June 20, 2025 • 45 mins
On this week's episode of The Rural Woman Podcast™, you'll meet Erika Stewart.
Erika Stewart alongside her husband Cyle and their 3 daughters, operate Pine Ranch in Morse SK, where they run a commercial cow/calf operation and grass yearlings. They are constantly looking at ways to learn and improve production practices. Soil health, cattle nutrition and low stress handling are integral components to their operation. This year, Erika and Cyle were named Saskatchewan’s Outstanding Young Farmers.
For full show notes, including links mentioned in the show, head over to wildrosefarmer.com/225
. . .
THIS WEEK'S DISCUSSIONS:
[00:23] - Empowering Women in Agriculture
[03:07] - Introducing Erica Stewart: A Journey in Rural Entrepreneurship
[15:05] - Adapting Cattle Management Practices
[29:41] - Embracing Vulnerability in Agriculture
[34:21] - Transitioning Towards Business Management in Ranching
. . .
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Meet the Team
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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.
(00:40):
Hi, I'm Katelyn Duban and 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
(01:04):
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
(01:27):
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
(01:47):
our stories are worthy ofbeing told. Hey everyone. Welcome
back to another episode of theRural Woman Podcast. Today you'll
meet Erika Stewart, a rancher,educator, advocate and a proud Saskatchewanite.
(02:07):
Alongside her husband Kyle andtheir three daughters, Erika operates
Pine Ranch in Morse,Saskatchewan, where they raise commercial
cow calf pairs and grassyearlings with a strong focus on
soil health, low stress,cattle handling and continuous improvement.
Originally from Merritt,British Columbia, Erika shares the
(02:28):
powerful story behind theirdecision to relocate their entire
ranching operation to the pr,a move driven by necessity, reshaped
by resilience, and rooted indeep commitment to land and livestock.
Named Saskatchewan'sOutstanding Young Farmers, Erika
and Kyle are not only raisingcattle, but also raising the bar
(02:51):
on sustainable ranchingpractices. Erika serves as the provincial
coordinator for the VerifiedBeef Production plus program and
brings her passion foreducation and advocacy into in every
facet of her work, fromboardrooms to the classrooms and
beyond. In this episode,you'll hear how Erika's journey has
(03:11):
been shaped by droughtdetermination and drive to build
stronger communityconnections. Whether it's through
grazing management ormentoring the next generation, Erika
is a powerful voice in theCanadian agriculture scene and a
proud example of what it meansto be a rural woman today. Without
further ado, my friends, let'sget to this week's episode with Erika.
(03:41):
Erika, welcome to the RuralWoman Podcast. How are you today?
I'm really well, thanks,Katelyn. How are you?
I'm doing so well. I feel likeI'm just talking to my girlfriend
over a cup of coffee and I'mexcited to share your story and for
me to get to know more aboutyou and to share share some big moves
you've made in agriculture.
(04:02):
Well, thank you. Yeah, I'mreally looking forward to chatting.
With you as well, Erika, forthe folks who are unfamiliar with
you, give us your background,tell us who you are and where you're
from and how you're connectedto agriculture.
Yeah. So my name is ErikaStewart. I am a rancher. My family
and I ranch in Moore,Saskatchewan. So kind of the southwest
(04:23):
ish part of the province. Andyeah, I grew up on my family's ranch
and I've always been involvedin agriculture.
Born and raised a rancher.
Yes.
Yeah, but. But not inSaskatchewan. So where, where were
you born and raised?
That's right. So I wasactually born and raised on my family's
ranch in Merritt, B.C. so thesouthern interior of B.C. kind of
(04:45):
considered the semi desert wehad. Yeah, lots of mountains and
trees. Obviously it wasbeautiful BC and we had crown rangeland
that the cows would spend thesummer on. So vastly different from
Morris, Saskatchewan.
Right? Absolutely. Tell usabout your family's operation. How
long had you been ranching inMerritt, B.C. for?
(05:05):
Yeah, so my dad grew up onthat ranch. So they bought that place
in 1962. So yeah, he grew upthere. My brother and I grew up there.
And then we decided, made thereally hard decision like it was
not, you know, was not madelightly. I always, I love that place
and I honestly always thoughtI'd be there and, you know, raise
my family there. But there wasjust things that were too difficult
(05:29):
in that area that we justthought. My husband and I were quite
young when we knew this iswhat we wanted to do with our life.
And we didn't want to fightsome of the different policies and
things that were justhappening around us. So we looked
to Saskatchewan to find landand move our entire operation. So
in 2017, our ranch in B.C.sold and we found some land in Saskatchewan,
(05:52):
so here in Morse and moved thewhole ranching operation. So the
cows and everything. Yeah, to Morse.
So tell us, how does one movea ranching operation two provinces
over?
It was. Yeah. Now reflectingon it, it was kind of crazy and I
don't think I could do itagain. But it took a lot of pre planning,
(06:17):
I guess is the best word I cancome up with. So we moved eight liner
loads of cattle like cows andcalves. That was a bit tricky because
in B.C. we calved in Februaryjust so the calves were, you know,
big and strong enough to makeit out onto our summer range. Like
the pretty adverse conditions,the mountains and that. We had to
be out of our BC place inApril. So we had to move young calves.
(06:40):
So that was a lot ofconsultation with our Vet and nutritionist
on the best way to do that.And we, yeah, like I said, everything
was just super precise. So wegot possession of our Saskatchewan
Place on April 2. So myhusband moved like he left then and
to receive cattle. And dad andI and our oldest daughter stayed
behind to load trucks and sendtrucks and equipment his way. So
(07:04):
we would go into a field andpull out 40 pair three days before
the liner would come. The nextliner would come and we actually
change their rations. So wegive them more straw just to, you
know, keep the room in fullfor the 14 hour ride to Saskatchewan.
And then we. The day the truckwould come, we'd wake up at three,
(07:27):
make sure all the pears wereup and had nursed, and then make
sure we got pears on thetruck. That was the most nerve wracking
thing, I guess, right. When wego into a field and pull out pairs,
you had to make sure you haveexactly the right pears and loading
them too. We wouldn't getnecessarily 40 pairs on a truck,
but we'd pull 40 just to makesure, you know, if something looked
a little bit sicker off, wehad some wiggle room. So again, just
(07:49):
making sure we absolutely hadthe right pairs on the truck. It
was, it was a lot, but we did it.
Yeah, no doubt. I like the.It's always the thought right when,
when we think aboutagriculture, when we think about
ranching, it's just like, youknow, if you wanted to move somewhere
else, well, you can't reallymove the farm, but literally you'd
(08:10):
move the ranch. Tell us aboutwhat the process was like for you
and your husband to find a newproperty that was going to suit what
you wanted or really what youthink you wanted. Because like you
said, the conditions arecompletely different in merit, B.C.
(08:31):
versus Saskatchewan as a whole.
Yes, absolutely. So trying tofind land was actually probably the
most enjoyable part of thewhole deal. We looked a lot, so we
traveled around Saskatchewan alot. And I always joke that if I
ever make it to Texas, that'skind of on my bucket list. I'm gonna
go to like a real estateagency and say we're looking for
(08:51):
land because we got to seelike places off the beaten path that
we did not know existed. So welooked at some places in Saskatchewan,
like in the Big Muddy, likebeautiful, like coolies in East End.
Like you would not think it'slike what our typical view of Saskatchewan
is. So that was a lot of fun.And it did help a little bit. We,
you know, just got, got to seea little bit More of different areas
(09:15):
and benefits and, you know,drawbacks of different areas. Because
we did, we really didn't know.Right. Not being from here, you can
talk to people and try to getas much information as you can, but
still, until you live it, Ithink that's like everything. Right.
You don't know until you'reactually doing it.
Right? Absolutely. So talk tous now about, I guess the differences.
Like you said you had cabbedearlier in the year in bc, but what,
(09:42):
what are some of the maindifferences that you've noticed with
the operation side of things?
Yeah, so that was one of thebenefits we felt in moving was we
would have a little bit moremanagement control. So it was at
a time where I was reallyinvolved with the Canadian Cattle
association and learning allthese different, you know, management
(10:04):
practices and really wantingto try to implement things at home
but realizing it was reallyhard at our place in B.C. and not
saying all of B.C. is likethat. Just, you know, some of the
are, you know, in our contextthere are constraints. I don't think
we could have done them. Soone of them would be like pulling
bowls. Right. So you can, wecan manage our calving date here
(10:25):
because we have access to themall the time in B.C. our range is
a hundred thousand acres ofmountains and trees. And so like,
yes, we would go out therelike multiple times a week to move
cattle, but to actually say wecould go and get find all our bulls,
you know, it just wouldn't bepossible. So things like that are
big benefits. Like we havemore like management control and
(10:47):
can make those decisions herefor sure. Negatives would be for
us in particular,unfortunately. The year we moved
to Morris, it's pretty muchstopped raining and hasn't rained
much since. So that's honestlybeen such a struggle, the drought.
Yeah, it's nothing like weever knew or could fathom. So like,
where we were in B.C. it wasconsidered semi desert. So it was
(11:10):
dry, but we had a riverrunning right through our ranch.
So to us water was never anissue. Like cattle always had water.
We had. Sorry, we had water.Right. So we could irrigate off that
river to grow crops for winterfeed. So like, yes, it was dry, but
we had means to deal withthat. Whereas here you're literally
we're just dependent on rain.And when we don't get that, it has
(11:30):
a huge impact.
