Dealing with the unpredictable nature of farming

Aug 04, 2022

Mental health was a big focus of the Thanks For Farming Tour held in Winkler last week.

One of the keynote speakers was Chris Beaudry, a farmer from Saskatchewan and also a coach with the 2017/18 Humboldt Broncos, the team involved in the bus accident.

The focus of Beaudry's presentation was the unpredictable nature of farming.

"When things get unpredictable, it brings out the stubbornness pattern in us. This pattern is developed early in life when situations that we can't control show up. Things get out of control. What do we learn as a child, how do we deal with that? We become hard, we become stubborn, and how does that show up today for us? Are we actually acting from a place of choice or are we just reacting from this stubborn pattern," he said. "If you get a hail storm, if you get too much rain, not enough rain, how does that show up? How do we become hard and indecisive? Even in good times, if you have a good crop, what happens inside of you that makes you act from this pattern and not from a place of choice."

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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.