March 14, 2025 • 46 mins
On this week's episode of The Rural Woman Podcast™, you'll meet Ashley Perepelkin.
Ashley is a businesswoman, farmer and entrepreneur! Being born and raised in the city, the rural life wasn’t something she thought would be on her bingo card but here we are! She has successfully made the transition from urban to rural living by running and operating a successful cow-calf operation, a farm-to-table beef business and now a tallow lotion business.
For full show notes, including links mentioned in the show, head over to wildrosefarmer.com/216
. . .
THIS WEEK'S DISCUSSIONS:
[00:31] - Empowering Women in Agriculture
[09:01] - Starting a Family and New Ventures
[17:23] - Transitioning to Direct Sales: The Farm-to-Table Journey
[26:43] - The Importance of Mentorship in Agriculture
[40:55] - The Joy of Freedom in Farming
. . .
This week's episode is brought to you by Advancing Women Conference
. . .
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Meet the Team
Audio Editor | MixBär.
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Sarah R. | Happiness by The Acre
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:37):
Hi, I'm Katelyn Duban an thisis the Rural Woman Podcast. I'm a
first generation farmer whomarried into agriculture. Born and
raised in a city, I was sounfamiliar with where my food came
from, but I was determined tofigure it out. Through my journey
into agriculture, I saw womenwho were strong but humble, often
(01:00):
taking a backseat. To me,these women were leaders who deserved
a seat at the table. I createdthe Rural Women Podcast to share
the voices of women in anindustry whose stories often went
untold. The ruralentrepreneurs who live and breathe
their work full of grit andpride. We come here to share our
(01:24):
stories, to be in communitywith each other, to be challenged
and inspired, but mostimportantly, to be celebrated and
to be heard. We may not alllive farm, ranch or homestead the
same, but we are allconnected. We are rural women, and
our stories are worthy ofbeing told. Hey, everyone. Welcome
(01:54):
back to another episode of theRural Woman Podcast. Today you'll
meet Ashley Perepelkin. Fromcity life to cattle ranching, Ashley's
journey has been anything butconventional. Raised in a city, farming
wasn't on her bingo card. Buttoday she's a successful rancher,
entrepreneur, and advocate forfarming. In this episode, Ashley
(02:15):
shares her transition into thecattle industry, the realities of
farm to table beef production,and her latest venture into tallow
skin care. We dive into theimportance of transparency in agriculture,
the role of mentorship, andwhat it truly takes to build a thriving
farm business. Plus, Ashleyopens up about the freedom and fulfillment
(02:37):
she has found in her rurallife. Without further ado, my friends,
let's get to this week'sepisode with Ashley.
Ashley, welcome to the RealWoman Podcast. How are you today?
I am so good. Thank you forhaving me.
(02:57):
It's a pleasure. The pleasureis all mine for chatting with you.
And I feel like I'm not atwork today. I'm just sitting here
having a cup of coffee with mygirlfriend, Ashley. So I'm excited.
Do you ever feel like you'reat work?
Some days, yeah. But usuallythat's if I. Honestly, if I'm recording
an ad or things like that, Ifeel like I'm at work. But this part
(03:20):
is the fun part of podcastingand, you know, the marketing and,
you know, the editing and allof those things. Like that's. That's
the work stuff that we don'ttalk about, so.
Exactly.
Ashley, for those who areunfamiliar with you, give us your
background. Tell us who youare, where you're from, and how you
got your start in agriculture.
Yeah, so my name is AshleyPurpelkin. I am a mother of four
(03:45):
beautiful children. I jokethat they're like my little spawns
of Satan. They are my feralfour. I kind of came into agriculture
in a weird roundabout way. Iwas 19 years old when I met a boy
and fell in love. I was bornand raised in the city. I had rode
horses competitively in theEnglish industry, show jumping and
(04:08):
competing in eventing. But Inever did have the true agriculture
knowledge, experience oranything. That's kind of how it all
started was I met a boy andfell in love.
And this boy was a farmer.
He was a farmer, yes. So he.It is a family farm and I, I kind
(04:31):
of always like struggle withthe explanation of it. So his grandfather
farmed and his mom and dad didhave cattle until about 2008 and
then kind of BSE hit. Allproduction on the cattle side stopped
at one point. My husband'sgrandfather passed away. So then
(04:53):
the farm was rented out. Hedid not decide to start farming until
he was like 18 is when hereally decided, okay, I'm going to
get back into it. So althoughhe was born and raised a farmer,
he had a slower start at ithimself as well. So yeah, that's
(05:13):
kind of how it started. Westarted with I. I believe there was
only about 200 acres that wewere. He was farming in Grainland.
And I remember our first fewdate nights were like me sitting
on the side of this oldcombine that didn't have a buddy
seat and like. But it was, youknow, at 19 I was just like swooning
like it was amazing. We havesince very much expanded the operation
(05:39):
baby.
Reality has came in a littlebit of the romance of nobody seat.
Yes, yes.
So obviously you were quiteyoung when this all started. Looking
back, what were your futureplans for a career or basically a
life that was before farming?
(06:01):
You know, I never really hadone. I was kind of, I call it like
my midlife crisis which at 17to 19 I know, like it's not midlife
because I'm already past that.But anyways, I went to College. I
was 17 years old. So some kindof personal stuff happened. My mom
(06:22):
was going through a separationwith my stepdad at the time I was
very much a argumentative nowlaying a turning 18 year old. I found
myself in the bars drinking alot. So I kind of just had a moment
(06:42):
when I was in the summer of my18 year old year. I was like, I need
to get out. But I had alreadypaid for college. So then after college
I packed my. I had a littleSunfire car at the time and I basically
packed my car and I moved toWayburn, to Saskatchewan to go work
(07:04):
at an equine trainingfacility. And the removal of myself,
kind of like from friends,family, Alberta, everything was really,
really good for me. When Icame home, I very quickly got another
job at a car dealershipbecause that's what I was comfortable
with. I knew I could reallyget back into it quickly. And at
(07:25):
that moment in time is when afriend that I had made while working
at this new dealershipintroduced me to Andrew. So it was
a blind date. We met at TimHortons, and at this point, I was
so open. I didn't have rootsanywhere. I wasn't grounded anywhere.
(07:48):
The job was flexible. I wasjust fluid. And he very much kind
of put my feet on the groundand really solidified me in the sense
of giving me just like the dayto day stability. So it was a really
good, for lack of a betterword, like, slap in the face. So
(08:11):
when him and I got together,it was in November, and I ended up
moving in with him inFebruary. So very, very quick in
terms of going from just likecasually dating to, hey, we're living
together now. He had purchasedthis quarter, this house in this
(08:32):
quarter that he is on. He hadpurchased it from his parents when
he was 18. And at that momentit was. It was kind of like the moment
where I was just like, look atwhat he's accomplished at his age
and I'm nowhere near. He kindof just said, like, listen, I'll
support you in what you wantto do. Let's just talk it out. And
(08:53):
I can distinctly rememberthis. I don't exactly remember what
TV show we were watching, butit was end of November, beginning
of December. And I rememberlooking at him and I was like, we've
been together for four years.And he goes, yeah. And I said, like,
I don't know if you know this,but I'm marrying you. Like, let me
know if you would like toparticipate. And he kind of just
(09:14):
chuckled and he's like, yeah,yeah, okay. Do you want to get married?
Or like, do you want to have akid? And I, like, looked at him and
I was like, let's have a kid.And he's like, okay, let's do that.
So then we started trying tostart a family. My first and my second
(09:37):
child are 14 and a half monthsapart. And. But after my son, it
did, it did really send me fora tailspin in the sense of like,
I. I couldn't freely gooutside and check my horses. I couldn't
freely train or work oranything because one of the two or
(09:59):
both of my kids were kind offreaking out. So at that point, I
was. I had kind of establisheda training business, a very small
warmblood breeding business. Ireally wanted to. To kind of break
way into that industry becausethat's the industry that I knew.
