Giving thanks at Thanksgiving

Oct 09, 2019

Western Canadian farmers mentioned family and technology as important aspects of their lives

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

This weekend, people across the country will spend time with family and friends during Thanksgiving celebrations.

Before sitting around a dinner table surrounded by delicious food, many people will take a moment to give thanks to the people and things that have helped make 2019 a memorable and successful year.

With that at top of mind, Farms.com thought it appropriate to reach out to some farmers in Western Canada to find out what they are thankful for this year.

Some farmers – like Jill Burkhardt, a beef and cash crop producer from Gwynne, Alta. – appreciate the tools they have at their fingertips.

“I’m obviously very grateful for my family, like everybody is,” she told Farms.com. “But on the farm, I’m really thankful for the technology we have available to us. A lot of what we do wouldn’t be possible without technology. Because it was so wet, we did aerial fungicide applications and other stuff we normally wouldn’t do because it was an option for us to do so.

“We’re a fifth-generation farm and, if I try to think back 100 years ago, the farmers then may not have gotten a crop at all. I think technology is something we take for granted sometimes.”

Other producers are simply thankful for the lives they lead.

Blaine McLeod is part of a fourth-generation family dairy and cash crop farm in Caronport, Sask., and that’s all he needs.

“I’m thankful to have a family that loves me and that I get to wake up and work with my wife every day,” he told Farms.com. “What could be better than that?”

Happy Thanksgiving from everyone at Farms.com!

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.