There is a story to be told.

The ranch is a busy place and at times hectic. It provides achievement, joy, fulfillment, entertainment, frustration and sorrow. I firmly believe that staying true to my values on which this ranch is built translates into a bison product that I believe is of superior quality.

I want to share my journey with you.

“Get an education”, they said.

So, what is a 17-year-old to do coming out of high school with no real idea of what to do in life?  My parents, bless their hearts, did not really care as long as I continued my education.  That meant college for me as my grades were never good enough to even attempt application at a university. I was never a good student. Short attention span, no interest in what I was learning, etc, etc. I wanted to be outside.

What to take? What to take? Bless my parents again, they told me what to take, specifically my mother did. Early Childhood Development it was.  I received my diploma from Grant McEwan College, as it was called then, in 1995; however, while participating in this program I realized it was not for me.  During the last half of the program I was faced again with the question of what to do.  But somewhere inside of me I knew I wanted to get involved with animals and farming.

From this point I was on my own.  My parents had a market garden and greenhouse operation and the only animals we had on the farm as kids were dogs and occasionally some ducks and geese. But like every little girl I always wanted a pony, so maybe something to do with horses would be nice. Never owned one, never rode one, but OK! Where does one go to learn about horses? University? Never thought that maybe getting a horse would be a better starting place. 

In 1995 I applied to and much to my surprise, was accepted at the University of Alberta in the Department of Agriculture.  It was my full intention to get involved in the horse and/or beef industries and keep in mind, I had never been around livestock up to this point in my life.  The first two years were a struggle academically.  I also discovered that finding the direction I wanted to go in was proving to be difficult. But I was determined in my goal and had to find ways to achieve it.

In looking for a summer job I placed an ad in an agricultural newspaper looking for work on a cattle and/or horse farm to gain work experience.  I received phone calls from a few horse stables and one cattle producer but none of them seemed to resonate with me.  This was not looking good.  Then, early one morning I received a phone call from a farmer in Saskatchewan who said he saw my ad and he could offer me a summer job. Ok, sounding good so far.  Asked him what kind of on operation he had and his reply was “I have 300 bison and 150 elk”. Silence. “Oh, and one horse. Your ad said you wanted to work with horses. I might still have some cattle but I will have to check with my brother.  They are at his place”. Silence. “Well, do you want to work for me?”

Bison and elk? People farm those?  This was sounding interesting. I did accept his offer and ended up working for him for two summers while attending UofA.  It wasn’t very long into my first summer working there that I never thought of horses or cattle again.  Bison and elk were way too interesting to turn away.  This first summer job kickstarted my passion for bison.  By focusing on them I started to meet the most interesting people, many of whom have been mentors for me.  I would not be doing what I am if not for them.

Funny what happens when you find true interest in something. I was a struggling student all my life but I graduated from the UofA in 2000 with a Bachelor’s of Science with Distinction in Agriculture.  Once I found interest in what I was learning it all turned around.  Then, in 2001 I was presented with the opportunity to attend the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan to study towards a Masters of Science. I could not pass up this opportunity and in 2005 I received my Masters of Science in reproductive physiology of bison. Specifically, my research looked into the onset of puberty and seasonal fertility of bison bulls. 

Although the education was an important part of leading me to where I am, it was only a part of it.  When I get asked what I got out of my University education I say people.  It’s the people I met along the way that really fired my passion with their passions for what they did. 

Ranchers I worked with that had their animals in my research project, one of whom became a mentor for me as I stepped into the ranching side of things. This has led me to now become a student of regenerative agriculture.  Health of the land and the environment is key to my business.  Professors that were truly interested in teaching what they were studying.  Most notably I remember my professors that taught Diversified Livestock and the Meat Science classes.  As a result I worked at getting certificates from Lakeland College in Diversified Livestock and Retail Meat Cutting from Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.  My dedication for bison as a species and as wildlife was instigated when I met, who at the time, was a park warden at Elk Island National Park. Taught me that these animals need to be preserved as they evolved here. 

I would never have thought that when I embarked on my education it would lead me to where I am today.  Growing up on a vegetable farm the most common question I get asked is “what made me get into bison”.  The simple answer is the ad that I put in the Western Producer so many years ago but the real answer is much more complex.  It is a series of choices got me to where I am today managing a herd of 150 bison and running a retail meat business. 

However, not too long ago I started to wonder if fate had a hand in my life. 

Getting into bison was a very conscious decision.  I took employment opportunities, picked the classes and approached the people.  I was never a real believer in other powers out there.  Life is a result of decisions you make…..or is it? I wondered once, why bison? Never really thought of them before and to be honest, when I was involved with both bison and elk I had a preference for elk. Then it struck me, What if that moment in Elk Island National Park some 20 years earlier had a hand?

We lived an hour outside of Edmonton and my parents drove us to school every day into the City.  My parents wanted the best for us so we were enrolled in the Waldorf program.  Country kids in a city school.  For me it was a challenge.  I always just wanted to be outside. One weekend the school decided to go on a camping trip to Elk Island National Park, just outside of the city.  For my classmates this was really exciting.  They got to leave the city.  For me it was still exciting but I experienced something I never had before.  Being outside with a big forest and someone telling me where I could and could not go. 

As teachers do they want to make these trips educational.  I was young, maybe 10 at the time and although I was excited to see a new forest I had other ideas on how to experience them. One of the activities that was organized was a nature walk.  Now, what you have to understand is that my definition of a nature walk and that of my teachers was very different.  We were to stay together as a group, not venture off the beaten path, don’t touch the plants, etc, etc.  Yeah right, good luck with that.  I tried, I really did but my attention span to anything that resembled school at that time was really short.  I don’t remember exactly what happened on the walk, but I have a pretty good idea.  As all the plants and critters were explained to the other kids I probably found it boring and started exploring in my way.  Stopping and actually watching the bug crawl his way across the path or up a grass plant.  Probably even followed him off the path to see what his day was about.

As you can imagine, it did not take long for me to fall behind and no one probably even noticed I was not there.  I don’t remember anyone ever looking for me.  I have a faint memory of just wandering into camp when I was done exploring. As I was wandering down the path back to camp I heard some rustling behind me on the trail.  I turned around and found myself looking at a bison, and she was just standing there looking at me.  It was a fleeting moment but it seems like something happened in that moment.  We just looked at each other for a moment and then she wandered off and I headed back down the trail.

At the time I probably did not even register what happened.  Never really gave bison another thought.  But on some level I wonder now if that bison cow so many years ago set the seed for what I do now.  Thinking of it now as an adult it was not a good position to be in but a 10 year old girl who called the outdoors home it was not out of the norm.  Actually surprised I didn’t take her back to camp with me and ask my parents if I could take her home.  Oh wait, I wouldn’t have asked.  Probably would have just taken her to the car and expected my dad to take her with us.  Ask for permission to take an animal home.  Ha! That’s a concept.