Man. farmers assisting a local family

Oct 09, 2019

The Schwabes are helping a young boy enjoy life

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

A Manitoba farm family is helping another local family give their young son the best life possible.

Melody Schwabe, who owns Schwabe Pumpkins with her husband George, will donate all admission fees ($2.50 for anyone three-years-old and older) from guests on Thanksgiving Monday to Bekka Peterson and Cody Campbell in support of their son, Damon.

During Peterson’s pregnancy, doctors told her Damon had an omphalocele, which means some of his organs developed outside of his body and into his umbilical cord. After his birth, Damon was diagnosed with other medical conditions and wasn’t expected to live longer than six months.

Now nearly two years old, Damon only went home from the hospital in August. At the beginning of October, Peterson and Campbell, along with their three older children, continued their annual tradition of visiting the Schwabe farm. But this time, Damon came along too.

And it was the young boy’s excitement that sparked the idea to help the family.

“I was in here selling for the day and feeling a little off because this year has been pretty difficult,” Schwabe told Farms.com. “I saw this family get out of a wheelchair transportation taxi and when they wheeled (Damon) into the barn, he just lit up.

“I got talking with his mother, and after hearing Damon’s story, I thought there must be some way we can lighten the load for this family.”

Damon’s family have also set up a Go Fund Me page to help cover costs associated with transportation, medication and other supplies.

Bekka Peterson and Damon (Facebook/Schwabe Pumpkins photo)

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.