And that dream pretty much gotcrushed overnight. And at the time,
(10:26):
it was really hard for me toaccept that. Now I'm like, oh, that
was the best thing thathappened. So once I finally sold
all the horses, I really waslost. And I was like, what am I going
to do? So at that point,Andrew suggested getting cows. And
(10:52):
he goes, you really only haveto be hands on with them during calving
season, which is 60 days. Wecan get someone in to help you with
the kids during that 60 dayswhile you are dealing with the cows.
And the rest of the time, thekids can come with you in the tractor
(11:13):
to feed, to bed, to do chores,all that jazz. And realistically,
during calving, if the kidsare with you, then the kids are with
you. So that was. Yeah, thesummer of 2017 was when I first bought
my first group of 50 cow calfpairs. And they were already bred
to calve in 2018. So that'show it started. And then it exploded
(11:39):
in so many.
Ways with more children andmore cows and all of the things.
Yes.
So what, what made you picksimmental for your cattle?
So I actually honestly startedwith black cows because I thought
they were the prettiest. And Ithought, well, while sitting at the
(12:01):
auction marts kind of doingresearch and seeing what was selling
good, what wasn't sellinggood, all this stuff, it was pretty
apparent that black white faceor red white face, trying to get
that white face in there,Those calves were just inherently
bringing a little more. So atfirst, when I bought cow calf pears,
(12:23):
they were just black cows. Idon't know if they were Angus bread,
I don't know if they werescimitar. I honestly don't know what
they were. And then to bringin the red white face, I actually
bought Hereford bulls, so thatwould give me my white face. And
then if I got some red calves,then I got some red calves. At this
(12:45):
point in time, a lot of mycows were also very, very mean. So
seeing them coming was firstpriority. At that moment in time,
I was like, well, what elsehas a red white face? And that's
when I came across the fleckvisimmentals. And then I really just
fell in love with the fleckvisimmentals as a whole, they're more
(13:09):
of a like a European milkanimals. So I was thinking increased
size in calves and kind ofjust that venture. I can't honestly
say if the stemental breedspecifically is superior to Angus
or superior to Charolais oranything like that. I. I do think
(13:33):
that a lot of it depends onwhat you're wanting out of your animals
and what you're looking for.And I just went the semantal route.
So now I breed. All of mybulls that I use for breeding are
full blood fleck fees. Andthen I'm breeding them to my red
and black cementals. So I'mgetting really good mothers that
(13:57):
are having good milk and goodudders for like my replacement heifers.
I'm getting the chromy nessfrom the full bloods instead of just
like their red and blacksolidness, which again, like, if
that's your flavor, then haveat her. I just really like the grominess
of it. The main focus rightnow is the. Is the purebreds and
(14:20):
the breeding and growing,raising replacement heifers and then
raising bull prospects forsale to. I know I'm not necessarily
gonna be in the running forselling to purebred breeders, but
I do want to ultimately give aquality bull to some purebred guys,
get some good weight growthand genetics and just help them get
some bigger calves as well. Sothat's kind of how that transitioned.
(14:44):
Yeah. So how do you decidewhich bulls or heifers to keep versus
selling them?
So I probably do it verydifferently than others. I still
have a lot of learning in thisdepartment to do for sure. I'm actually.
(15:06):
I have a mentor through my CYLprogram that I applied for and joined.
And we can chat about thatlater. But for me right now, what
determines my replacementheifers is I track everything. So
I. I track what their calvingweight is and then again they, when
they wean, I weigh them. So Ihave basically two kind of factors
(15:32):
that I take into part. How bigis the mother that raised this calf
and then how big is this calf?So as long as they are 50% of their
mother's weight, they passlike phase one is what I call it.
The next thing I do, once Ihave my group of prospects that I'm
(15:53):
going to keep for breedingpurposes, I have my vet come out
and my vet will palpate themand kind of check them and do pelvic
measurements. And I do pelvicmeasurements because I want to make
sure that there is going to beenough room within their pelvis,
that they're going to be ableto relatively easily calve their
(16:15):
first calf and that it's notgoing to end up in a C section. It's
not going to end up in mehaving to help them or anything like
that. And then I keep themthrough the winter, through all of
this. Obviously, like, I amlooking at confirmation, I am looking
at attitude. I am looking attheir feet and all the other stuff.
So if they are have a badattitude, I don't keep them. If they're
(16:38):
heads up and snorty, I don'tkeep them. If I walk in a pen, they're
flighty or just anything, Idon't keep them. So that's how I
decide my females. My bullsare similar but not the same. So
my bulls, I will startdeciding at calving if they calve
(17:02):
on their own. Awesome. Ifthey're over £100, the likelihood
of them getting a band put onis pretty high. Not very many commercial
breeders are willing to lookat a bull prospect that has a birth
weight that is over a hundredpounds. If I've had to assist the
mother during calving, whetherit was like dystocia, which is like,
(17:24):
if they're like malplacement,if I had to touch the cow during
the calving process, that thatbull calf gets a band. And again,
that might not always be thecase, but that is how I operate right
now. So then I take that bullgroup and they pasture together with
their mothers. And then theyalso do follow kind of the same requisites
(17:46):
as the females.
Yeah. Tell me more about yourfarm to.
Table side of things.
When did you start sellingdirectly to customers?
I started with four or fiveanimals, kind of to friends and family.
I want to say that it was like2018. That in my brain I was like,
why am I taking these animalsto auction? Like, this doesn't make
(18:07):
any sense to me. If they'vegot frozen ears or had a docked tail,
like, they're still the samesize as the other calves, but you're
getting paid less. And at thetime I was just like, well, how would
I keep these animals? I'llraise them myself for butcher. And
then, you know, financially itjust, it won't be as big as an impact.
So that was when I reallyoffered the quarter halves and full
(18:32):
cuts on a retail platform. Youknow, we were still buying smokies,
we were still buying hot dogs,we were still buying all this stuff.
So then I talked to myarbitoire and I said, hey, like,
I know you guys offer thisStuff. Can we make it and can I retail
sell it and can we throw myname on it? And although, like, it's.
(18:53):
It is their recipe and it isthere doing it, but it's ultimately
my beef that's going into it.And they said, yep. So I was like,
cool. So I did that. And thenI started doing farmers markets and
blew up. So it started outwith like five to 10 animals. It
(19:14):
has grown to. I can't. I can'tkeep up with it. I have sold out
for the last three years. Youknow, I. I just. I recently got a
text message. They're like,hey, do you have any beef for your
December butcher? And I waslike, actually, no. I'm sold out
for my December Butcher in2024, and I'm also sold out for my
(19:39):
December Butcher in 2025. Soultimately, for my 2025 meat sales,
I need to be deciding whatcalves I'm keeping at weaning in
the fall of 2024. That makesit also a little hard because in
(20:02):
order to expand, you need newclients and new clientele and word
of mouth. And I have beenhaving really good word of mouth
for four years. I've beenhaving clientele for the last four
years. And I tried to makesure that everybody that has previously
bought does get the first dibsand all that stuff. But sometimes
(20:25):
it happens and sometimes itdoesn't. So I've been at this 25
to 45 animal mark for a coupleyears now. And this year was probably
the biggest struggle for me tonot keep everything back to. To background,
because I very well could havefrom a consumer point, from offering
(20:50):
the farm to table beefprogram, from marketing and selling
it, I could have easily sold50 or more of my animals for butcher
in 2025. Where I struggled andwhere I decided not to keep very
many steers was because I wantto keep my prices affordable. So
(21:11):
with what calf prices were atthis year, selling them to what I
would have had to put to getit to the butcher state, plus the
cost of cut and wrap, likemarketing, anything like that, I
did not feel fair or justifiedcharging my customers that price
(21:39):
because at the end of the day,a full cow would have cost them six
or $7,000, which, althoughthat's your meat for a year, I really
struggled with that. Butthat's what cattle prices are at
right now sort of thing. So Icalculate it as, um, it's. It's kind
(22:02):
of fluid. So if I were to havesold my steers today at auction,
I would have got, let's say$2,500 for them. A couple years ago
a 535 pound steer was like$1100. Ultimately somebody has to
pay for that costdifferential. And I really morally
(22:25):
struggled with trying to sellthat in two years time for me because
I do want everything. Born andraised on farm, that is a little
bit more planning, but thenit's also reflective. So for example,
next year if the cattle pricesat the auction tank and drop and
(22:51):
the grocery store prices comedown, but my price for that animal
is still going to bereflective of last year's pricing,
is that fair to the customer?So some of them would say yes. But
when getting new customers,it's a big hurdle to make the transition
(23:12):
from a grocery store steak toa farm steak. Once the transition
is made, I feel like know thequality of it will speak for itself.