Right. And I, I was countingback the years and yeah, 2017, you
know, that was really like wehad been in drought already for us
here in Southern Alberta, but2017, it's really when it stopped
raining. Talk to us about themanagement practices because, you
know, there's obviously peoplelistening who live in very rainy
(11:53):
climates or, you know, atleast have the irrigation to make
it rain if they have to. Sowhat are some of the management practices
that you guys have had toadopt in order to mitigate or work
with the drought?
Yeah, so that's somethingwe've put a huge focus on the last
few years. And so I would say,like, the silver lining of the drought.
(12:14):
And I'm not saying this tomake light of it, it's been really
hard for us. Like, it's beensuch a struggle. We've sold over
100 cows just to make itthrough. So I say that, you know,
I say the silver lining. Notsaying it lightly. Right. But I would
think it, in a way, it hasbeen a benefit because if it. If
we would have moved and itkept raining, we could have just
kept doing what we were doing.And in a way, we almost just picked
(12:37):
up our BC ranch, put it hereand tried to carry on as we did in
B.C. and didn't really adaptinitially to maybe our different,
like, climate andcircumstances. And so the drought
really, though, highlightedmaybe some of those management practices
we needed to change or, youknow, adopt. And so grazing management
(12:58):
has been huge for us. It'sbeen a huge learning curve. Obviously,
we had to manage our grass inB.C. on. On range. It was just different.
Like I said, it was extensive.They had 100,000 acres and, you know,
we'd get small groups thatwe'd find when we were moving cows
and, you know, leave them hereand then come back in a few days
and push them a littlefarther. But here we have, like,
acres and they're, you know,more confined, if that makes sense.
(13:20):
Like, I don't really likeusing that word, but, you know, they're
in fields, they don't have allthat extensive land to roam around,
so. And our place here ismostly native range land, which we
are super proud to manage.Like, that is such neat land. Right.
Like, to know that it's thesame plant species that when the
(13:41):
bison roamed it and you know,the diversity and how many other
species it's home to and a lotof species at risk. Like, that's
something that we're reallyproud of and have really done a lot
of learning on. But it's alsocomes with its own unique management
requirements. So we try todelay turnout, like to delay our
grazing later into the yearfor our native grassland and be give
(14:04):
it a lot of rest. So there'swe try to pick a native field a year
that actually never getstouched, just to give that a really
great amount of rest and letthose plant roots, you know, make
sure they're healthy and canestablish and spread seed and things
like that. So that's on ournative side and we only have five
quarters of tame grass. And sothat's where we've really focused
(14:24):
our grazing management on. Andso we just completed a pipeline project
this summer. So we shallowburied 3 miles of pipeline and then
in one of the fields, it was atwo quarter field that we used to
just continually graze it.Last year we cut it up into 10 paddocks
and this year it'll beactually 25 smaller paddocks with
like about two or three daymoves just kind of. And so we're
(14:47):
super excited to really, youknow, increase our animal impact
on that tame grassland. Solast year, even just with small changes,
we saw such a difference inthe grass. And because we let it
rest so long, like we would goto one paddock and they wouldn't
see it, like wouldn't returnour residue or like our regrowth
(15:07):
is amazing. And that'ssomething that we didn't see before
in our old management system.So we're really excited for, you
know, the future of what wecan do and hopefully just, you know,
be able to produce moredollars per acre and then also just
like really getting our grassmore productive because that was
a thing like our tame grasswasn't productive. So you talked
(15:28):
about rejuvenating it,reseeding it, but you know that costs
money, diesel equipment. Andso if we could do it just with our
improving our practices andour cattle, that's something that
we're really excited about.
Yeah, that's really cool. Iwant to talk about the cattle. You
know, we talk about theimpacts of people moving from province
to province, but these cowswere likely born and raised a lot
(15:50):
of them in a mountain and thenyou brought them to the prairies.
So what was the impact on, onthe cattle and that move for them?
Such a great question. Andthat was something we honestly put
a lot of thought andconsideration in when we were moving.
And I will be totally honest,I think we were like really naive
in our move. Like we thoughtwe were. It was hard in B.C. mountains,
(16:12):
so we were moving toSaskatchewan. Like grass just grew
like it would be. I'm notdownplaying it. Like ranchers, farmers
anywhere are tough and youknow there's always adverse conditions.
But we honestly thought wewere making an easier move and so
we thought if our cows managedliterally in the mountains in B.C.
pretty much fending forthemselves, right. They had to find
there was water everywhere,but, you know, they had to find water
(16:34):
fending off predators, thatkind of thing. We thought making
the miles in the mountains, wehonestly thought that they would
just, it would be a prettyeasy life in Saskatchewan for our
cows. And so thinking aboutit, we're like, yeah, we probably
would buy Saskatchewan cowsand make them do the miles in B.C.
but we thought this way wouldbe all right. But yeah, I guess we
learned another hard lessonthere with that, that everywhere
(16:56):
has its downsides or, youknow, just everywhere is hard in
your own area. Right. Contextis everything. And so while, yes,
they didn't have mountains tocompete with, they had, you know,
really hot summers with noshade, which they probably weren't
used to. Water quality wasanother thing that literally blew
our mind. Like we had thatriver that ran right through our
(17:19):
range and right through ourranch. That was literally fresh water
from the mountains, fromrunoff and snow melt. So when we
moved here and talking aboutwater quality and testing your water,
like, it sounds like it'sembarrassing to say and it sounds
super naive now because weknow, but at the time, like, we had
no idea about any of that. So,yes, we test our water now, but that
(17:40):
was a big learning curve. Andyeah, so then just for our cows to
adapt to all that, I think youdon't give animals enough credit
for what they can do and adaptand then add the drought on there
too. Right. So now we broughtthem to a whole different type of
grass, you know, nutritionalprofile of grass, and then it's dry
too. So they've had a lot ofchallenges. Like I said, we've sold
(18:02):
a lot of cows because of thedrought just to make it work grass
wise and feed wise. Our openrates haven't been great throughout
the drought, but we're, youknow, learning how to manage that
better. And that all playsinto our grazing management. So we've
lost a lot of the B.C. cows,but there's still some. And I find
that super cool. Like, we'vegot one cow, she's 12, so born in
(18:23):
BC, lived the life in themountains and then has made it, made
the move, been able to, youknow, keep in calf throughout the
drought. So that's kind of special.
She's resilient, just like.
Absolutely.
(19:21):
Ranchers are right. Very cool,Very cool. So I want to talk to you
about your work with theCanadian Cattle Young Leader and
the Young Cattlemen's Council.So you Do a lot of work outside of
the ranch to really advocatefor your industry. Talk to us about
(19:42):
the different experiencesyou've had.
Yeah, so those are experiencesthat are, you know, really near and
dear to my heart. They reallyhelp, I feel, shaped my future in
the beef industry. So growingup, dad obviously was a rancher.
Worked so hard, had to workthrough a lot of things, right. Like,
he made it through bse, highinterest rates, all the things. Like,
I give him so much credit, buthe wasn't really involved in any
(20:04):
organization. So I never grewup understanding or be involved in
kind of the policy side ofthings. And when I got involved in
the Cattlemen's Young Leadersprogram, it was. I was the second
intake group. So the programwas relatively young and I was paired
up with mentors. So they werealso BC ranchers, Doug and Erika
Fossen. And yeah, it was justsuch a great experience. So learning
(20:27):
from them, but then also beinginvolved in CCA meetings, being able
to sit on, sit in on committeemeetings, their AGM in Ottawa, semiannual
meetings. So, yeah, it reallykind of sparked my interest for policy.
And for me, I really felt thatI wanted to continue to be involved,
to learn, but also to giveback and, you know, help help the
(20:50):
industry.
What is it? You know, I think.I think as farmers and ranchers,
you know, we, a lot of timeswe can definitely have opinions on
what policy should be andreally want to shape that direction
of where it's going. What wasit for you that really led you to
(21:12):
that policy? Why did you wantto impact the policy?
I think just like knowing thatthat was my passion and that's where
Kyle and I wanted how wewanted to live our life or, you know,
make a living. So just makingsure that policy that's being put
in place isn't too, like,incumbent on the producer. Cumbersome,
(21:33):
I should say, on the producer.But also making sure that we're always
looking ahead because at theend of the day, we want to ensure
consumer confidence and wewant to have that relationship. So
we can't just disregard thingsthat are issues. But I also don't
think we should just, youknow, like, be too pliable and say,
okay, this is what you want.We'll give it to you. I think there
(21:55):
needs to be a happy mediumthere and sharing our story and education,
to me and advocacy is reallyimportant if we can talk about all
the great things we do onfarm, different risk mitigation programs
we do, or just simpleconversations. So I also, I'm the
coordinator for the VerifiedBeef program in Saskatchewan. So
I deliver that program. Andaggravation was about a month ago.
(22:17):
And I volunteer our booth tobe a Stop for the Egg in the Classroom
school program. So we ask kidsa question, and I always try to ask
like, questions that are maybelike, controversial a little bit
to get the conversationbecause I feel if you just ask, people
don't generally ask thequestion they want or, you know,
that they, that maybe they'veheard of. So I ask about antimicrobials
(22:40):
and, you know, as a rancher,do you think I should be able to
give my cattle antibiotics ifthey're sick? And it's amazing to
me how many kids and parentsand teachers say no. And I do really
feel after a simpleconversation of like, oh, if you're
sick, do you think your mom ordad should take you to the doctor?
