Canada 1/9/12

After saying goodbye to Leah as she headed for OZ, I made my way to Canada and landed in Calgary. I was greeted by Graeme Finn who is an Aussie boy that sells the great Agrow Plow here in Canada. Graeme and his family was kind enough to take me up to the Rocky Mountains where the three sisters are located and spent the day at the Scottish games where they celebrate their traditional Scottish heritage. Later that day we also visited the famous Lake Louise to top of a great sunday afternoon.

That Monday, I headed on my way to one of my first visit's in the Calgary area. I was aquainted by Ian Murray of the Shoestring Ranch, where he runs about 225 Black Angus cows that are all seasonally mated by Black Angus Sires for a 60 day mating period. Ian with a small number of cattle producers, have started their own branded beef market that sells directly to the consumers, restaurants in Okotoks (Alberta) and also at the local farmers market that are held every Sunday in Bearspaw for the last 11 years. All Ian's cattle are prepared on pastures with no hormones, antibiotics or animal by-products with his steers are finished in a feedlot. Ian achives this by a three day rotational grazing system that are made up of 20 acre paddocks cells, where legumes have been planted with no fertiliser applied on their pastures and still receiving substantial weight gains. I wish Ian all the best in the future with his grass feed beef product and thank him for his time. Ian's website is www.shoestringranch.ca.