34 Story Idea? Email Paul.Nolan@Farms.com Better Farming | January 2025 UP CLOSE Our main focus is on the cow-calf aspect and to keep growing our herd. We would like to continue improving our perennial pasture. We use a rotational rest and recovery system, which we are always looking to improve. Hopefully, over 10 years, our forage production is better with those practices. What keeps you up at night? My biggest concern right now is with organizations with agendas focussing on global emissions and methane from cattle. There’s a lot of misinformation out there, as well as a lot of people who have never been close enough to agriculture to know what’s going on. There are two sides to the problem: Emissions and carbon sequestration. Western Canada has one of best carbon sinks in grasslands, and it used to have bison, but now has cattle. The grasslands create an ecosystem for wildlife, and control runoff into streams and rivers. There are so many benefits to having cattle on the land, and I wish there was more good news about that rather than methane emissions, which everyone likes to point a finger at. How do you stay organized? I wouldn’t say I’m super organized. In the winter months I spend time preparing by looking at the financials and planning for the next year. I look at what’s profitable and what’s hurting us a bit. As far as bookkeeping, I try to prepare in the winter, so from April to November, it’s mostly taken care of. Being by myself, it is a bit tougher to do day-to-day work as well as bookkeeping. This year we actually had rainy days and I could catch up on some of those things. How do you spend your free time? My wife and I have two little girls and right now they eat up most free time. Whether it’s taking them skating or to gymnastics, that’s what I look forward to. I also still play senior hockey, and that’s nice in the winter. We don’t get away every winter, but we like going somewhere hot when we can. In the summer, we like to take one weekend away as just the two of us. How does diversification impact your operation? Our direct beef sales started with my father-in-law. He used to finish all his calves and had a lot of people buying beef off him. It made it an easy transition. We are only doing 15 to 20 fats. At the end of the day, we are producing food, and it’s interesting being in touch with consumers and understanding what they are looking for and what they are concerned about. Our partnership with Nerbas Bros. Angus helped us reach a place we are happy with. It allowed us to make a bit more margin on our calves. They get calves from us that they trust and are being brought up in a way they support, and we can go back and forth on production practices. With my drone business, I see it as opportunity in the industry and saw a use for it on our operation. It’s a new income stream and it gets me out talking to other farmers about what they are trying and are excited about. It’s been very positive. BF Kaisley pets a calf. Thomas Family photo
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