Like, doesn't that make youfeel better if you know you can get
(23:00):
medicine that makes you feelbetter? But also knowing that as
ranchers, we take our jobreally seriously, at the end of the
day, we're producing food forpeople to eat. And most of the people
I know take that job reallyseriously. And we want to do our
best for our animals and ourconsumers. And, and so being able
to tell them that. Did youknow on all the products we use,
there's withdrawal times. Soif I adhere to that, so if I use
(23:21):
a product and the withdrawaltime is 21 days or 28 days, whatever
it is, I just don't processthat animal for human consumption
in that timeframe. And thenyou can be rest assured that any
beef you buy in the, you know,in the grocery store is antibiotics,
like residue free. So justhaving those simple conversations
I think can be reallypowerful. So.
Right.
That's something that Ireally. Yeah.
(23:44):
And I think like coming from anon agriculture background myself,
I always play, you know, thedevil's advocate for, for the consumers.
Right. Because like, we aregiven the information that we are
told. So if we are told that,you know, this meat has no antibiotics
in it, well then of coursewe're thinking, are there some meats
(24:06):
that do have antibiotics init? Right. And we're not, you know,
that simple conversation isn'thad from a farmer or a rancher or
really anything that we'rebeing marketed to. So of course there's
confusion. But tell us moreabout the work that you do with egg
in the classroom, because Ithink that piece is so important
(24:26):
because we know that at ayoung age we learn about food and
where food comes from for themost part. And kids have that influence
over, you know, what they eatat home, too.
I think it's so important.That's something to me that I am.
I'm really passionate about.And I love how you said that because
I think sometimes in the eggindustry in general, and specifically
(24:50):
beef industry, but we don'thave enough of that. We kind of like,
talk in our own echo chamber.So, like, we know what we're doing
and we know all theresponsible practices we're doing,
but other people don't. Andlike you say it's completely fair
because you're gettinginundated with all this other marketing
that's meant to make youquestion it, right? To buy another
product. They're not trying tohelp us out and tell our story. And
(25:12):
I think for so long ingeneral, I would say people in agriculture
aren't really the ones, youknow, don't feel comfortable standing
up and talking and sharingtheir story. And I certainly didn't.
It's taken me a lot, you know,to feel comfortable doing it. And
I still get nervous and, youknow, should I say that or, you know,
that kind of thing, like, whatare people going to think that? But
I just kind of like, no, thisis our story. This is what we're
(25:34):
doing. I feel passionateenough to, you know, hopefully help
consumers understand. And so,yeah, we try to. I try to be involved
with egg in the classroom. Wehosted a teacher tour a few years
ago, and that's an angle of itthat I never really considered before.
But see, after that tour,seeing how important that is because
of how much influence teacherscan have on our students. Right?
(25:57):
So if they have amisperception or don't fully understand
something and maybe they sharethat unintentionally. I know, I remember
things my teacher shared. Sokids hang on to those things. So
if we can help at that level,too. So, yeah, we toured them around
and talked about what we do onour place. So that was, yeah, in
my mind, really something thatwas. I never thought about the teacher
(26:20):
part of it, but something Ireally, really enjoy doing and was
really happy to be able toprovide some information there. And
then we also hosted Food Farm.So that's another program through
Ag in the Classroom. So Ithink it was over 100 kids, maybe
even a little over 100 grades3 and 4 students would come out and
we had a whole bunch ofdifferent stations. So I did, you
(26:42):
know, I think they needed 12stations. So it was not something
that just I could do or ourfamily could do. So pulled in some
help from ministry ofagriculture and sod cap species at
risk. So we had a bunch ofdifferent stations and talked about,
you know, how cattle interactthe environment to different plant
species. They, like, went on awalk through the native grass and
identified plants and talkedabout our cows and. Yeah. So just
(27:06):
trying to bring kids to, like,a working ranch as much. Much as
possible, becauseunfortunately, they. Lots of them
have lost that connection.Right. They don't have an aunt and
uncle or grandparents that arestill on the farm. And in reality,
in agriculture, as primaryproducers, we're the, you know, less
than 2% feeding the rest ofthe population. So as often as we
(27:27):
can give a little bit ofinsight or share what we do, it's.
Yeah. Something I'm passionateabout and try to do.
Absolutely. And it's importantwork. Right. And I think it, you
know, we talk about howimportant it is to share our stories
and for consumers and peoplewho don't have that direct connection
to hear our stories and tohear what we're doing and how their
food is produced. I think it'salso important for other producers
(27:51):
to hear other people sharingtheir stories, to feel that connection
with one another. Right.Because like you said, the less than
2% population that's doingthis, so it can feel isolating and
lonely. Talk to me about thedifferent connections that you've
been able to make in theagriculture industry from working
in policy and really sharingyour story online.
(28:13):
Yeah, that's been huge as wellfor me. I'll, like, circle back probably
to see why all the cattlemen'syoung leaders. That was a pretty
big catalyst to meet people inthe industry that were doing all
this policy work and, like,learning from them. And then. Yeah,
I think sometimes you justhave to put yourself out there. Like,
I've met so many people whenyou're like, should I do this? I
(28:35):
don't know, like, so nervous.But always something, like, really
good has come from it. So Ialso have worked with farm and food
care Saskatchewan, and I.They're amazing group of people there
that do so much for theCanadian egg industry on, like, in
all the commodities. Justreally directed to consumers. So
I do some videos for them andjust. Yeah. Have learned so much
(28:57):
from them and have had somereally great experiences through,
like, literally putting myselfout there, being like, hey, I want
to make videos and share them.And. Yeah. So I just. Yeah, I just.
Those connections are so greatbecause that's what it boils down
to. It's like, who you know,and it helps introduce you to this
person who's doing this. Andyou can always learn something. So
(29:18):
I just. I love thoseconnections and meeting people and
learning. Right.
And I love what you said.Like, you know, there's always that
doubt, like, should I be doingthis? Should I say yes to this? Or
is there something more that Ican be doing? And I think there's
growth comes from thatuncomfortable zone. Right. Like stepping
outside of your comfort zone.It's not comfortable to be on video
(29:40):
talking about what you do oron a podcast sharing about what you
do or on a stage or anything.Recently, you and I were at the same
conference, and you weregiving presentations at the Emerge
Conference up in Lloydminster.Tell me about being the face of a
presentation and presenting infront of your peers. How did that
(30:03):
go for you?
It honestly went so well. Theladies at that conference was amazing.
I just want to say that. And Idid two breakout sessions, and everybody
was amazing. I had so muchfun, but I was so nervous. I feel
that was, like, the first timeI'd really shared my story to other
producers. And sometimesthat's. That not sometimes. It absolutely
(30:26):
does make me more nervous.Because you're. I don't want to ever
say, like, you know, what I'mdoing is better than what you're
doing, because I'm doingthings differently. Like, I am always
so, like, conscientious of notcoming off that way, because I don't.
I never think that. And so Ijust always. I always try to, like,
hammer home. It's justcontext, like, because this doesn't
(30:47):
work for me, or it does. Itdoesn't mean it's right or wrong.
And also just, yeah, you'rewith your peers, I guess, which is
wonderful if you're not theone standing up there sometimes.
But it was so much fun. Theladies were so great. I had a really
great time. And mypresentation was maybe different.
Not maybe it was differentthan anything I've ever done. I was,
like, quite vulnerable in itand talked about, like, our ranch,
(31:10):
obviously, and ranching andverified beef, but so, like, the
actual kind of beef productionside, but also just what it's like
sometimes being a wife and amother and a rancher and having a
job. And so, like, I showed avery vulnerable picture of, like,
our very messy house one day.Like, I was preparing for the conference
and, like, was just, like,looking around. I was like, this
is a disaster. But then tokind of have that camaraderie of,
(31:32):
like, we're not alone, like,sometimes your house will be a disaster
when you're trying to do 30other things, or, you know, not every.
You know, you can't holdeverything up all at once. So I shared
that, and I was super nervous.I, like, had deleted it out of my
presentation. Put it back in,deleted it. But in the end, I'm super
glad I shared it because therewas a lot of comments like, that's
life. And, you know, thanksfor sharing that. So, yeah, it was.
(31:54):
I felt that conference was areally special group of ladies, and
it was really fun. So I'm gladI did it, even though I was so nervous,
too. So, like.
Yeah, right. And once you'vedone it the first time, now you can
do it again and show everyoneelse your messy house and be like,
look, not everything is allcute cows and frolicking in a field.
(32:16):
Right. Like, yes, sometimesit's messy. And I feel like in the
middle of that mess is usuallywhen people are going to make those
connections. So thank you forbeing vulnerable with us and those
women there. It was. Was anamazing conference, and I had a lot
of fun talking about beingrecognized by your peers. You and
(32:41):
Kyle were nominated asSaskatchewan's Outstanding Young
Farmer of the year of 2024.That's gotta feel pretty cool.
Yeah, absolutely. It does.Yeah. It's pretty special.
So tell us about, I guess,that program and how you were told
(33:01):
and everything that kind ofcame with.
Yeah, so it was. It was a veryhumbling experience, I feel, you
know, I feel we all have that.Be, like, I don't know, we're not
doing anything that great or,you know, we haven't made great impacts
yet. Like, we talk about ourgrazing management, and I feel we're
just getting started down theroad, too, so. But anyhow, it was.
