“these guys selling black calves aren’t getting paid the...

Charolais Connection • February 2015 21

Will Lowe has come home to raisecattle after being away for twentyyears. It is quite a change, but bytaking advantage of lessons learnedin his work experience, the futurelooks bright for LZ Farms Inc.

Will’s dad grew up on the MatadorRanch, near Kyle, Saskatchewan. It isan area steeped in entrenchedranching traditions that are not easilychanged. He is the only one in thearea using Charolais bulls on blackcows as the area tends to be straightAngus. “Lots of guys will cross redcows to Charolais, but crossing onblacks is still not done. Some wonderwhat you’re doing and some haveopened their eyes and startedquizzing me. I tell them thatcrossbreeding is free money. Theseguys selling black calves aren’tgetting paid the premiums throughthe Certified Angus Beef programs,it’s a mindset they have to change.They are doing things the way theyhave always been done. Most of themare just selling calves.”

“We went to Charcross becausethey just feed better. In the sevenyears I worked for Cargill I’ve seen alot of fat cattle, I bought upwards of

450,000 head of cattle. When I startedwith Cargill in 1999, they werefeeding 70-80,000 head/year. We hada bunch of cattle from Koch Ranch inMontana to finish and they were allsmokies. The smokey heifers beat out

80% of the other steers in averagedaily gain and the conversion rateswere above average. The smokeysteers were the top of everything.This wasn’t a test of just 50 head, wefed around 1500 steers and 1400heifers. The steers were 1400 poundsand the heifers were 1325 pounds.The Angus calves at the same timewere easily 100 pounds lighter. Thesmokies yielded 2-2.5% better. I spenttime with some American buyers and

the smokies were their favorites.They were even more accepted thanthe tans.”

Northwest Consolidated Beef wasstarted in 2006 and originally hadsome big feeders on the board. Theyhired Will right from Cargill. It wasmodelled on a Texas group that wasan amalgamation of smaller feederswho put together larger packages tooffer to the packers. They tried tohave a stronger influence on themarket by marketing together. Herethey just couldn’t get it big enough.The cash market is really a lot smallerthan it has been. It was to provide alegitimate cash market, but hereeverything is going contract now. Inthe first few weeks of employmentthey went to Texas and made a dealon a computer system and started towork towards building the model inCanada. Will left in 2011 and theprogram ended in about 2012, as thenumber of cattle they had to workwith here just wasn’t viable.

“Cindy’s dad was ready to retirethree years ago, but now he’s talkingabout the next four years. We got inat the right time. We paid in the low$1300 range for most of our herd. The

“These guys selling

black calves aren’t

getting paid the

premiums through the

Certified Angus Beef

programs.”

Profile ~ LZ Farms Inc. Candace By

22 Charolais Connection • February 2015

top we paid was $1600 and we have ayoung herd. Most are only 3rdcalvers or younger. Land prices reallyjumped here and we decided cowswere the way to go.”

In 2011 he started buying cows andit is the first time in almost thirtyyears the farm has seen cattle. Hestarted by buying bred replacementsat Hillcrest Farms in Coronach,Saskatchewan, and buys 20-30 eachyear that are Peak Dot sired. Hepicked up 40 out of Kevin Wood’sSwift Current dispersal and regretsnot buying more. That first year ourcalves were straight Angus. Thesecond year things were quite a bitdifferent when we used Charolaisbulls. The numbers are even moreimpressive if you split the steers from

the heifers. “We can count on ourCharcross calves being 20-30 poundsmore and our calves are born amonth later.”

“When talking to straight Angusbreeders, the common questions arestill the same. Aren’t the calves dopeywhen they are born? Don’t you getrattails? What about calving ease?These are all traditional stereotypesthat go back twenty years. I haven’thad one rattail in the two years I havebeen crossbreeding and I have 60Simmental influenced cows. In the160 cows I calved, we helped onebackwards calf; I had one dead calfthat I missed on a night check and Ihelped one with a foot backwards.When I buy bulls, calving ease is thefirst thing I look at. I like to have an90% or better CE EPD because I workalone. It just makes it easier and Idon’t have to worry at all. Then Iselect for weaning weight andyearling weight. Now I run eightbulls, about 25 cows per bull. I try tobuy my bulls from few breeders in anattempt to keep my numbers as closeor uniform as possible.”

“Ellie was in 4-H for the first timelast year and won her class with asmokey steer. Three kids in the Kyleclub collected ultrasound data ontheir steers. The other two werestraight Angus. Ellie’s had a LMY of64.5 versus just under 60 and just

over 56. That is a lean meat yieldadvantage of 4.5-8% and themarbling was still very good at 4.8.We didn’t start feeding Ellie’s steer agrain ration until the first of Januaryand the other two steers startedgetting grain in November.”

