Rutledge Ranching Ltd.

Monitor, Alberta

Pat and Irene Rutledge & Suzzane and Jeremy Percival

Rutledge Ranching (Monitor) Ltd is owned and operated by Pat and Irene Rutledge (senior citizens) and their daughter Suzanne and her husband Jeremy. Suzanne and Jeremy have three boys, Darrion, Laine and Hunter, which will be the fifth generation since Jake and Harriett homesteaded in 1914.

We have a land base of 22,000 acres, two thirds of which is lease land and is primarily native grass on gently rolling hills called mixed prairie known as the Neutral Hills. Historically this was neutral hunting grounds between the Blackfoot and Cree tribes. The remaining one third of our land is deeded most of which was farmed at one time but is now returned to grass.

We will calve 700 cows in 2008. We like to calve in May and June when most of the snow storms have passed and the grass is green. This way cows can calve on their own out in the pasture away from muddy pens pretty much eliminating illnesses. In the fall after weaning the calves run on 150 ? 200 acre pastures where they are fed until spring when they can go to green grass. We practice rotational grazing so the animals always have fresh grass and the grazed pastures have time to recover before being grazed again. Irene likes sheep and will lamb out about 80 ewes in June.

We like to think that we do all that is possible to ensure healthy animals and that they are raised in an environmentally sustainable way. However to obtain an objective third party check we have completed an Environmental Farm Plan, the On Farm Food Safety program and more recently the Food Alliance certification. These programs give us an outside eye in case we have overlooked something . It helps us look past the day to day work and see a bigger picture.

With all the difficulties in agriculture today we need financial sustainability as well. It is reassuring to be involved in a true value chain, where every participant gets paid cost of production, return on investment and a reasonable profit. We realize that we can?t pass on unlimited costs to the consumer. With that in mind we have recently been using imported genetics from New Zealand that hopefully will better utilize forages with limited use of grain. For now we haven?t figured out how to have finished cattle on a year round basis given our winter climates in Canada. So for now we send animals to a feedlot for 120 days for finishing to ensure consistent quality beef.

A number of years ago we were approached by the Sharptail Grouse Habitat people to see if we would be interested in working with them to improve habitat for the grouse. We have been part of the program ever since. Our main role is to avoid grazing areas near the leks (dancing grounds) during nesting to provide the young chicks with adequate ground cover to avoid predators. One of the fascinating things about Sharptails is that they come back to the same spot to dance each spring and their thumping can be heard at quite a distance.