(33:21):
We were very humbled andhonored to be nominated. And so a
good friend nominated us. Sohe kind of told me, like, sent me
a message. Do we meet thecriteria? And would we accept? And
we did. It was, again, it wasa lot of work and we were very nervous
and, you know, I don't know ifwe should. You know. You just don't.
I feel that's a common themeand I'm trying to work on that. But,
(33:43):
like, are we outstanding or,you know, you know, can we accept
this? So we. Yeah, worked onthat, and it was. It was quite a
process. So there was anothercouple that were nominated for Saskatchewan,
and we've actually become verygood friends with them. They only.
We only live 40 minutes away,and before, we didn't know them.
We've got kids the same age,and we've actually, like, yeah, done
(34:03):
a lot of things together. Sowe're so grateful for that experience
and to have met them. Butyeah, during the. I don't know if
you call it a competition butyou know, we had to present and there's
judging and it is like, oh mygoodness, it's. It's a little bit
nerve wracking. But yeah, we.And again though, out of that, just
like you said, out of thatuncomfortable space is always so
(34:23):
much growth and I always findsomething positive comes from it.
So that was, yeah, amazing.And then because we won for Saskatchewan,
we got to compete at thenational level, which was at the
end of November in Lethbridge.So then there were other young farmers
from all across Canada. Sothey have Canada broken up into different
regions. So BC I think in theYukon, Alberta, Northwest Territories,
(34:48):
US Manitoba, Ontario, Quebecin the Maritime. So we got to meet
people from all over Canada invastly different aspects of agriculture.
And we had such a fun groupand had such a great week together.
Even though again, very nervewracking too, like judging and presenting
in front of hundreds ofpeople. But yeah, so much positive
came out of it.
(35:09):
Very cool. And I just thinkit's a really neat program to really
highlight the incrediblethings that young people in agriculture
are doing. And you got to cometo my hometown for a week. So.
Oh, was it. I didn't realizethat Y.
Born and raised. Yeah. That'swhy we all lean to the east in Lethbridge.
(35:35):
If you ever see me leaning tothe east, that's why we walk that
way. What is next for you,Erika and the ranch?
Oh, such a great question.
Yeah.
I feel like right now there'sjust a lot going on where I took
the ranching for profit schoollast year in February. So there was
(35:55):
a ton of learning from that.More focused on like the business
because we are, we're runninga business and I think sometimes
we forget about that in theday to day, all the work we need
to get done or just wouldrather be outside and look at numbers
and things like that. So yeah,Kyle and I have a lot of goals around
actually working, they call itin ranching for profit, working on
(36:16):
the business, not just workingin the business and doing the fun
things that we. Well, notalways fun, but most of the time.
Right. It's enjoyable to beoutside working with our animals.
So yeah, we have goals aroundthat. We try to schedule more actual
business meetings and lookingat numbers more. So we did something
last year that I think workedin our favor and again, you never
know how it's going to shakedown with Markets because we don't,
(36:37):
you know, at the end of theday, we don't have all the control.
But if we try to makedecisions, you know, based on the
best information we have. Sowe ended up selling, we. So we have
a commercial cow calfoperation and then we also grass
yearlings. And so we decidedactually to not keep as many replacement
heifers because the grassyearling market was really strong.
So things that we hadn'treally considered before and just
(37:00):
actually penciling things outa little bit better. So that's really
big for us right now. And thenjust really leaning into this grazing
management. So we call it ampgrazing. So adaptive multi paddock
grazing with our pipelinesystem. So just getting water to
all the different parts of ourranch is another big goal. So like
I said, we did three miles ofthe shallow buried pipeline. And
(37:21):
when we see that, we've likebeen playing on Google, Google Maps
to. Or, sorry, Google Earth,so you can see the pastures and how
big they are. And so we'vedrawn it out like if you could put
a pipeline kind of around ourwhole ranch. The other cool thing
about our places is actuallyall in a block. So it helps. It's
one of our unfair advantages,we call it, when we try to think
about benefits of our place orhow we can use that to our advantage
(37:45):
because we can graze, like wehave them all there so we can really
manage their grazing. And ifwe try and really improve our tame
grass production, if we canmaybe not turn out on our native
grass till like August,September, that would also help us
because they can graze thatlonger into the winter. And then
we wouldn't have to startfeeding until like February is kind
(38:06):
of our goal. And that wouldreally decrease our costs, like our
winter feed costs, which wouldreally help us. So playing with things
like that and just, yeah,we're really excited about this grazing
management and we're trying totake a lot of baseline metrics so
we can actually, you know, seeif it is improving or is going to
improve. Like in theory itshould. So we're excited about that.
(38:28):
Very cool. Well, you mentionedtaking this course. What other resources
have you found most helpfulwhen it comes to learning about grazing
management?
That course was reallyhelpful. I would like to take the
holistic management course aswell. But also just talking to people,
I find sometimes those are thebest resources. Like people that
(38:49):
have been doing it for a lotlonger than us, their trial and errors.
And then we don't have torepeat the mistake, you know, and
learn that hard way. So, yeah,Like I said, I feel like, like going
to conferences, meetingpeople, sometimes it, you know, you're
busy, you can always make anexcuse not to go. But I've literally
found anytime I've wentsomewhere, I've met somebody, I've
(39:11):
learned something. So I just.Yeah, to me that's huge. We were
also. So Kyle and I, this wasa few years ago, but we were asked
to be mentors in the BeefCattle Research Council mentorship
program. So where they pairresearchers up with producers. Because
we obviously like need ourresearchers to help, you know, always
ensure our industry isinnovative. But. But in lots of cases
they don't have like on farmpractical experience. So that's what
(39:34):
this program provides. And itwas super fun. We got paired up with.
His name's Tony and he has hispostdoc and he's so smart and he's
does research and yonis andall sorts of things. And yet again
we were like, I don't thinkthis is like, do you have the right
people? Like, he's so smart,but it's been so fun. We've learned
so much from him. And then onthat they like had a tour for us
(39:57):
and again we had to drive toCalgary. It was in fall. It wasn't
really great timing for us.We're like, no, we're gonna go. And
we ended up touring a ranchwhere again Kyle and I could have
been like, we don't need totour a ranch. But we met Steven Hughes
from Chinook Ranches, who doesa lot of grazing, understands grazing
and grazing native grass andlike, he's like one of Kyle's mentors
now. So just I guess puttingyourself out there, meeting people
(40:19):
and really talking to peopleand I feel, yeah, helping or that
has helped us so much ashaving those people who have done
it and have experience and wereally do lean on them and ask them
questions.
Yeah, for sure. In terms ofwork that you do outside of the ranch,
in terms of policy andadvocating, what do you hope is next
(40:43):
for you in that? Do you haveany big plans? I think this is where
we ask you if you're going torun for government.
But we won't do that. No.
No, no.
I think I. I guess I don'thave big plans, to be honest. It's
more small plans becausesometimes I feel I'm really bad at
saying yes to everything,which I've just kind of advocated
(41:05):
for. But I've always foundbenefit in it. But then I do like
not a great job of things andI don't like that either. So actually,
my goal for January is tostart doing my videos again for farm
and food care. So I used to doa monthly video of just. That's something
that's important that we'redoing on the ranch. And I've been
pretty slack lately. Butthat's something to me that's really
important because like I say,they do a lot of great advocacy work
(41:29):
and it's shared on theirYouTube channel. And so I'd like
to get back to doing that. Soit's not a huge goal, I guess. Small
steps. Yes, that would be a goal.
Those small steps make bigimpact, though. For sure.
I hope so.
Yeah. And it's always good toremember that too, right? Like, the
small things add up to bigthings. We don't have to say yes
(41:49):
to absolutely everythingthat's thrown at us. And like you
said, doing a good job atthose small things makes a bigger
impact.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Erika, my last question foryou is, what is the most rewarding
part about being a rural womanfor you?
I think the most rewardingpart is making a life living on the
(42:13):
land and with animals andbeing able to share that story with
our children, like being ableto pass that knowledge and hopefully
that passion down and alsojust share it with consumers and
the people who don't get thatopportunity or experience. Because
like I said before, we're theminority. Right. We're the 1 1/2
ish percent that is producingfood for people to consume and to
(42:35):
nourish their bodies. So Ithink that's such an important job
and I just love sharing thatstory about how much knowledge and
passion goes into it.
I love it. So good. Erika,thank you so much for sharing your
story with us. For the folkslistening who would like to connect
with you after the show, wherecan they find you online?
(42:56):
Yeah, so I have Facebook,Erika Strand Stewart and Instagram
Pine Ranch limited And we alsohave a website where we share information
about beef production and ourvideos from farm and food care. So
that's www.pineranch. ca.
Perfect. And I will link allof those in the show notes so people
can find you and connect with you.
(43:17):
Well, thank you so much,Katelyn, for the chat today. It was
really fun.
It was so great.
Thanks, Erika. Thanks forlistening to the Rural Woman Podcast.
The Rural Woman Podcast ismore than just a podcast. We are
a community. A huge thank youto the Rural Woman Podcast team.