“I am new in the business, this isonly my third year. I have been closeto twenty years out of school. I watchleading people in the industry andtry to incorporate what they aredoing well. Some people just getstuck in what they are doing. I balegraze, and just started because wewatched others. No one does it here.We fed two times as many cattle athome and put 100 less hours on thetractor. I put out enough feed for aweek and the workload is way less. Iam starting to get some questions inthe community about it.”

“In 2013, I started bale grazing onthe 10th of December but I amhoping to start a little later. The cattledidn’t waste very much. I am a firmbeliever in it. The land where I balegrazed was so improved last year. Iwas going to break the quarter I fedon, but now I don’t have to. Wherethere was sage, it was choked right outand there was more edible growth.We put out enough for 7-10 days atthe most, so there is very little waste.”

“We have enough hay of our ownand may have some to sell this year.Two local guys wanted me to baletheirs, so I have a lot. I bought landin 2005 and 2006 as crop land andseeded it for hay and it is reallyproductive. We winter the cows, forthe most part, on hay land until midMarch to get them ready for calving.I put up portable panels for bale

“The smokey heifers

beat out 80% of the

other steers in average

daily gain and the

conversion rates were

above average. The

smokey steers were

the top of everything.”

Lowe family: Hailey, Will, Marshall, Cindy, Walker and Ellie Lowe

“I haven’t had

one rattail in the two

years I have been

crossbreeding and I

have 60 Simmental

influenced cows.”

continued on page 24


grazing in the center of two quarters.I used our older straw bales this yearfor wind. During calving we use ashed for spring storm protection, butusually they will be confined to an 80acre field.”

He puts some creep out (straightoats) when he brings them home untilhe starts feeding. It is CDC Super Oat,a newer variety developed at theUniversity with low lignin hull andhigh oil groat, so it’s higher fat. Itgives 10% more gain and the feedconversions are better as proven intheir backgrounding. He creeps thecows and bulls and keeps the slidesdown so they just get enough to be ingood condition.

“We creep the calves 4-6 weeksbefore we wean on November first.Next year we hope to wean with nosepaddles. From what I read from guysthat are weaning that way or fencelineweaning, it seems the calves gothrough less stress and they go onfeed so much easier. It is even moreimportant if you are doing your ownbackgrounding, which we do.”

“I implant all of the cattle as well.For me, it’s just a no brainer from myfeedlot background. I spend a dollarand get 15 to 20 pounds back, that isjust a huge return on the investment.This year, it is even a bigger economicno brainer.”

Rugged terrain along the South Saskatchewan river



“We castrate at weaning time bybanding in the fall. We tag in thespring but with seeding we just don’thave time to band. Nothing backedoff feed at all, it didn’t seem to setthem back.”

“On the lowest ration at the feedlot, a 20 ration, they gained 2.68 andour total cost was just under $.81.That includes everything – bedding,death loss, etc. When NSA does abenchmark comparison they includea lot of cattle and our cost of gain was$.07 better across the board.”

“We had an April 24th steer calf thatweaned at 828 on December first in2013 and went to an Ontario feedlotat 1224 lb. on April 1st, out of a 1450lb. cow. The cows keep their shapereally well. The heifers bloom so muchin the feedlot. Charcross had a ten centpremium over the straight bred at thesame weight this past fall. Last year it

was only a 4-5 cent difference.”“I might keep a few silvers. Ellie

really wanted to keep a silver heifer,so we have one. To keep producing

silvers we will have to go back to ablack bull, I don’t really want to do it.From a pasture managementstandpoint, we just can’t do it. Whenyou look at what it really costs tokeep a replacement, and what it costs

you to not get any income from themfor 18 months, I don’t think peoplereally think about the economics of itwhen they keep their own heifers. Wetry to buy the best replacements wecan and not think about price.Replacements cost $1300-1400 mostyears. For the most part we have beenhappy with what we have purchased.A few of them get a little bigger thanwe like to keep. We like our cowherdto be 1400-1450 pounds. Even thelittle bigger cows are still efficient.There is probably a twenty pounddifference on the weaning weight ofsome of these calves.”

“We cull about 10% of ourreplacement heifers for udders andfeet. If there is any foot rot, even ifthey are treated and recover fully,they are culled. I also cull hard fortemperament. If they have smallercalves, they also get culled as long as

Will watching the Friday morning TEAM sale

“Charcross had a

ten cent premium

over the straight bred

at the same weight

this past fall.”


it isn’t caused by a late calving date.If they have a bad calf the first year, Iwill give them the second year. If itdoesn’t change the second year, theyare gone.”