But it is a hard transition tomake. And then again the flip side
of it is, is you're asking fora large chunk of money to get put
(23:32):
down at one lump sum. I'm nottrying to get rich off other people's
hard earned money. I am tryingto make it an affordable health choice.
There are so many complexitieswhen it comes really like to the
(23:54):
bottom line of agriculture.And like you said, every, at every
step there's has to be moneymade somewhere eventually or yeah,
there is no more step there,that step is taken out. But I love
that, you know, the passionthat you have for your animals and
really feeding your communityand your customers, the quality that
(24:15):
you are making is soimportant. And obviously, you know,
it's a really fine line ofwanting to do what essentially could,
you know, be very beneficialfor your family and the farm and
finances and everything. Butalso thinking about a consumer in
that way is, I'm sure theythank you for that or they don't
(24:37):
even realize that like this isthe thing that you're thinking about
when you are making thedecisions, whether you are keeping
or selling, whether you'reprocessing or not or bringing in
other animals so well.
And, and you know, and that's,I have been told by many people,
you know, they said likewhat's stopping you from just buying
(24:59):
animals and then backgroundingthem and calling them yourselves
and you know, like nobody'sgonna know. How are they gonna know?
And ethically like me, I justcan't, you know, I can't do that.
I just want to be transparentand I want to be honest. And I think
some of that comes fromgrowing up in the city, you know,
(25:20):
not knowing everything thatgoes into it and Right now, a big
thing with people, as I'm sureeverybody is kind of aware, you know,
they want to be hormone free,antibiotic free, all that stuff.
And I do take a lot of timeeducating and explaining like we
(25:40):
personally don't use hormones.But I'm not opposed to myself eating
a steak or a roast or whateveroff of somebody who does do hormones.
I'm not opposed to it becauseby the time that animal gets to two
years, that last hormoneinjection that they can technically
get has been out of theirsystem for if not a year, very close
(26:05):
to a year. Just anywhere, ifyou are ultimately getting beef from
your table or onto your table,it has not had medication in a set
amount of time because itcan't be enough.
(27:42):
Yep. And honestly, it's justhaving those conversations and hearing
it from the producer'sstandpoint of it. And that's why,
you know, we can make theargument that farmers don't have
time, ranchers don't have timeto market and to say these things.
And really honestly, we don't.You have 1 million children, you
(28:05):
don't got time to do all ofthis. But it is important and just,
just to have that simpleconversation of being like you said,
if you want to buy somethingthat hasn't had antibiotics and that
hasn't had anything, you canbuy that, people will sell that to
you. There's, there's thoseoptions and I think as consumers,
(28:27):
we're all consumers and it'ssuch a privilege to have those options.
I want to get to thementorship piece that you had been
mentioning. Obviously, youknow, having a mentor in an industry
that relatively new at is agood thing. So yes, tell us about
(28:48):
the mentorship piece of what'shappening for you.
Yes. So when I first got intocattle, my mentor was the neighbor
down the road. She was a dairyfarmer. Her mentorship to me was
priceless. We lost her tocancer six years ago. And I reflect
on everything that she hastold me, on everything that she's
(29:11):
taught me and everything Ilearned from her on a weekly basis.
So I was very fortunate tohave her as a mentor. I was also
very fortunate to have hersister and brother in law. They are
purebred breeders in FraserLake B.C. their copper T Ranch, they
have Herefords. They have alsobeen really good mentors in animal
(29:37):
husbandry. And so stickingwith my core beliefs and not necessarily
letting the industry influencemy decisions and not letting the
industry push me into the swayor process of how things are done
and to kind of go back to likethis is Your operation, how do you
want to run it? Okay, let's.Let's talk about the most efficient
(29:58):
things to run it. And thenwhen I was at the Advancing Women's
Conference in Calgary, ArleneYakimichuk spoke about the Canadian
Cattle Young Leaders Program.And I was feeling just very empowered
coming out of that conferenceand feeling so, like I could conquer
(30:21):
the world and I could take iton and that I could just exceed.
So I applied for the N CattleYoung Leaders program or the CYL
program, and I got accepted asa semifinalist. I was one of the
24 semifinalists. And thenfrom there, they narrowed down the
24 finalists down to 16. So Ialso was very blessed that I was.
(30:44):
I am one of the finalists, oneof the 16. So my mentor is Deanne
and her husband Rob Young. AndI have silently Facebook stalked
deanne and Rob for a coupleyears. So I was just absolutely thrilled
to have them be my mentors. Iwent to Farm Fair International.
(31:10):
I have never been humbled soquickly walking from the back of
a barn to the front of a barnin my entire life, because those
show cattle are next levelexceptional. Absolutely incredible.
Amazing cattle. Holy cow. But,you know, deanne said, I don't necessarily
(31:31):
have to have cattle that looklike this to be a successful purebred
breeder. So that was just avery. Already a good experience.
You know, I actually, I justgot my mentor. I just found out who
she was a couple weeks ago. Iknew she was going to be busy getting
ready for farm fare. I wasbusy with the tallow getting ready
(31:52):
for farm fare. So we had aquick little two hour conversation
on the phone, and then I metwith her in the show barns, and we're
going to touch base here inthe next week or so and really just
bounce off ideas. You know,you were asking about how I select
my heifers, and that's how Ido it. So, you know, asking her,
hey, like, how do you do yourheifer selection? How are you picking
(32:14):
your cattle for. For breeding?How are you picking your bull prospects?
Like, am I? And my mentalityparallel to the industry standard,
because again, being born andraised in the city, I have no idea.
I. I thought belted Gallowayswere super cute, and apparently not.
(32:36):
I just think that having amentor in a space that you have so
much passion about is one ofthe greatest gifts that you can have.
And the fact that there arepeople in our industry that are willing
to be so transparent with whatthey know and give you that gift
of knowledge, I just think,like, you Know, when I think of other
(33:00):
industries, is mentorship thesame way? Is mentorship handled the
same way? Is there that piecewhere there's still maybe that competition
mindset of I can't give awaymy secrets because, you know, I can't
Give the Secret 11 Herbs andspices because they will take it
away from me. But. But, youknow, having a mentor and honestly,
(33:22):
to have women in our industrythat are strong mentors is. I think
it's. We're pretty lucky andwe're pretty special for that.
Yes, 100%. I feel very blessedto not only have a mentor, but also
having a female mentor in itbecause she is also going to understand
the balance of not onlyworking and operating a farm, but
(33:47):
also needing to set aside timeto be a mother. And I do think my
previous experience cominginto the cattle industry very much
was like, nobody talks toanybody. You know, you ask how calving
season was, and they say, oh,it was good. It's a very, like, tight,
sealed box that nobody wantsanybody else know. Whereas again,
(34:11):
me as a person, I'm thecomplete opposite. I'm like, yeah,
we calved a hundred and I lostfive. One was to pneumonia, and one
was just born dead. And one,like, you know, I'm very open and
want to have thoseconversations because that's how
we all learn, you know, AndI'm not a gatekeeper. I'm a pretty
transparent person in all ofmy dealings. You know, in my cow
(34:33):
calf operation, in my farm totable beef program, in my newly developed
tallow business that Istarted. You know, I kind of chuckle
because I. I ran into a tallowcompany at a trade show this year.