(43:39):
Audio editor Max Hofer. Aspecial thanks to our Patreon executive
producers, Sarah Riedner fromHappiness by the Acre to learn how
you can become a PatreonExecutive Producer or other ways
to financially support theshow. Head on over to wildrosefarmer.com
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(44:02):
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(44:25):
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Send this episode to a friendor share on your social media let's
strengthen and amplify thevoices of women in agriculture together.
Until next time, my friend.Keep sharing your story.
Hi, I'm Katelyn Duban and 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
(01:04):
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
(01:27):
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
(01:47):
our stories are worthy ofbeing told. Hey everyone. Welcome
back to another episode of theRural Woman Podcast. Today you'll
meet Erika Stewart, a rancher,educator, advocate and a proud Saskatchewanite.
(02:07):
Alongside her husband Kyle andtheir three daughters, Erika operates
Pine Ranch in Morse,Saskatchewan, where they raise commercial
cow calf pairs and grassyearlings with a strong focus on
soil health, low stress,cattle handling and continuous improvement.
Originally from Merritt,British Columbia, Erika shares the
(02:28):
powerful story behind theirdecision to relocate their entire
ranching operation to the pr,a move driven by necessity, reshaped
by resilience, and rooted indeep commitment to land and livestock.
Named Saskatchewan'sOutstanding Young Farmers, Erika
and Kyle are not only raisingcattle, but also raising the bar
(02:51):
on sustainable ranchingpractices. Erika serves as the provincial
coordinator for the VerifiedBeef Production plus program and
brings her passion foreducation and advocacy into in every
facet of her work, fromboardrooms to the classrooms and
beyond. In this episode,you'll hear how Erika's journey has
(03:11):
been shaped by droughtdetermination and drive to build
stronger communityconnections. Whether it's through
grazing management ormentoring the next generation, Erika
is a powerful voice in theCanadian agriculture scene and a
proud example of what it meansto be a rural woman today. Without
further ado, my friends, let'sget to this week's episode with Erika.
(03:41):
Erika, welcome to the RuralWoman Podcast. How are you today?
I'm really well, thanks,Katelyn. How are you?
I'm doing so well. I feel likeI'm just talking to my girlfriend
over a cup of coffee and I'mexcited to share your story and for
me to get to know more aboutyou and to share share some big moves
you've made in agriculture.
(04:02):
Well, thank you. Yeah, I'mreally looking forward to chatting.
With you as well, Erika, forthe folks who are unfamiliar with
you, give us your background,tell us who you are and where you're
from and how you're connectedto agriculture.
Yeah. So my name is ErikaStewart. I am a rancher. My family
and I ranch in Moore,Saskatchewan. So kind of the southwest
(04:23):
ish part of the province. Andyeah, I grew up on my family's ranch
and I've always been involvedin agriculture.
Born and raised a rancher.
Yes.
Yeah, but. But not inSaskatchewan. So where, where were
you born and raised?
That's right. So I wasactually born and raised on my family's
ranch in Merritt, B.C. so thesouthern interior of B.C. kind of
(04:45):
considered the semi desert wehad. Yeah, lots of mountains and
trees. Obviously it wasbeautiful BC and we had crown rangeland
that the cows would spend thesummer on. So vastly different from
Morris, Saskatchewan.
Right? Absolutely. Tell usabout your family's operation. How
long had you been ranching inMerritt, B.C. for?
(05:05):
Yeah, so my dad grew up onthat ranch. So they bought that place
in 1962. So yeah, he grew upthere. My brother and I grew up there.
And then we decided, made thereally hard decision like it was
not, you know, was not madelightly. I always, I love that place
and I honestly always thoughtI'd be there and, you know, raise
my family there. But there wasjust things that were too difficult
(05:29):
in that area that we justthought. My husband and I were quite
young when we knew this iswhat we wanted to do with our life.
And we didn't want to fightsome of the different policies and
things that were justhappening around us. So we looked
to Saskatchewan to find landand move our entire operation. So
in 2017, our ranch in B.C.sold and we found some land in Saskatchewan,
(05:52):
so here in Morse and moved thewhole ranching operation. So the
cows and everything. Yeah, to Morse.
So tell us, how does one movea ranching operation two provinces
over?
It was. Yeah. Now reflectingon it, it was kind of crazy and I
don't think I could do itagain. But it took a lot of pre planning,
(06:17):
I guess is the best word I cancome up with. So we moved eight liner
loads of cattle like cows andcalves. That was a bit tricky because
in B.C. we calved in Februaryjust so the calves were, you know,
big and strong enough to makeit out onto our summer range. Like
the pretty adverse conditions,the mountains and that. We had to
be out of our BC place inApril. So we had to move young calves.
(06:40):
So that was a lot ofconsultation with our Vet and nutritionist
on the best way to do that.And we, yeah, like I said, everything
was just super precise. So wegot possession of our Saskatchewan
Place on April 2. So myhusband moved like he left then and
to receive cattle. And dad andI and our oldest daughter stayed
behind to load trucks and sendtrucks and equipment his way. So
(07:04):
we would go into a field andpull out 40 pair three days before
the liner would come. The nextliner would come and we actually
change their rations. So wegive them more straw just to, you
know, keep the room in fullfor the 14 hour ride to Saskatchewan.
And then we. The day the truckwould come, we'd wake up at three,
(07:27):
make sure all the pears wereup and had nursed, and then make
sure we got pears on thetruck. That was the most nerve wracking
thing, I guess, right. When wego into a field and pull out pairs,
you had to make sure you haveexactly the right pears and loading
them too. We wouldn't getnecessarily 40 pairs on a truck,
but we'd pull 40 just to makesure, you know, if something looked
a little bit sicker off, wehad some wiggle room. So again, just
(07:49):
making sure we absolutely hadthe right pairs on the truck. It
was, it was a lot, but we did it.
Yeah, no doubt. I like the.It's always the thought right when,
when we think aboutagriculture, when we think about
ranching, it's just like, youknow, if you wanted to move somewhere
else, well, you can't reallymove the farm, but literally you'd
(08:10):
move the ranch. Tell us aboutwhat the process was like for you
and your husband to find a newproperty that was going to suit what
you wanted or really what youthink you wanted. Because like you
said, the conditions arecompletely different in merit, B.C.
(08:31):
versus Saskatchewan as a whole.
Yes, absolutely. So trying tofind land was actually probably the
most enjoyable part of thewhole deal. We looked a lot, so we
traveled around Saskatchewan alot. And I always joke that if I
ever make it to Texas, that'skind of on my bucket list. I'm gonna
go to like a real estateagency and say we're looking for
(08:51):
land because we got to seelike places off the beaten path that
we did not know existed. So welooked at some places in Saskatchewan,
like in the Big Muddy, likebeautiful, like coolies in East End.
Like you would not think it'slike what our typical view of Saskatchewan
is. So that was a lot of fun.And it did help a little bit. We,
you know, just got, got to seea little bit More of different areas
(09:15):
and benefits and, you know,drawbacks of different areas. Because
we did, we really didn't know.Right. Not being from here, you can
talk to people and try to getas much information as you can, but
still, until you live it, Ithink that's like everything. Right.
You don't know until you'reactually doing it.
Right? Absolutely. So talk tous now about, I guess the differences.
Like you said you had cabbedearlier in the year in bc, but what,
(09:42):
what are some of the maindifferences that you've noticed with
the operation side of things?
Yeah, so that was one of thebenefits we felt in moving was we
would have a little bit moremanagement control. So it was at
a time where I was reallyinvolved with the Canadian Cattle
association and learning allthese different, you know, management
(10:04):
practices and really wantingto try to implement things at home
but realizing it was reallyhard at our place in B.C. and not
saying all of B.C. is likethat. Just, you know, some of the
are, you know, in our contextthere are constraints. I don't think
we could have done them. Soone of them would be like pulling
bowls. Right. So you can, wecan manage our calving date here
(10:25):
because we have access to themall the time in B.C. our range is
a hundred thousand acres ofmountains and trees. And so like,
yes, we would go out therelike multiple times a week to move
cattle, but to actually say wecould go and get find all our bulls,
you know, it just wouldn't bepossible. So things like that are
big benefits. Like we havemore like management control and
(10:47):
can make those decisions herefor sure. Negatives would be for
us in particular,unfortunately. The year we moved
to Morris, it's pretty muchstopped raining and hasn't rained
much since. So that's honestlybeen such a struggle, the drought.
Yeah, it's nothing like weever knew or could fathom. So like,
where we were in B.C. it wasconsidered semi desert. So it was
(11:10):
dry, but we had a riverrunning right through our ranch.
So to us water was never anissue. Like cattle always had water.
We had. Sorry, we had water.Right. So we could irrigate off that
river to grow crops for winterfeed. So like, yes, it was dry, but
we had means to deal withthat. Whereas here you're literally
we're just dependent on rain.And when we don't get that, it has
(11:30):
a huge impact.
Right. And I, I was countingback the years and yeah, 2017, you
know, that was really like wehad been in drought already for us
here in Southern Alberta, but2017, it's really when it stopped
raining. Talk to us about themanagement practices because, you
know, there's obviously peoplelistening who live in very rainy
(11:53):
climates or, you know, atleast have the irrigation to make
it rain if they have to. Sowhat are some of the management practices
that you guys have had toadopt in order to mitigate or work
with the drought?
Yeah, so that's somethingwe've put a huge focus on the last
few years. And so I would say,like, the silver lining of the drought.
