From that moment one April afternoon, when the shiny, new Lexus drove up the lane to the barn, Gib wondered what was up next? Then the driver stepped out in his new work boots and new Mackinaw. It was calving season and the beef cows were calving in that dry pasture next to the road. Was a cow having trouble calving or was this fellow a vegetarian and here to object that the farm even had cows?
This time of year was calving time on most farms and maybe some farmer needed a replacement calf for a fresh cow that had just lost her calf to a predator. Most beef farmers in need of a calf would arrive in a farm pickup truck not in a shiny new Lexus. Sometimes beef farmers have cows that have twins and they will sell one of the twins to a neighbour in need.

Farmers care about where they sell animals or even where a bag of seed oats goes. They want whatever they sell to go to a good, successful farm so that the animal is well looked after or that the oats that were sold are planted into a well maintained field.
This was not the case with the successful young businessman who had just driven in the lane. He had just moved his young family up to the country a year ago and with the high cost of beef, wanted to buy a young calf to put out on his acreage to grow and fatten up for beef next winter. He had seen lots of beef cattle grazing in fields near him. He wanted a small calf because it would be less expensive than a year old but was quite surprised when he learned that it took almost two years to grow a calf into a steer.
Gib asked him if he had a cow that just lost her calf? No, he didn’t have any cattle at all.
Gib then asked if he was prepared to feed the calf milk replacer all summer? No, he just planned on putting the calf out on pasture.
Then the lesson came on starting a calf for the first six months on milk and slowly switching it to pasture, grain and hay or corn silage. This was all new to the young man but he assured Gib that he had raised free range poultry for the last year and understood farming.
Gib asked him, “How many hens do you have?” He had 100 when he started. The chickens pastured all day but came in at night. He said that he didn’t have as many now but there was still a bunch. He said that he had some eggs and killed a few for eating.
When Gib asked if he lost any to predators, his reply was that he had only once watched a fox take a chicken away. There were not very many that came into the coop at night now but they probably just roosted in the woods and would come back someday.
Gib advised him to wait another year before expanding into beef but suggested that he build a good tight predator-proof fence around his chicken yard and keep the chickens in it.
Before going into any business, it is a good idea to get a little training and work experience first. Many excellent farmers started life in another job not even connected to agriculture but observed, trained, visited and worked with other farmers and likely participated in some of the many farm information days.
Whether farms are very large or small the families that farm them all provide spin off jobs and help make our communities vibrant and successful and give their children the best place to grow up.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations. gladcrest@gmail.com