But I asked them. I. I waslike, you know, how do you guys render
your tallow, like, mostefficiently? I want to make sure
(34:56):
I'm doing it in the mostefficient way. And if there's a better
way out there, I would love toknow about it. At which point they
responded with, well, that's aproprietorship. And I kind of had
a moment where I was like, Ididn't realize the rendering tallow
itself was a proprietorship. Iwas pretty sure there was only two
ways to do it, which is like,wet render, dry render. I just wanted
(35:18):
to know if you found, like, apot that helps, like, bigger batches
or when I'm straining it, thatit's a little bit more efficient
straining. But so I kind ofgiggle. I giggled at that, and I
had a moment of hilarity. Andultimately, the specific ingredients
are listed on the back of thecontainers. So you can tell what's
(35:38):
in it. My ratio that I willkeep a secret because that's, you
know, the, that's the secrettrade and that's what makes it special.
But getting from the fat offthe cow to the rendered product,
yeah, I'll, I'll teacheverybody how to do that. But there
is a lot of there thecompetitiveness and the closed doorness.
(35:59):
But I am very fortunate tohave found the CYL program, to have
found my mentor and to found agroup of people that, that just really
help continue to empower andpush all of my business decisions
and all of my adventures and avenues.
Yeah, for sure. Well, I'm soexcited for you and for that growth
(36:19):
that's going to happen fromthat second last question for you.
Looking back now, what advicewould you give young farmer Ashley
from where you started towhere you are today in your cattle
operation? In farming?
For a long time I said if Icould go back and tell myself anything,
(36:42):
it would be don't do kids andcows at the same time. And now that
my youngest is four now I'mlike, okay, it actually wasn't that
bad. I could do kids and cowstogether at the same time. It's not
a big deal. But when you're,when they were younger, it was hard.
And I think the advice that Iwould give myself in that time would
(37:07):
be just keep pushing, keepgoing. You know, never stop learning,
never stop striving forexcellence, never stop asking questions.
You know, knowledge is power.And I know that that's something
we've all heard and it's kindof one of those like, yeah, yeah,
okay, that sounds corny. Butthe reality is the more that I've
learned, the more that I'veeducated myself, the more that I've
(37:30):
put myself out there, the morethat I have gotten in return. This
entire journey for me, AWCwest really kicked off a whole new
side to me that I didn't evenreally realize was in there. It was
a radio show that a girlfriendcalled in and she was saying how
(37:50):
amazing this person was, howamazing this farmer was, and how
like, you know, know,incredible. And she's a go getter.
She's doing this all. And myhusband sent me the video, the voice
clip, and I, when I listenedto it, that was when I realized she
was talking about me. And atthat point I realized that what I
was doing could inspire otherswho are also maybe struggling. So
(38:14):
I really wanted to just likeshare my story and share my journey.
And yeah, it was hard. It wasfinancially hard, it was emotionally
hard. It was physically hard,but I really just surrounded myself
with a very supportive groupbetween my husband, my in laws and
my friends. And I heard otherpeople say this throughout the years
(38:38):
and I never like tangiblythought it was worth anything but
like mood boards or memoryboards or just like write down your
goals. What do you want? Youknow, do you want a 50 cow calf operation?
Okay, how do we get there? Sowriting down the goals and then putting
(39:03):
the money into it up front, Icannot tell you how much money I
lost or wasted on not gettingquality animals or not having a quality
facility. You know, I boughtauction mark cows that were pregnant,
(39:27):
that were a dime in thebucket, and in the long run, a thousand
percent I paid for it. Whereasif I would have bought from a reputable
breeder, whether that'spurebred or commercial, if I would
have putting more money out upfront, I would have been farther
(39:49):
ahead. So like that would be.If I could go back, it would be to
pay for the good cattle.Invest the money up front and it
will come back to you down theroad. But I was very short sighted.
I was very. I'm going to spendthis money this year and I'm going
(40:09):
to get these calves next yearand I'm going to get this paycheck
next year and I'm going tohave made my money and in a calendar
year. And I very much regretthat mentality because I do think
in the long run that that didhold me back more than propel me
forward. The other advice isjust, you know, keep pushing, Keep
(40:32):
pushing. Don't give up. It'stough, it's an uphill battle, but
keep pushing.
So good. Okay, and the last question.
Oh, the biggest one.
Ashley, what is the mostrewarding part for you in being a
farmer, being a rural woman?
I am free. And I know thatlike kind of sounds weird, but I
(40:55):
am free to do what I want.Ultimately. I can have my garden,
I can have my kids, I can havemy cows. I, I'm not held to a societal
standard. You know, I can dowhat I want, I can make the decisions
that I want and I'm not put ina box. And that was something. Growing
(41:19):
up in this city, I neverrealized that I was in a box. It's,
it's not necessarily a badthing, you know, like for anybody
who is born and raised in acity, that's not necessarily a bad
lifestyle, if that's thelifestyle you want. But like, I am
not controlled by anything.Nine times out of 10, I don't know
(41:40):
what day of the week. It isnine times out of 10, especially
in the summertime. I don'tknow when, you know, quiet time is
or no noise or, you know whatI mean? Like, we, I'm just, I'm free.
We can do, you know, we candirt bike, we can get quads, we can.
I can teach my kids about thefarming. All of my children, they
(42:01):
know how to drive the, theequipment. Some of them are better
than others, obviously. Myfour year old, she ain't great at
the whole steering wheelthing, but like, every single one
of my children taughtthemselves how to ride a pedal bike
because we just had a pedalbike here. And at any point in time
they could go outside. Iwasn't worried about, you know, them
(42:21):
playing on the street orhanging out in a mall or whatever.
They've gone and collectedfrogs and brought frogs. In my house
this summer, we had a goosethat hung around like, whatever.
Cool. So just the ability tojust come and go as I please. You
know, ultimately, like, dowhat we want, within reason, obviously,
(42:43):
but there is just a sense offreedom. And then there's also. It
is so overwhelmingly joyfulwhen you can plant a garden and then
you're feeding your familywith that garden and you're raising
chickens and butcheringchickens and like, it's. It's just
(43:05):
a freeing. I don't know howelse to explain it. That one, for
me is like the most amazing feeling.
It is, it is. And it's hard toexplain. I leave the hardest question
for last. Put into words whyyour life is so wonderful.
Right? Yeah. And honest toGod, I just like, I couldn't imagine
(43:30):
ever, ever being in a cityever again in my life.
Yep, you're hooked now. Sogood. Ashley, it has been such a
pleasure getting to hear youspeak about your passion, your love
for farming. All of the thingsfor listeners who would like to connect
with you after the show. Wherecan they find you online?
Yeah, so I'm kind ofeverywhere. I am on Facebook, so
(43:54):
either Ashley Propelkin orPropelkin Farms. Feel free, you know,
do both. Instagram, propelkinfarms, TikTok, propelkinfarms, and
of course our website ispropelkinfarms. Ca.
Perfect. And I will link allof those in the show notes so people
can find you and connect with you.
Perfect. Thank you so much.
Thank you again for sharingyour story with us today. I appreciate
(44:16):
it.
Thanks for listening to theRural Woman podcast. The Rural Woman
Podcast is more than just apodcast. We are a community. A huge
thank you to the Rural WomanPodcast Team Audio Editor Max Hofer.