(12:14):
And I'm not saying this tomake light of it, it's been really
hard for us. Like, it's beensuch a struggle. We've sold over
100 cows just to make itthrough. So I say that, you know,
I say the silver lining. Notsaying it lightly. Right. But I would
think it, in a way, it hasbeen a benefit because if it. If
we would have moved and itkept raining, we could have just
kept doing what we were doing.And in a way, we almost just picked
(12:37):
up our BC ranch, put it hereand tried to carry on as we did in
B.C. and didn't really adaptinitially to maybe our different,
like, climate andcircumstances. And so the drought
really, though, highlightedmaybe some of those management practices
we needed to change or, youknow, adopt. And so grazing management
(12:58):
has been huge for us. It'sbeen a huge learning curve. Obviously,
we had to manage our grass inB.C. on. On range. It was just different.
Like I said, it was extensive.They had 100,000 acres and, you know,
we'd get small groups thatwe'd find when we were moving cows
and, you know, leave them hereand then come back in a few days
and push them a littlefarther. But here we have, like,
acres and they're, you know,more confined, if that makes sense.
(13:20):
Like, I don't really likeusing that word, but, you know, they're
in fields, they don't have allthat extensive land to roam around,
so. And our place here ismostly native range land, which we
are super proud to manage.Like, that is such neat land. Right.
Like, to know that it's thesame plant species that when the
(13:41):
bison roamed it and you know,the diversity and how many other
species it's home to and a lotof species at risk. Like, that's
something that we're reallyproud of and have really done a lot
of learning on. But it's alsocomes with its own unique management
requirements. So we try todelay turnout, like to delay our
grazing later into the yearfor our native grassland and be give
(14:04):
it a lot of rest. So there'swe try to pick a native field a year
that actually never getstouched, just to give that a really
great amount of rest and letthose plant roots, you know, make
sure they're healthy and canestablish and spread seed and things
like that. So that's on ournative side and we only have five
quarters of tame grass. And sothat's where we've really focused
(14:24):
our grazing management on. Andso we just completed a pipeline project
this summer. So we shallowburied 3 miles of pipeline and then
in one of the fields, it was atwo quarter field that we used to
just continually graze it.Last year we cut it up into 10 paddocks
and this year it'll beactually 25 smaller paddocks with
like about two or three daymoves just kind of. And so we're
(14:47):
super excited to really, youknow, increase our animal impact
on that tame grassland. Solast year, even just with small changes,
we saw such a difference inthe grass. And because we let it
rest so long, like we would goto one paddock and they wouldn't
see it, like wouldn't returnour residue or like our regrowth
(15:07):
is amazing. And that'ssomething that we didn't see before
in our old management system.So we're really excited for, you
know, the future of what wecan do and hopefully just, you know,
be able to produce moredollars per acre and then also just
like really getting our grassmore productive because that was
a thing like our tame grasswasn't productive. So you talked
(15:28):
about rejuvenating it,reseeding it, but you know that costs
money, diesel equipment. Andso if we could do it just with our
improving our practices andour cattle, that's something that
we're really excited about.
Yeah, that's really cool. Iwant to talk about the cattle. You
know, we talk about theimpacts of people moving from province
to province, but these cowswere likely born and raised a lot
(15:50):
of them in a mountain and thenyou brought them to the prairies.
So what was the impact on, onthe cattle and that move for them?
Such a great question. Andthat was something we honestly put
a lot of thought andconsideration in when we were moving.
And I will be totally honest,I think we were like really naive
in our move. Like we thoughtwe were. It was hard in B.C. mountains,
(16:12):
so we were moving toSaskatchewan. Like grass just grew
like it would be. I'm notdownplaying it. Like ranchers, farmers
anywhere are tough and youknow there's always adverse conditions.
But we honestly thought wewere making an easier move and so
we thought if our cows managedliterally in the mountains in B.C.
pretty much fending forthemselves, right. They had to find
there was water everywhere,but, you know, they had to find water
(16:34):
fending off predators, thatkind of thing. We thought making
the miles in the mountains, wehonestly thought that they would
just, it would be a prettyeasy life in Saskatchewan for our
cows. And so thinking aboutit, we're like, yeah, we probably
would buy Saskatchewan cowsand make them do the miles in B.C.
but we thought this way wouldbe all right. But yeah, I guess we
learned another hard lessonthere with that, that everywhere
(16:56):
has its downsides or, youknow, just everywhere is hard in
your own area. Right. Contextis everything. And so while, yes,
they didn't have mountains tocompete with, they had, you know,
really hot summers with noshade, which they probably weren't
used to. Water quality wasanother thing that literally blew
our mind. Like we had thatriver that ran right through our
(17:19):
range and right through ourranch. That was literally fresh water
from the mountains, fromrunoff and snow melt. So when we
moved here and talking aboutwater quality and testing your water,
like, it sounds like it'sembarrassing to say and it sounds
super naive now because weknow, but at the time, like, we had
no idea about any of that. So,yes, we test our water now, but that
(17:40):
was a big learning curve. Andyeah, so then just for our cows to
adapt to all that, I think youdon't give animals enough credit
for what they can do and adaptand then add the drought on there
too. Right. So now we broughtthem to a whole different type of
grass, you know, nutritionalprofile of grass, and then it's dry
too. So they've had a lot ofchallenges. Like I said, we've sold
(18:02):
a lot of cows because of thedrought just to make it work grass
wise and feed wise. Our openrates haven't been great throughout
the drought, but we're, youknow, learning how to manage that
better. And that all playsinto our grazing management. So we've
lost a lot of the B.C. cows,but there's still some. And I find
that super cool. Like, we'vegot one cow, she's 12, so born in
(18:23):
BC, lived the life in themountains and then has made it, made
the move, been able to, youknow, keep in calf throughout the
drought. So that's kind of special.
She's resilient, just like.
Absolutely.
(19:21):
Ranchers are right. Very cool,Very cool. So I want to talk to you
about your work with theCanadian Cattle Young Leader and
the Young Cattlemen's Council.So you Do a lot of work outside of
the ranch to really advocatefor your industry. Talk to us about
(19:42):
the different experiencesyou've had.
Yeah, so those are experiencesthat are, you know, really near and
dear to my heart. They reallyhelp, I feel, shaped my future in
the beef industry. So growingup, dad obviously was a rancher.
Worked so hard, had to workthrough a lot of things, right. Like,
he made it through bse, highinterest rates, all the things. Like,
I give him so much credit, buthe wasn't really involved in any
(20:04):
organization. So I never grewup understanding or be involved in
kind of the policy side ofthings. And when I got involved in
the Cattlemen's Young Leadersprogram, it was. I was the second
intake group. So the programwas relatively young and I was paired
up with mentors. So they werealso BC ranchers, Doug and Erika
Fossen. And yeah, it was justsuch a great experience. So learning
(20:27):
from them, but then also beinginvolved in CCA meetings, being able
to sit on, sit in on committeemeetings, their AGM in Ottawa, semiannual
meetings. So, yeah, it reallykind of sparked my interest for policy.
And for me, I really felt thatI wanted to continue to be involved,
to learn, but also to giveback and, you know, help help the
(20:50):
industry.
What is it? You know, I think.I think as farmers and ranchers,
you know, we, a lot of timeswe can definitely have opinions on
what policy should be andreally want to shape that direction
of where it's going. What wasit for you that really led you to
(21:12):
that policy? Why did you wantto impact the policy?
I think just like knowing thatthat was my passion and that's where
Kyle and I wanted how wewanted to live our life or, you know,
make a living. So just makingsure that policy that's being put
in place isn't too, like,incumbent on the producer. Cumbersome,
(21:33):
I should say, on the producer.But also making sure that we're always
looking ahead because at theend of the day, we want to ensure
consumer confidence and wewant to have that relationship. So
we can't just disregard thingsthat are issues. But I also don't
think we should just, youknow, like, be too pliable and say,
okay, this is what you want.We'll give it to you. I think there
(21:55):
needs to be a happy mediumthere and sharing our story and education,
to me and advocacy is reallyimportant if we can talk about all
the great things we do onfarm, different risk mitigation programs
we do, or just simpleconversations. So I also, I'm the
coordinator for the VerifiedBeef program in Saskatchewan. So
I deliver that program. Andaggravation was about a month ago.
(22:17):
And I volunteer our booth tobe a Stop for the Egg in the Classroom
school program. So we ask kidsa question, and I always try to ask
like, questions that are maybelike, controversial a little bit
to get the conversationbecause I feel if you just ask, people
don't generally ask thequestion they want or, you know,
that they, that maybe they'veheard of. So I ask about antimicrobials
(22:40):
and, you know, as a rancher,do you think I should be able to
give my cattle antibiotics ifthey're sick? And it's amazing to
me how many kids and parentsand teachers say no. And I do really
feel after a simpleconversation of like, oh, if you're
sick, do you think your mom ordad should take you to the doctor?
Like, doesn't that make youfeel better if you know you can get
(23:00):
medicine that makes you feelbetter? But also knowing that as
ranchers, we take our jobreally seriously, at the end of the
day, we're producing food forpeople to eat. And most of the people
I know take that job reallyseriously. And we want to do our
best for our animals and ourconsumers. And, and so being able
to tell them that. Did youknow on all the products we use,
there's withdrawal times. Soif I adhere to that, so if I use
(23:21):
a product and the withdrawaltime is 21 days or 28 days, whatever
it is, I just don't processthat animal for human consumption
in that timeframe. And thenyou can be rest assured that any
beef you buy in the, you know,in the grocery store is antibiotics,
like residue free. So justhaving those simple conversations
I think can be reallypowerful. So.