As we tour out to look at thecalves, we drive by the golf course atSaskatchewan Landing and Willcomments the grasskeeper shouldhave been a cattleman, his grassmanagement is so superb.

The cost of pasture has gone up inthe area in recent years and Will rents

his. He says, “I would rather have thecows than buy land, the cattle arewhat make the money. Even if youown your own land, you have toinclude the cost of the land like arental fee, in with your productioncosts or you are fooling yourself tothink it is less. You could be renting itout for the same or equivalent aswhat you would pay. In this area wecan run one cow on about 15 acres. AtDundurn, I can run 127 pairs on twoquarters of land for 91 days and it

isn’t overgrazed. You wouldn’t getaway with that here in a normal year.You would maybe get one month andthat would be pushing the limits ofyour grass.”

“Finding land to rent hasn’t been aproblem. I have had more peopleoffer me grass. The increasedavailability is probably because thereare less people grassing yearlings asprevious years, that and the overalldecrease in cow numbers. There iscertain land that just isn’t useful foranything else. Uneducatedconsumers think that cattle are bornin a feedlot and live confined all oftheir life. They think they should beon grass all year. What they don’tunderstand is there is a lot of landhere that would have absolutely noother use if we didn’t graze cattle onit. They also don’t understand thatwe have winter and it would not bein the best interest of the livestock tograss them year round. I also likerenting pasture as I don’t have timeto fix fence and it isn’t myresponsibility.”

They start calving on April 10 andrun a 60 day calving period. They justdon’t have the facilities to pull thebulls when they would like. Theywould like to get up to 220 cows andthey rent all of their grass. “Water isthe issue, once we get past that, wecan get a bit bigger. 250 would be themaximum we could run unless I get

Ellie with Carol Pittman, her 4-H leader




help. I would like to get up to 250calves because it is easier to packagethem for sale. ”

“We marketed the heavy end ofour steers on TEAM (the electronicauction mart). The heavy steers wentto Ontario and the light steers andheifers went to southern Alberta outof Swift Current in 2013. The heavysteers averaged 988 lb. The steers andheifers weighed together that fall andweaned at 500 pounds. Will keeps upon the markets, when we arrived todo the interview he was watching theTEAM sale that morning. He usuallywatches the sale on Friday mornings.

“I have had some guys say theywould never sell direct on TEAMbecause they take a pencil shrink. Ichallenge them to take the weight oftheir calves at home and calculatetheir actual pay weight. They wouldbe shocked to know that if you took a3-4% on those calves, it wouldactually be saving you 2% by haulingthem to market. I put it out there andlet the guys decide for themselves, Idon’t try to convince anybody ofanything. I work about one day aweek with TEAM/Porter & MacleanLivestock and like that it keeps meinvolved in that side of the industry. I

try to stay close to home.”“I have seen a lot over the years in

the industry and there are things thatneed to be addressed. I am on theSaskatchewan Cattle Feeders board.We are a beef industry not a cattlebusiness. We raise beef for theconsumer and we need to educate theconsumer about what the industry isabout. The A&W stuff needs to beaddressed to dispel some of themyths and balance that opinion withthe views of the cattlemen. I wouldreally like to see some of the peoplecome out and see how we do things.It’s more than making a buck. Thecattle people I know, like and care

about animals more than anyone. Wecan’t always be in reaction mode, weneed to be out front and promote andadvocate for the industry. TheCanadian Cattlemen’s Association AgAdvocate program is important.Things have been taken so out of context.”

Will’s wife, Cindy teaches at SwiftCurrent Composite. Their fourchildren are involved in hockey,soccer and swimming. Ellie (10) wasin her first year of 4-H in 2014 andHailey (9) will be in 4-H this year.Marshall is six and Walker is four, sothere will be many busy years ahead.

Touring the five miles of waterfrontpasture at the Saskatchewan Landingshowed the rugged beauty of theprairies. It is home to wild flowers,saskatoons, choke cherries, deer,coyotes and many birds includinggolden eagles.

“We mostly try to use horses whenwe can to work cattle. At Dundurnwe can use quads because it is so flat,but here at home, we have to use horsesto get them from some of the areas.”

It is definitely land meant forgrazing and Will has the passion and interest in learning to keep it profitable.

“We raise beef

for the consumer

and we need

to educate the

consumer about

what the

industry is about.”

“these guys selling black calves aren’t getting paid the...

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