(44:36):
A special thanks to ourPatreon Executive Producers Sarah
Riedner from Happiness by theAcre and Carrie Munven from Laystone
Farms. To learn how you can bebecome a Patreon Executive Producer
or other ways to financiallysupport the show, head on over to
wildrosefarmer.com to learnmore. Be sure to hit the Follow or
(44:58):
Subscribe button wherever youlisten to the podcast to get the
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You can connect with us onsocial media, the Whirlwoman Podcast
(45:20):
and with me, wildrosefarmer.One of the best ways you can support
the show is by sharing it.Send this episode to a friend or
share on your social media.Let's strengthen and amplify the
voices of women in agriculturetogether. Until next time my friend,
keep sharing your story.
Hi, I'm Katelyn Duban an thisis the Rural Woman Podcast. I'm a
first generation farmer whomarried into agriculture. Born and
raised in a city, I was sounfamiliar with where my food came
from, but I was determined tofigure it out. Through my journey
into agriculture, I saw womenwho were strong but humble, often
(01:00):
taking a backseat. To me,these women were leaders who deserved
a seat at the table. I createdthe Rural Women Podcast to share
the voices of women in anindustry whose stories often went
untold. The ruralentrepreneurs who live and breathe
their work full of grit andpride. We come here to share our
(01:24):
stories, to be in communitywith each other, to be challenged
and inspired, but mostimportantly, to be celebrated and
to be heard. We may not alllive farm, ranch or homestead the
same, but we are allconnected. We are rural women, and
our stories are worthy ofbeing told. Hey, everyone. Welcome
(01:54):
back to another episode of theRural Woman Podcast. Today you'll
meet Ashley Perepelkin. Fromcity life to cattle ranching, Ashley's
journey has been anything butconventional. Raised in a city, farming
wasn't on her bingo card. Buttoday she's a successful rancher,
entrepreneur, and advocate forfarming. In this episode, Ashley
(02:15):
shares her transition into thecattle industry, the realities of
farm to table beef production,and her latest venture into tallow
skin care. We dive into theimportance of transparency in agriculture,
the role of mentorship, andwhat it truly takes to build a thriving
farm business. Plus, Ashleyopens up about the freedom and fulfillment
(02:37):
she has found in her rurallife. Without further ado, my friends,
let's get to this week'sepisode with Ashley.
Ashley, welcome to the RealWoman Podcast. How are you today?
I am so good. Thank you forhaving me.
(02:57):
It's a pleasure. The pleasureis all mine for chatting with you.
And I feel like I'm not atwork today. I'm just sitting here
having a cup of coffee with mygirlfriend, Ashley. So I'm excited.
Do you ever feel like you'reat work?
Some days, yeah. But usuallythat's if I. Honestly, if I'm recording
an ad or things like that, Ifeel like I'm at work. But this part
(03:20):
is the fun part of podcastingand, you know, the marketing and,
you know, the editing and allof those things. Like that's. That's
the work stuff that we don'ttalk about, so.
Exactly.
Ashley, for those who areunfamiliar with you, give us your
background. Tell us who youare, where you're from, and how you
got your start in agriculture.
Yeah, so my name is AshleyPurpelkin. I am a mother of four
(03:45):
beautiful children. I jokethat they're like my little spawns
of Satan. They are my feralfour. I kind of came into agriculture
in a weird roundabout way. Iwas 19 years old when I met a boy
and fell in love. I was bornand raised in the city. I had rode
horses competitively in theEnglish industry, show jumping and
(04:08):
competing in eventing. But Inever did have the true agriculture
knowledge, experience oranything. That's kind of how it all
started was I met a boy andfell in love.
And this boy was a farmer.
He was a farmer, yes. So he.It is a family farm and I, I kind
(04:31):
of always like struggle withthe explanation of it. So his grandfather
farmed and his mom and dad didhave cattle until about 2008 and
then kind of BSE hit. Allproduction on the cattle side stopped
at one point. My husband'sgrandfather passed away. So then
(04:53):
the farm was rented out. Hedid not decide to start farming until
he was like 18 is when hereally decided, okay, I'm going to
get back into it. So althoughhe was born and raised a farmer,
he had a slower start at ithimself as well. So yeah, that's
(05:13):
kind of how it started. Westarted with I. I believe there was
only about 200 acres that wewere. He was farming in Grainland.
And I remember our first fewdate nights were like me sitting
on the side of this oldcombine that didn't have a buddy
seat and like. But it was, youknow, at 19 I was just like swooning
like it was amazing. We havesince very much expanded the operation
(05:39):
baby.
Reality has came in a littlebit of the romance of nobody seat.
Yes, yes.
So obviously you were quiteyoung when this all started. Looking
back, what were your futureplans for a career or basically a
life that was before farming?
(06:01):
You know, I never really hadone. I was kind of, I call it like
my midlife crisis which at 17to 19 I know, like it's not midlife
because I'm already past that.But anyways, I went to College. I
was 17 years old. So some kindof personal stuff happened. My mom
(06:22):
was going through a separationwith my stepdad at the time I was
very much a argumentative nowlaying a turning 18 year old. I found
myself in the bars drinking alot. So I kind of just had a moment
(06:42):
when I was in the summer of my18 year old year. I was like, I need
to get out. But I had alreadypaid for college. So then after college
I packed my. I had a littleSunfire car at the time and I basically
packed my car and I moved toWayburn, to Saskatchewan to go work
(07:04):
at an equine trainingfacility. And the removal of myself,
kind of like from friends,family, Alberta, everything was really,
really good for me. When Icame home, I very quickly got another
job at a car dealershipbecause that's what I was comfortable
with. I knew I could reallyget back into it quickly. And at
(07:25):
that moment in time is when afriend that I had made while working
at this new dealershipintroduced me to Andrew. So it was
a blind date. We met at TimHortons, and at this point, I was
so open. I didn't have rootsanywhere. I wasn't grounded anywhere.
(07:48):
The job was flexible. I wasjust fluid. And he very much kind
of put my feet on the groundand really solidified me in the sense
of giving me just like the dayto day stability. So it was a really
good, for lack of a betterword, like, slap in the face. So
(08:11):
when him and I got together,it was in November, and I ended up
moving in with him inFebruary. So very, very quick in
terms of going from just likecasually dating to, hey, we're living
together now. He had purchasedthis quarter, this house in this
(08:32):
quarter that he is on. He hadpurchased it from his parents when
he was 18. And at that momentit was. It was kind of like the moment
where I was just like, look atwhat he's accomplished at his age
and I'm nowhere near. He kindof just said, like, listen, I'll
support you in what you wantto do. Let's just talk it out. And
(08:53):
I can distinctly rememberthis. I don't exactly remember what
TV show we were watching, butit was end of November, beginning
of December. And I rememberlooking at him and I was like, we've
been together for four years.And he goes, yeah. And I said, like,
I don't know if you know this,but I'm marrying you. Like, let me
know if you would like toparticipate. And he kind of just
(09:14):
chuckled and he's like, yeah,yeah, okay. Do you want to get married?
Or like, do you want to have akid? And I, like, looked at him and
I was like, let's have a kid.And he's like, okay, let's do that.
So then we started trying tostart a family. My first and my second
(09:37):
child are 14 and a half monthsapart. And. But after my son, it
did, it did really send me fora tailspin in the sense of like,
I. I couldn't freely gooutside and check my horses. I couldn't
freely train or work oranything because one of the two or
(09:59):
both of my kids were kind offreaking out. So at that point, I
was. I had kind of establisheda training business, a very small
warmblood breeding business. Ireally wanted to. To kind of break
way into that industry becausethat's the industry that I knew.
And that dream pretty much gotcrushed overnight. And at the time,
(10:26):
it was really hard for me toaccept that. Now I'm like, oh, that
was the best thing thathappened. So once I finally sold
all the horses, I really waslost. And I was like, what am I going
to do? So at that point,Andrew suggested getting cows. And
(10:52):
he goes, you really only haveto be hands on with them during calving
season, which is 60 days. Wecan get someone in to help you with
the kids during that 60 dayswhile you are dealing with the cows.