Right.
That's something that Ireally. Yeah.
(23:44):
And I think like coming from anon agriculture background myself,
I always play, you know, thedevil's advocate for, for the consumers.
Right. Because like, we aregiven the information that we are
told. So if we are told that,you know, this meat has no antibiotics
in it, well then of coursewe're thinking, are there some meats
(24:06):
that do have antibiotics init? Right. And we're not, you know,
that simple conversation isn'thad from a farmer or a rancher or
really anything that we'rebeing marketed to. So of course there's
confusion. But tell us moreabout the work that you do with egg
in the classroom, because Ithink that piece is so important
(24:26):
because we know that at ayoung age we learn about food and
where food comes from for themost part. And kids have that influence
over, you know, what they eatat home, too.
I think it's so important.That's something to me that I am.
I'm really passionate about.And I love how you said that because
I think sometimes in the eggindustry in general, and specifically
(24:50):
beef industry, but we don'thave enough of that. We kind of like,
talk in our own echo chamber.So, like, we know what we're doing
and we know all theresponsible practices we're doing,
but other people don't. Andlike you say it's completely fair
because you're gettinginundated with all this other marketing
that's meant to make youquestion it, right? To buy another
product. They're not trying tohelp us out and tell our story. And
(25:12):
I think for so long ingeneral, I would say people in agriculture
aren't really the ones, youknow, don't feel comfortable standing
up and talking and sharingtheir story. And I certainly didn't.
It's taken me a lot, you know,to feel comfortable doing it. And
I still get nervous and, youknow, should I say that or, you know,
that kind of thing, like, whatare people going to think that? But
I just kind of like, no, thisis our story. This is what we're
(25:34):
doing. I feel passionateenough to, you know, hopefully help
consumers understand. And so,yeah, we try to. I try to be involved
with egg in the classroom. Wehosted a teacher tour a few years
ago, and that's an angle of itthat I never really considered before.
But see, after that tour,seeing how important that is because
of how much influence teacherscan have on our students. Right?
(25:57):
So if they have amisperception or don't fully understand
something and maybe they sharethat unintentionally. I know, I remember
things my teacher shared. Sokids hang on to those things. So
if we can help at that level,too. So, yeah, we toured them around
and talked about what we do onour place. So that was, yeah, in
my mind, really something thatwas. I never thought about the teacher
(26:20):
part of it, but something Ireally, really enjoy doing and was
really happy to be able toprovide some information there. And
then we also hosted Food Farm.So that's another program through
Ag in the Classroom. So Ithink it was over 100 kids, maybe
even a little over 100 grades3 and 4 students would come out and
we had a whole bunch ofdifferent stations. So I did, you
(26:42):
know, I think they needed 12stations. So it was not something
that just I could do or ourfamily could do. So pulled in some
help from ministry ofagriculture and sod cap species at
risk. So we had a bunch ofdifferent stations and talked about,
you know, how cattle interactthe environment to different plant
species. They, like, went on awalk through the native grass and
identified plants and talkedabout our cows and. Yeah. So just
(27:06):
trying to bring kids to, like,a working ranch as much. Much as
possible, becauseunfortunately, they. Lots of them
have lost that connection.Right. They don't have an aunt and
uncle or grandparents that arestill on the farm. And in reality,
in agriculture, as primaryproducers, we're the, you know, less
than 2% feeding the rest ofthe population. So as often as we
(27:27):
can give a little bit ofinsight or share what we do, it's.
Yeah. Something I'm passionateabout and try to do.
Absolutely. And it's importantwork. Right. And I think it, you
know, we talk about howimportant it is to share our stories
and for consumers and peoplewho don't have that direct connection
to hear our stories and tohear what we're doing and how their
food is produced. I think it'salso important for other producers
(27:51):
to hear other people sharingtheir stories, to feel that connection
with one another. Right.Because like you said, the less than
2% population that's doingthis, so it can feel isolating and
lonely. Talk to me about thedifferent connections that you've
been able to make in theagriculture industry from working
in policy and really sharingyour story online.
(28:13):
Yeah, that's been huge as wellfor me. I'll, like, circle back probably
to see why all the cattlemen'syoung leaders. That was a pretty
big catalyst to meet people inthe industry that were doing all
this policy work and, like,learning from them. And then. Yeah,
I think sometimes you justhave to put yourself out there. Like,
I've met so many people whenyou're like, should I do this? I
(28:35):
don't know, like, so nervous.But always something, like, really
good has come from it. So Ialso have worked with farm and food
care Saskatchewan, and I.They're amazing group of people there
that do so much for theCanadian egg industry on, like, in
all the commodities. Justreally directed to consumers. So
I do some videos for them andjust. Yeah. Have learned so much
(28:57):
from them and have had somereally great experiences through,
like, literally putting myselfout there, being like, hey, I want
to make videos and share them.And. Yeah. So I just. Yeah, I just.
Those connections are so greatbecause that's what it boils down
to. It's like, who you know,and it helps introduce you to this
person who's doing this. Andyou can always learn something. So
(29:18):
I just. I love thoseconnections and meeting people and
learning. Right.
And I love what you said.Like, you know, there's always that
doubt, like, should I be doingthis? Should I say yes to this? Or
is there something more that Ican be doing? And I think there's
growth comes from thatuncomfortable zone. Right. Like stepping
outside of your comfort zone.It's not comfortable to be on video
(29:40):
talking about what you do oron a podcast sharing about what you
do or on a stage or anything.Recently, you and I were at the same
conference, and you weregiving presentations at the Emerge
Conference up in Lloydminster.Tell me about being the face of a
presentation and presenting infront of your peers. How did that
(30:03):
go for you?
It honestly went so well. Theladies at that conference was amazing.
I just want to say that. And Idid two breakout sessions, and everybody
was amazing. I had so muchfun, but I was so nervous. I feel
that was, like, the first timeI'd really shared my story to other
producers. And sometimesthat's. That not sometimes. It absolutely
(30:26):
does make me more nervous.Because you're. I don't want to ever
say, like, you know, what I'mdoing is better than what you're
doing, because I'm doingthings differently. Like, I am always
so, like, conscientious of notcoming off that way, because I don't.
I never think that. And so Ijust always. I always try to, like,
hammer home. It's justcontext, like, because this doesn't
(30:47):
work for me, or it does. Itdoesn't mean it's right or wrong.
And also just, yeah, you'rewith your peers, I guess, which is
wonderful if you're not theone standing up there sometimes.
But it was so much fun. Theladies were so great. I had a really
great time. And mypresentation was maybe different.
Not maybe it was differentthan anything I've ever done. I was,
like, quite vulnerable in itand talked about, like, our ranch,
(31:10):
obviously, and ranching andverified beef, but so, like, the
actual kind of beef productionside, but also just what it's like
sometimes being a wife and amother and a rancher and having a
job. And so, like, I showed avery vulnerable picture of, like,
our very messy house one day.Like, I was preparing for the conference
and, like, was just, like,looking around. I was like, this
is a disaster. But then tokind of have that camaraderie of,
(31:32):
like, we're not alone, like,sometimes your house will be a disaster
when you're trying to do 30other things, or, you know, not every.
You know, you can't holdeverything up all at once. So I shared
that, and I was super nervous.I, like, had deleted it out of my
presentation. Put it back in,deleted it. But in the end, I'm super
glad I shared it because therewas a lot of comments like, that's
life. And, you know, thanksfor sharing that. So, yeah, it was.
(31:54):
I felt that conference was areally special group of ladies, and
it was really fun. So I'm gladI did it, even though I was so nervous,
too. So, like.
Yeah, right. And once you'vedone it the first time, now you can
do it again and show everyoneelse your messy house and be like,
look, not everything is allcute cows and frolicking in a field.
(32:16):
Right. Like, yes, sometimesit's messy. And I feel like in the
middle of that mess is usuallywhen people are going to make those
connections. So thank you forbeing vulnerable with us and those
women there. It was. Was anamazing conference, and I had a lot
of fun talking about beingrecognized by your peers. You and
(32:41):
Kyle were nominated asSaskatchewan's Outstanding Young
Farmer of the year of 2024.That's gotta feel pretty cool.
Yeah, absolutely. It does.Yeah. It's pretty special.
So tell us about, I guess,that program and how you were told
(33:01):
and everything that kind ofcame with.
Yeah, so it was. It was a veryhumbling experience, I feel, you
know, I feel we all have that.Be, like, I don't know, we're not
doing anything that great or,you know, we haven't made great impacts
yet. Like, we talk about ourgrazing management, and I feel we're
just getting started down theroad, too, so. But anyhow, it was.
(33:21):
We were very humbled andhonored to be nominated. And so a
good friend nominated us. Sohe kind of told me, like, sent me
a message. Do we meet thecriteria? And would we accept? And
we did. It was, again, it wasa lot of work and we were very nervous
and, you know, I don't know ifwe should. You know. You just don't.
I feel that's a common themeand I'm trying to work on that. But,
(33:43):
like, are we outstanding or,you know, you know, can we accept
this? So we. Yeah, worked onthat, and it was. It was quite a
process. So there was anothercouple that were nominated for Saskatchewan,
and we've actually become verygood friends with them. They only.
