred cattle too,” she says. “They were people coming to look at the livestock, or for other Simmental Association activities. I’ve always been a firm believer in education, so we often had students or young people (national and international) stay with us anywhere from one to three months, to learn about the beef industry in Alberta.” Ronda was also quite involved in preparing for and attending shows and sales such as Edmonton’s Farmfair, Canadian Western Agribition in Regina as well as more local events such as the Olds Fall Classic. Of course there was preparing catalogue material for their own annual sale, which for the past four years has been held at home in one of the expanded, and renovated buildings on then ranch. main yard so when visitors come, we have these great facilities where we can showcase our livestock.” As the ranch moves through succession, Ronda’s not leaving that all behind, but she is pleased to see Jill take on many of the responsibilities. Jill’s background in marketing for example, has been a huge asset in taking photographs and organizing material for their annual sale catalogue. Jill designs their own catalogue as well as providing design services for other breeders and ranch advertising. Jill’s house is now the hosting house for buyers, visitors and longer-stay guests. “For ourselves, everyone gathers at my kitchen table every morning to plan what’s ahead for the day,” says Jill. While with two young children and other office responsibilities she’s also available to help out with the cattle as needed. Another highlight over the years has been having the opportunity to travel and that’s something she’s hoping to do more of. She and Randy travelled quite a bit involved in the Simmental business, to attend events, meet buyers, or look at cattle in France, Australia and New Zealand as well as across Canada. In 2004 they spent 23 days on the road travelling across Canada visiting clients and commercial producers. “I love to travel and I think it is one of the best forms of education. The kids often travelled with us,” she says. “So I’m hoping we can do it more. I like just going to meet clients as we deliver bulls in various parts of Western Canada, but it is also great to get out and see other parts of the world.” She and Randy have already made trips to Africa and China as non-ranch related vacations, but there are many more locales on the list. Plans are also underway to see Jill and Ryley travel to a major livestock show in Australia in 2018. Jill and Ronda have a genuine mutual admiration and respect for each other’s talents, abilities and support. “We owe so much to Ronda and Randy for helping us to get started in the beef industry,” says Jill. “For a young couple today it is extremely difficult, and we couldn’t have done all that we have without them.” Highlights for Jill over the years includes meeting some excellent people and establishing lifelong friendships from all beef breeds as they attend shows and sales. “It can be hectic at times, but we do it all as a family,” she says. “Sometimes we’re leaving a show while Ronda and Randy are just arriving to take on the next shift.” While they’ve placed in the top five and top 10 several times at major livestock shows such as Farmfair and Agribition, she says she’s hoping one day to have cattle in the Supreme Grand Champion spotlight. She and Ryley have also established themselves as respected livestock judges, and judge as a team at events such as Farmfair, Agribition and the Royal Winter Fair. Jill says it was also a highlight for her to see the Annual Mader Ranches Bull Sale finally held at the ranch. “We had to renovate one of the buildings, and we wondered if anyone would travel out to the ranch, but it has been a success every year,” she says. They host up to 300 buyers and guests the day of the sale. It was originally a live-animal auction with each bull moved through the ring, but they’ve now changed it to a video sale — becoming common in the industry. Jill spends weeks prior to the sale videotaping bulls that will be on offer, and those videos of each animal are played for buyers on a screen in the sale barn. Again, her marketing, communications, and public relation skills have made for an excellent fit. For Ronda, there have been many highlights over the years. She was particularly pleased to see facilities developed in just the past year to create a Bull Development Centre at the main ranch headquarters, which she can see from her dining room window. In the past bulls have been raised at another, nearby location. “Now we’ve developed the corrals and shelters right here at the “It is great to see so many young, capable people involved not just in the Simmental breed but the beef industry in general,” says Ronda. She is particularly pleased to see a third generation of “Mader Ladies” taking an interest in the beef industry. Granddaughter, Stella, along with her dad took a heifer to the Olds Spring Classic, this past April. Stella will be taking part in Summer Synergy and Cow Camp in Olds this summer as well. “We are glad to encourage the next generation to be involved in the fun and camaraderie that is a big part of the Simmental and cattle business.” “There is great opportunity and potential for the future of this industry,” she adds. “And closer to home, I think we are pretty lucky — I’d say Ryley married perfect in finding someone like Jill. It is great when you can find someone who shares the same passion and love in what you’re doing.”