And the rest of the time, thekids can come with you in the tractor
(11:13):
to feed, to bed, to do chores,all that jazz. And realistically,
during calving, if the kidsare with you, then the kids are with
you. So that was. Yeah, thesummer of 2017 was when I first bought
my first group of 50 cow calfpairs. And they were already bred
to calve in 2018. So that'show it started. And then it exploded
(11:39):
in so many.
Ways with more children andmore cows and all of the things.
Yes.
So what, what made you picksimmental for your cattle?
So I actually honestly startedwith black cows because I thought
they were the prettiest. And Ithought, well, while sitting at the
(12:01):
auction marts kind of doingresearch and seeing what was selling
good, what wasn't sellinggood, all this stuff, it was pretty
apparent that black white faceor red white face, trying to get
that white face in there,Those calves were just inherently
bringing a little more. So atfirst, when I bought cow calf pears,
(12:23):
they were just black cows. Idon't know if they were Angus bread,
I don't know if they werescimitar. I honestly don't know what
they were. And then to bringin the red white face, I actually
bought Hereford bulls, so thatwould give me my white face. And
then if I got some red calves,then I got some red calves. At this
(12:45):
point in time, a lot of mycows were also very, very mean. So
seeing them coming was firstpriority. At that moment in time,
I was like, well, what elsehas a red white face? And that's
when I came across the fleckvisimmentals. And then I really just
fell in love with the fleckvisimmentals as a whole, they're more
(13:09):
of a like a European milkanimals. So I was thinking increased
size in calves and kind ofjust that venture. I can't honestly
say if the stemental breedspecifically is superior to Angus
or superior to Charolais oranything like that. I. I do think
(13:33):
that a lot of it depends onwhat you're wanting out of your animals
and what you're looking for.And I just went the semantal route.
So now I breed. All of mybulls that I use for breeding are
full blood fleck fees. Andthen I'm breeding them to my red
and black cementals. So I'mgetting really good mothers that
(13:57):
are having good milk and goodudders for like my replacement heifers.
I'm getting the chromy nessfrom the full bloods instead of just
like their red and blacksolidness, which again, like, if
that's your flavor, then haveat her. I just really like the grominess
of it. The main focus rightnow is the. Is the purebreds and
(14:20):
the breeding and growing,raising replacement heifers and then
raising bull prospects forsale to. I know I'm not necessarily
gonna be in the running forselling to purebred breeders, but
I do want to ultimately give aquality bull to some purebred guys,
get some good weight growthand genetics and just help them get
some bigger calves as well. Sothat's kind of how that transitioned.
(14:44):
Yeah. So how do you decidewhich bulls or heifers to keep versus
selling them?
So I probably do it verydifferently than others. I still
have a lot of learning in thisdepartment to do for sure. I'm actually.
(15:06):
I have a mentor through my CYLprogram that I applied for and joined.
And we can chat about thatlater. But for me right now, what
determines my replacementheifers is I track everything. So
I. I track what their calvingweight is and then again they, when
they wean, I weigh them. So Ihave basically two kind of factors
(15:32):
that I take into part. How bigis the mother that raised this calf
and then how big is this calf?So as long as they are 50% of their
mother's weight, they passlike phase one is what I call it.
The next thing I do, once Ihave my group of prospects that I'm
(15:53):
going to keep for breedingpurposes, I have my vet come out
and my vet will palpate themand kind of check them and do pelvic
measurements. And I do pelvicmeasurements because I want to make
sure that there is going to beenough room within their pelvis,
that they're going to be ableto relatively easily calve their
(16:15):
first calf and that it's notgoing to end up in a C section. It's
not going to end up in mehaving to help them or anything like
that. And then I keep themthrough the winter, through all of
this. Obviously, like, I amlooking at confirmation, I am looking
at attitude. I am looking attheir feet and all the other stuff.
So if they are have a badattitude, I don't keep them. If they're
(16:38):
heads up and snorty, I don'tkeep them. If I walk in a pen, they're
flighty or just anything, Idon't keep them. So that's how I
decide my females. My bullsare similar but not the same. So
my bulls, I will startdeciding at calving if they calve
(17:02):
on their own. Awesome. Ifthey're over £100, the likelihood
of them getting a band put onis pretty high. Not very many commercial
breeders are willing to lookat a bull prospect that has a birth
weight that is over a hundredpounds. If I've had to assist the
mother during calving, whetherit was like dystocia, which is like,
(17:24):
if they're like malplacement,if I had to touch the cow during
the calving process, that thatbull calf gets a band. And again,
that might not always be thecase, but that is how I operate right
now. So then I take that bullgroup and they pasture together with
their mothers. And then theyalso do follow kind of the same requisites
(17:46):
as the females.
Yeah. Tell me more about yourfarm to.
Table side of things.
When did you start sellingdirectly to customers?
I started with four or fiveanimals, kind of to friends and family.
I want to say that it was like2018. That in my brain I was like,
why am I taking these animalsto auction? Like, this doesn't make
(18:07):
any sense to me. If they'vegot frozen ears or had a docked tail,
like, they're still the samesize as the other calves, but you're
getting paid less. And at thetime I was just like, well, how would
I keep these animals? I'llraise them myself for butcher. And
then, you know, financially itjust, it won't be as big as an impact.
So that was when I reallyoffered the quarter halves and full
(18:32):
cuts on a retail platform. Youknow, we were still buying smokies,
we were still buying hot dogs,we were still buying all this stuff.
So then I talked to myarbitoire and I said, hey, like,
I know you guys offer thisStuff. Can we make it and can I retail
sell it and can we throw myname on it? And although, like, it's.
(18:53):
It is their recipe and it isthere doing it, but it's ultimately
my beef that's going into it.And they said, yep. So I was like,
cool. So I did that. And thenI started doing farmers markets and
blew up. So it started outwith like five to 10 animals. It
(19:14):
has grown to. I can't. I can'tkeep up with it. I have sold out
for the last three years. Youknow, I. I just. I recently got a
text message. They're like,hey, do you have any beef for your
December butcher? And I waslike, actually, no. I'm sold out
for my December Butcher in2024, and I'm also sold out for my
(19:39):
December Butcher in 2025. Soultimately, for my 2025 meat sales,
I need to be deciding whatcalves I'm keeping at weaning in
the fall of 2024. That makesit also a little hard because in
(20:02):
order to expand, you need newclients and new clientele and word
of mouth. And I have beenhaving really good word of mouth
for four years. I've beenhaving clientele for the last four
years. And I tried to makesure that everybody that has previously
bought does get the first dibsand all that stuff. But sometimes
(20:25):
it happens and sometimes itdoesn't. So I've been at this 25
to 45 animal mark for a coupleyears now. And this year was probably
the biggest struggle for me tonot keep everything back to. To background,
because I very well could havefrom a consumer point, from offering
(20:50):
the farm to table beefprogram, from marketing and selling
it, I could have easily sold50 or more of my animals for butcher
in 2025. Where I struggled andwhere I decided not to keep very
many steers was because I wantto keep my prices affordable. So
(21:11):
with what calf prices were atthis year, selling them to what I
would have had to put to getit to the butcher state, plus the
cost of cut and wrap, likemarketing, anything like that, I
did not feel fair or justifiedcharging my customers that price
(21:39):
because at the end of the day,a full cow would have cost them six
or $7,000, which, althoughthat's your meat for a year, I really
struggled with that. Butthat's what cattle prices are at
right now sort of thing. So Icalculate it as, um, it's. It's kind
(22:02):
of fluid. So if I were to havesold my steers today at auction,
I would have got, let's say$2,500 for them. A couple years ago
a 535 pound steer was like$1100. Ultimately somebody has to
pay for that costdifferential. And I really morally
(22:25):
struggled with trying to sellthat in two years time for me because
I do want everything. Born andraised on farm, that is a little
bit more planning, but thenit's also reflective. So for example,
next year if the cattle pricesat the auction tank and drop and
(22:51):
the grocery store prices comedown, but my price for that animal
is still going to bereflective of last year's pricing,
is that fair to the customer?So some of them would say yes. But
when getting new customers,it's a big hurdle to make the transition
(23:12):
from a grocery store steak toa farm steak. Once the transition
is made, I feel like know thequality of it will speak for itself.