We only live 40 minutes away,and before, we didn't know them.
We've got kids the same age,and we've actually, like, yeah, done
(34:03):
a lot of things together. Sowe're so grateful for that experience
and to have met them. Butyeah, during the. I don't know if
you call it a competition butyou know, we had to present and there's
judging and it is like, oh mygoodness, it's. It's a little bit
nerve wracking. But yeah, we.And again though, out of that, just
like you said, out of thatuncomfortable space is always so
(34:23):
much growth and I always findsomething positive comes from it.
So that was, yeah, amazing.And then because we won for Saskatchewan,
we got to compete at thenational level, which was at the
end of November in Lethbridge.So then there were other young farmers
from all across Canada. Sothey have Canada broken up into different
regions. So BC I think in theYukon, Alberta, Northwest Territories,
(34:48):
US Manitoba, Ontario, Quebecin the Maritime. So we got to meet
people from all over Canada invastly different aspects of agriculture.
And we had such a fun groupand had such a great week together.
Even though again, very nervewracking too, like judging and presenting
in front of hundreds ofpeople. But yeah, so much positive
came out of it.
(35:09):
Very cool. And I just thinkit's a really neat program to really
highlight the incrediblethings that young people in agriculture
are doing. And you got to cometo my hometown for a week. So.
Oh, was it. I didn't realizethat Y.
Born and raised. Yeah. That'swhy we all lean to the east in Lethbridge.
(35:35):
If you ever see me leaning tothe east, that's why we walk that
way. What is next for you,Erika and the ranch?
Oh, such a great question.
Yeah.
I feel like right now there'sjust a lot going on where I took
the ranching for profit schoollast year in February. So there was
(35:55):
a ton of learning from that.More focused on like the business
because we are, we're runninga business and I think sometimes
we forget about that in theday to day, all the work we need
to get done or just wouldrather be outside and look at numbers
and things like that. So yeah,Kyle and I have a lot of goals around
actually working, they call itin ranching for profit, working on
(36:16):
the business, not just workingin the business and doing the fun
things that we. Well, notalways fun, but most of the time.
Right. It's enjoyable to beoutside working with our animals.
So yeah, we have goals aroundthat. We try to schedule more actual
business meetings and lookingat numbers more. So we did something
last year that I think workedin our favor and again, you never
know how it's going to shakedown with Markets because we don't,
(36:37):
you know, at the end of theday, we don't have all the control.
But if we try to makedecisions, you know, based on the
best information we have. Sowe ended up selling, we. So we have
a commercial cow calfoperation and then we also grass
yearlings. And so we decidedactually to not keep as many replacement
heifers because the grassyearling market was really strong.
So things that we hadn'treally considered before and just
(37:00):
actually penciling things outa little bit better. So that's really
big for us right now. And thenjust really leaning into this grazing
management. So we call it ampgrazing. So adaptive multi paddock
grazing with our pipelinesystem. So just getting water to
all the different parts of ourranch is another big goal. So like
I said, we did three miles ofthe shallow buried pipeline. And
(37:21):
when we see that, we've likebeen playing on Google, Google Maps
to. Or, sorry, Google Earth,so you can see the pastures and how
big they are. And so we'vedrawn it out like if you could put
a pipeline kind of around ourwhole ranch. The other cool thing
about our places is actuallyall in a block. So it helps. It's
one of our unfair advantages,we call it, when we try to think
about benefits of our place orhow we can use that to our advantage
(37:45):
because we can graze, like wehave them all there so we can really
manage their grazing. And ifwe try and really improve our tame
grass production, if we canmaybe not turn out on our native
grass till like August,September, that would also help us
because they can graze thatlonger into the winter. And then
we wouldn't have to startfeeding until like February is kind
(38:06):
of our goal. And that wouldreally decrease our costs, like our
winter feed costs, which wouldreally help us. So playing with things
like that and just, yeah,we're really excited about this grazing
management and we're trying totake a lot of baseline metrics so
we can actually, you know, seeif it is improving or is going to
improve. Like in theory itshould. So we're excited about that.
(38:28):
Very cool. Well, you mentionedtaking this course. What other resources
have you found most helpfulwhen it comes to learning about grazing
management?
That course was reallyhelpful. I would like to take the
holistic management course aswell. But also just talking to people,
I find sometimes those are thebest resources. Like people that
(38:49):
have been doing it for a lotlonger than us, their trial and errors.
And then we don't have torepeat the mistake, you know, and
learn that hard way. So, yeah,Like I said, I feel like, like going
to conferences, meetingpeople, sometimes it, you know, you're
busy, you can always make anexcuse not to go. But I've literally
found anytime I've wentsomewhere, I've met somebody, I've
(39:11):
learned something. So I just.Yeah, to me that's huge. We were
also. So Kyle and I, this wasa few years ago, but we were asked
to be mentors in the BeefCattle Research Council mentorship
program. So where they pairresearchers up with producers. Because
we obviously like need ourresearchers to help, you know, always
ensure our industry isinnovative. But. But in lots of cases
they don't have like on farmpractical experience. So that's what
(39:34):
this program provides. And itwas super fun. We got paired up with.
His name's Tony and he has hispostdoc and he's so smart and he's
does research and yonis andall sorts of things. And yet again
we were like, I don't thinkthis is like, do you have the right
people? Like, he's so smart,but it's been so fun. We've learned
so much from him. And then onthat they like had a tour for us
(39:57):
and again we had to drive toCalgary. It was in fall. It wasn't
really great timing for us.We're like, no, we're gonna go. And
we ended up touring a ranchwhere again Kyle and I could have
been like, we don't need totour a ranch. But we met Steven Hughes
from Chinook Ranches, who doesa lot of grazing, understands grazing
and grazing native grass andlike, he's like one of Kyle's mentors
now. So just I guess puttingyourself out there, meeting people
(40:19):
and really talking to peopleand I feel, yeah, helping or that
has helped us so much ashaving those people who have done
it and have experience and wereally do lean on them and ask them
questions.
Yeah, for sure. In terms ofwork that you do outside of the ranch,
in terms of policy andadvocating, what do you hope is next
(40:43):
for you in that? Do you haveany big plans? I think this is where
we ask you if you're going torun for government.
But we won't do that. No.
No, no.
I think I. I guess I don'thave big plans, to be honest. It's
more small plans becausesometimes I feel I'm really bad at
saying yes to everything,which I've just kind of advocated
(41:05):
for. But I've always foundbenefit in it. But then I do like
not a great job of things andI don't like that either. So actually,
my goal for January is tostart doing my videos again for farm
and food care. So I used to doa monthly video of just. That's something
that's important that we'redoing on the ranch. And I've been
pretty slack lately. Butthat's something to me that's really
important because like I say,they do a lot of great advocacy work
(41:29):
and it's shared on theirYouTube channel. And so I'd like
to get back to doing that. Soit's not a huge goal, I guess. Small
steps. Yes, that would be a goal.
Those small steps make bigimpact, though. For sure.
I hope so.
Yeah. And it's always good toremember that too, right? Like, the
small things add up to bigthings. We don't have to say yes
(41:49):
to absolutely everythingthat's thrown at us. And like you
said, doing a good job atthose small things makes a bigger
impact.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Erika, my last question foryou is, what is the most rewarding
part about being a rural womanfor you?
I think the most rewardingpart is making a life living on the
(42:13):
land and with animals andbeing able to share that story with
our children, like being ableto pass that knowledge and hopefully
that passion down and alsojust share it with consumers and
the people who don't get thatopportunity or experience. Because
like I said before, we're theminority. Right. We're the 1 1/2
ish percent that is producingfood for people to consume and to
(42:35):
nourish their bodies. So Ithink that's such an important job
and I just love sharing thatstory about how much knowledge and
passion goes into it.
I love it. So good. Erika,thank you so much for sharing your
story with us. For the folkslistening who would like to connect
with you after the show, wherecan they find you online?
(42:56):
Yeah, so I have Facebook,Erika Strand Stewart and Instagram
Pine Ranch limited And we alsohave a website where we share information
about beef production and ourvideos from farm and food care. So
that's www.pineranch. ca.
Perfect. And I will link allof those in the show notes so people
can find you and connect with you.
(43:17):
Well, thank you so much,Katelyn, for the chat today. It was
really fun.
It was so great.
Thanks, Erika. Thanks forlistening to the Rural Woman Podcast.
The Rural Woman Podcast ismore than just a podcast. We are
a community. A huge thank youto the Rural Woman Podcast team.
(43:39):
Audio editor Max Hofer. Aspecial thanks to our Patreon executive
producers, Sarah Riedner fromHappiness by the Acre to learn how
you can become a PatreonExecutive Producer or other ways
to financially support theshow. Head on over to wildrosefarmer.com
to learn more. Be sure to hitthe Follow or Subscribe button wherever
(44:02):
you listen to the podcast toget the latest episodes directly
on your playlist. And if youare loving the show, please be sure
to leave a rating and reviewon Apple Podcast or any other platform
that accepts ratings andreviews. You can connect with us
on social media at theWhirlwoman Podcast and with meldrosefarmer.
(44:25):
One of the best ways you cansupport the show is by sharing it.
Send this episode to a friendor share on your social media let's
strengthen and amplify thevoices of women in agriculture together.
Until next time, my friend.Keep sharing your story.
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