31 Follow us on @PrairieFarming Better Farming | January 2025 UP CLOSE social media presence. “Our social media has been really positive. We don’t have a ton of followers and don’t put a ton of content out, but we have nothing but positive comments from the people who buy beef. They enjoy seeing what we are doing,” explains Jagger. “With every generation, the population gets further from agriculture. It’s important to put yourself out there and have good discussions.” Why do you love farming? The seasonality of the job. I’m the type of person who doesn’t like doing the same thing every day. I like that as the seasons change, I can move from one task to another. How do you manage working with family? I want to recognize my wife, Lora. When we started farming, I was working full-time, and our cow-calf herd ranged from 160 to 180 cows. When we took the ranch over, Lora was pregnant with our first child, and I appreciated the amount of rope she gave me to get done what I needed to. I was out working long hours and wasn’t around as much as I would’ve liked to be. It’s impressive what these farm wives do and the amount they shoulder. The time she sacrificed so I could get the work done put us in a position where now I can be here on the ranch full-time. What is a goal for your herd? Right now, I’m 30, and by the time I’m 40, we want to double the size of the herd. The cattle cycle is typically 10 years, so hopefully we have good prices again. Right now, we are on a bit of a hold, but once prices come down here and replacement females are more reasonable, we’ll get back into expansion mode. The main goal is to scale up our cow-calf operation. I’ve organized the ranch so that it’s not very labour intensive and we are at the point now that we could double the size of the herd very effectively. It’s on our radar right now. What is your biggest challenge? There are a lot of obvious ones with financials. I was talking to someone the other day about how there is so much available to purchase out there. You need to keep on a strict budget and think about ‘What do I need? What do I not need? Or what can I rent?’ Especially with cow-calf herds, your equipment costs need to be in check to stay profitable. There’s always new equipment or the next best thing to buy, so I always have to check myself when it comes to the latest and greatest. What is your favourite farm task? Definitely calving season. We calve on grass in May. My grandfather used to calve in the winter, but when we came to the ranch and Rodney was calving in the spring, I fell in love. There’s nothing better than that. It’s my favourite time of year. It’s low stress on humans and cows. The cows know their job and the genetics we select are adapted to calve on their own. I like to let them do their thing and stay out of the way as much as possible. What do the next 10 years look like? With how young we are, we are looking to expand. I would like to pick up more grain acres and spread out our equipment costs. It would also help our ability to rotate our crops around better. Calving season is Jagger's favourite time of the year. Thomas Family photo
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc0MDI3