But it is a hard transition tomake. And then again the flip side
of it is, is you're asking fora large chunk of money to get put
(23:32):
down at one lump sum. I'm nottrying to get rich off other people's
hard earned money. I am tryingto make it an affordable health choice.
There are so many complexitieswhen it comes really like to the
(23:54):
bottom line of agriculture.And like you said, every, at every
step there's has to be moneymade somewhere eventually or yeah,
there is no more step there,that step is taken out. But I love
that, you know, the passionthat you have for your animals and
really feeding your communityand your customers, the quality that
(24:15):
you are making is soimportant. And obviously, you know,
it's a really fine line ofwanting to do what essentially could,
you know, be very beneficialfor your family and the farm and
finances and everything. Butalso thinking about a consumer in
that way is, I'm sure theythank you for that or they don't
(24:37):
even realize that like this isthe thing that you're thinking about
when you are making thedecisions, whether you are keeping
or selling, whether you'reprocessing or not or bringing in
other animals so well.
And, and you know, and that's,I have been told by many people,
you know, they said likewhat's stopping you from just buying
(24:59):
animals and then backgroundingthem and calling them yourselves
and you know, like nobody'sgonna know. How are they gonna know?
And ethically like me, I justcan't, you know, I can't do that.
I just want to be transparentand I want to be honest. And I think
some of that comes fromgrowing up in the city, you know,
(25:20):
not knowing everything thatgoes into it and Right now, a big
thing with people, as I'm sureeverybody is kind of aware, you know,
they want to be hormone free,antibiotic free, all that stuff.
And I do take a lot of timeeducating and explaining like we
(25:40):
personally don't use hormones.But I'm not opposed to myself eating
a steak or a roast or whateveroff of somebody who does do hormones.
I'm not opposed to it becauseby the time that animal gets to two
years, that last hormoneinjection that they can technically
get has been out of theirsystem for if not a year, very close
(26:05):
to a year. Just anywhere, ifyou are ultimately getting beef from
your table or onto your table,it has not had medication in a set
amount of time because itcan't be enough.
(27:42):
Yep. And honestly, it's justhaving those conversations and hearing
it from the producer'sstandpoint of it. And that's why,
you know, we can make theargument that farmers don't have
time, ranchers don't have timeto market and to say these things.
And really honestly, we don't.You have 1 million children, you
(28:05):
don't got time to do all ofthis. But it is important and just,
just to have that simpleconversation of being like you said,
if you want to buy somethingthat hasn't had antibiotics and that
hasn't had anything, you canbuy that, people will sell that to
you. There's, there's thoseoptions and I think as consumers,
(28:27):
we're all consumers and it'ssuch a privilege to have those options.
I want to get to thementorship piece that you had been
mentioning. Obviously, youknow, having a mentor in an industry
that relatively new at is agood thing. So yes, tell us about
(28:48):
the mentorship piece of what'shappening for you.
Yes. So when I first got intocattle, my mentor was the neighbor
down the road. She was a dairyfarmer. Her mentorship to me was
priceless. We lost her tocancer six years ago. And I reflect
on everything that she hastold me, on everything that she's
(29:11):
taught me and everything Ilearned from her on a weekly basis.
So I was very fortunate tohave her as a mentor. I was also
very fortunate to have hersister and brother in law. They are
purebred breeders in FraserLake B.C. their copper T Ranch, they
have Herefords. They have alsobeen really good mentors in animal
(29:37):
husbandry. And so stickingwith my core beliefs and not necessarily
letting the industry influencemy decisions and not letting the
industry push me into the swayor process of how things are done
and to kind of go back to likethis is Your operation, how do you
want to run it? Okay, let's.Let's talk about the most efficient
(29:58):
things to run it. And thenwhen I was at the Advancing Women's
Conference in Calgary, ArleneYakimichuk spoke about the Canadian
Cattle Young Leaders Program.And I was feeling just very empowered
coming out of that conferenceand feeling so, like I could conquer
(30:21):
the world and I could take iton and that I could just exceed.
So I applied for the N CattleYoung Leaders program or the CYL
program, and I got accepted asa semifinalist. I was one of the
24 semifinalists. And thenfrom there, they narrowed down the
24 finalists down to 16. So Ialso was very blessed that I was.
(30:44):
I am one of the finalists, oneof the 16. So my mentor is Deanne
and her husband Rob Young. AndI have silently Facebook stalked
deanne and Rob for a coupleyears. So I was just absolutely thrilled
to have them be my mentors. Iwent to Farm Fair International.
(31:10):
I have never been humbled soquickly walking from the back of
a barn to the front of a barnin my entire life, because those
show cattle are next levelexceptional. Absolutely incredible.
Amazing cattle. Holy cow. But,you know, deanne said, I don't necessarily
(31:31):
have to have cattle that looklike this to be a successful purebred
breeder. So that was just avery. Already a good experience.
You know, I actually, I justgot my mentor. I just found out who
she was a couple weeks ago. Iknew she was going to be busy getting
ready for farm fare. I wasbusy with the tallow getting ready
(31:52):
for farm fare. So we had aquick little two hour conversation
on the phone, and then I metwith her in the show barns, and we're
going to touch base here inthe next week or so and really just
bounce off ideas. You know,you were asking about how I select
my heifers, and that's how Ido it. So, you know, asking her,
hey, like, how do you do yourheifer selection? How are you picking
(32:14):
your cattle for. For breeding?How are you picking your bull prospects?
Like, am I? And my mentalityparallel to the industry standard,
because again, being born andraised in the city, I have no idea.
I. I thought belted Gallowayswere super cute, and apparently not.
(32:36):
I just think that having amentor in a space that you have so
much passion about is one ofthe greatest gifts that you can have.
And the fact that there arepeople in our industry that are willing
to be so transparent with whatthey know and give you that gift
of knowledge, I just think,like, you Know, when I think of other
(33:00):
industries, is mentorship thesame way? Is mentorship handled the
same way? Is there that piecewhere there's still maybe that competition
mindset of I can't give awaymy secrets because, you know, I can't
Give the Secret 11 Herbs andspices because they will take it
away from me. But. But, youknow, having a mentor and honestly,
(33:22):
to have women in our industrythat are strong mentors is. I think
it's. We're pretty lucky andwe're pretty special for that.
Yes, 100%. I feel very blessedto not only have a mentor, but also
having a female mentor in itbecause she is also going to understand
the balance of not onlyworking and operating a farm, but
(33:47):
also needing to set aside timeto be a mother. And I do think my
previous experience cominginto the cattle industry very much
was like, nobody talks toanybody. You know, you ask how calving
season was, and they say, oh,it was good. It's a very, like, tight,
sealed box that nobody wantsanybody else know. Whereas again,
(34:11):
me as a person, I'm thecomplete opposite. I'm like, yeah,
we calved a hundred and I lostfive. One was to pneumonia, and one
was just born dead. And one,like, you know, I'm very open and
want to have thoseconversations because that's how
we all learn, you know, AndI'm not a gatekeeper. I'm a pretty
transparent person in all ofmy dealings. You know, in my cow
(34:33):
calf operation, in my farm totable beef program, in my newly developed
tallow business that Istarted. You know, I kind of chuckle
because I. I ran into a tallowcompany at a trade show this year.
But I asked them. I. I waslike, you know, how do you guys render
your tallow, like, mostefficiently? I want to make sure
(34:56):
I'm doing it in the mostefficient way. And if there's a better
way out there, I would love toknow about it. At which point they
responded with, well, that's aproprietorship. And I kind of had
a moment where I was like, Ididn't realize the rendering tallow
itself was a proprietorship. Iwas pretty sure there was only two
ways to do it, which is like,wet render, dry render. I just wanted
(35:18):
to know if you found, like, apot that helps, like, bigger batches
or when I'm straining it, thatit's a little bit more efficient
straining. But so I kind ofgiggle. I giggled at that, and I
had a moment of hilarity. Andultimately, the specific ingredients
are listed on the back of thecontainers. So you can tell what's
(35:38):
in it. My ratio that I willkeep a secret because that's, you
know, the, that's the secrettrade and that's what makes it special.
But getting from the fat offthe cow to the rendered product,
yeah, I'll, I'll teacheverybody how to do that. But there
is a lot of there thecompetitiveness and the closed doorness.
(35:59):
But I am very fortunate tohave found the CYL program, to have
found my mentor and to found agroup of people that, that just really
help continue to empower andpush all of my business decisions
and all of my adventures and avenues.
Yeah, for sure. Well, I'm soexcited for you and for that growth
(36:19):
that's going to happen fromthat second last question for you.
Looking back now, what advicewould you give young farmer Ashley
from where you started towhere you are today in your cattle
operation? In farming?
For a long time I said if Icould go back and tell myself anything,
(36:42):
it would be don't do kids andcows at the same time. And now that
my youngest is four now I'mlike, okay, it actually wasn't that
bad. I could do kids and cowstogether at the same time. It's not
a big deal. But when you're,when they were younger, it was hard.
And I think the advice that Iwould give myself in that time would
(37:07):
be just keep pushing, keepgoing. You know, never stop learning,
never stop striving forexcellence, never stop asking questions.
You know, knowledge is power.And I know that that's something
we've all heard and it's kindof one of those like, yeah, yeah,
okay, that sounds corny. Butthe reality is the more that I've
learned, the more that I'veeducated myself, the more that I've
(37:30):
put myself out there, the morethat I have gotten in return. This
entire journey for me, AWCwest really kicked off a whole new
side to me that I didn't evenreally realize was in there. It was
a radio show that a girlfriendcalled in and she was saying how
(37:50):
amazing this person was, howamazing this farmer was, and how
like, you know, know,incredible. And she's a go getter.
She's doing this all. And myhusband sent me the video, the voice
clip, and I, when I listenedto it, that was when I realized she
was talking about me. And atthat point I realized that what I
was doing could inspire otherswho are also maybe struggling. So
(38:14):
I really wanted to just likeshare my story and share my journey.
And yeah, it was hard. It wasfinancially hard, it was emotionally
hard. It was physically hard,but I really just surrounded myself
with a very supportive groupbetween my husband, my in laws and
my friends. And I heard otherpeople say this throughout the years
(38:38):
and I never like tangiblythought it was worth anything but
like mood boards or memoryboards or just like write down your
goals. What do you want? Youknow, do you want a 50 cow calf operation?
Okay, how do we get there? Sowriting down the goals and then putting
(39:03):
the money into it up front, Icannot tell you how much money I
lost or wasted on not gettingquality animals or not having a quality
facility. You know, I boughtauction mark cows that were pregnant,
(39:27):
that were a dime in thebucket, and in the long run, a thousand
percent I paid for it. Whereasif I would have bought from a reputable
breeder, whether that'spurebred or commercial, if I would
have putting more money out upfront, I would have been farther
(39:49):
ahead. So like that would be.If I could go back, it would be to
pay for the good cattle.Invest the money up front and it
will come back to you down theroad. But I was very short sighted.
I was very. I'm going to spendthis money this year and I'm going
(40:09):
to get these calves next yearand I'm going to get this paycheck
next year and I'm going tohave made my money and in a calendar
year. And I very much regretthat mentality because I do think
in the long run that that didhold me back more than propel me
forward. The other advice isjust, you know, keep pushing, Keep
(40:32):
pushing. Don't give up. It'stough, it's an uphill battle, but
keep pushing.
So good. Okay, and the last question.
Oh, the biggest one.
Ashley, what is the mostrewarding part for you in being a
farmer, being a rural woman?
I am free. And I know thatlike kind of sounds weird, but I
(40:55):
am free to do what I want.Ultimately. I can have my garden,
I can have my kids, I can havemy cows. I, I'm not held to a societal
standard. You know, I can dowhat I want, I can make the decisions
that I want and I'm not put ina box. And that was something. Growing
(41:19):
up in this city, I neverrealized that I was in a box. It's,
it's not necessarily a badthing, you know, like for anybody
who is born and raised in acity, that's not necessarily a bad
lifestyle, if that's thelifestyle you want. But like, I am
not controlled by anything.Nine times out of 10, I don't know
(41:40):
what day of the week. It isnine times out of 10, especially
in the summertime. I don'tknow when, you know, quiet time is
or no noise or, you know whatI mean? Like, we, I'm just, I'm free.
We can do, you know, we candirt bike, we can get quads, we can.
I can teach my kids about thefarming. All of my children, they
(42:01):
know how to drive the, theequipment. Some of them are better
than others, obviously. Myfour year old, she ain't great at
the whole steering wheelthing, but like, every single one
of my children taughtthemselves how to ride a pedal bike
because we just had a pedalbike here. And at any point in time
they could go outside. Iwasn't worried about, you know, them
(42:21):
playing on the street orhanging out in a mall or whatever.
They've gone and collectedfrogs and brought frogs. In my house
this summer, we had a goosethat hung around like, whatever.
Cool. So just the ability tojust come and go as I please. You
know, ultimately, like, dowhat we want, within reason, obviously,
(42:43):
but there is just a sense offreedom. And then there's also. It
is so overwhelmingly joyfulwhen you can plant a garden and then
you're feeding your familywith that garden and you're raising
chickens and butcheringchickens and like, it's. It's just
(43:05):
a freeing. I don't know howelse to explain it. That one, for
me is like the most amazing feeling.
It is, it is. And it's hard toexplain. I leave the hardest question
for last. Put into words whyyour life is so wonderful.
Right? Yeah. And honest toGod, I just like, I couldn't imagine
(43:30):
ever, ever being in a cityever again in my life.
Yep, you're hooked now. Sogood. Ashley, it has been such a
pleasure getting to hear youspeak about your passion, your love
for farming. All of the thingsfor listeners who would like to connect
with you after the show. Wherecan they find you online?
Yeah, so I'm kind ofeverywhere. I am on Facebook, so
(43:54):
either Ashley Propelkin orPropelkin Farms. Feel free, you know,
do both. Instagram, propelkinfarms, TikTok, propelkinfarms, and
of course our website ispropelkinfarms. Ca.
Perfect. And I will link allof those in the show notes so people
can find you and connect with you.
Perfect. Thank you so much.
Thank you again for sharingyour story with us today. I appreciate
(44:16):
it.
Thanks for listening to theRural Woman podcast. The Rural Woman
Podcast is more than just apodcast. We are a community. A huge
thank you to the Rural WomanPodcast Team Audio Editor Max Hofer.
(44:36):
A special thanks to ourPatreon Executive Producers Sarah
Riedner from Happiness by theAcre and Carrie Munven from Laystone
Farms. To learn how you can bebecome a Patreon Executive Producer
or other ways to financiallysupport the show, head on over to
wildrosefarmer.com to learnmore. Be sure to hit the Follow or
(44:58):
Subscribe button wherever youlisten to the podcast to get the
latest episodes directly onyour playlist. And if you are loving
the show, please be sure toleave a rating and review on Apple
Podcasts or any other platformthat accepts or ratings and reviews.
You can connect with us onsocial media, the Whirlwoman Podcast
(45:20):
and with me, wildrosefarmer.One of the best ways you can support
the show is by sharing it.Send this episode to a friend or
share on your social media.Let's strengthen and amplify the
voices of women in agriculturetogether. Until next time my friend,
keep sharing your story.
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