It was 85 years ago this month that Kenneth Coppock launched this magazine. Coppock first conceived of the idea in March 1938, when he decided the industry needed a publication that would capture the experiences of the industry pioneers, while also developing an “industry-consciousness.”
Three months later, Canadian Cattlemen was born.
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“It was launched at a time when Hitler and Mussolini were rattling the sabre in Europe, when nations were apprehensive over the peace of the world. Businessmen were uncertain as to what the future held. It was a case of plodding on from quarterly issue to quarterly issue, building, building, building; and then the war, almost before the infant periodical was out of its crib and reverberations around the world … All the time, the glamour, the worthwhileness of the industry and its men, the trials and work of the pioneers were not forgotten — numerous freelance correspondents saw to that,” Coppock wrote in his last editorial, which originally ran in the December 1953 issue.
How do you capture 85 years in a single column? It’s something I’ve struggled with in the last few days. Is it best to highlight the great adversities our industry has overcome, and that people are still facing? Write about the programs and associations the women and men in this sector have built, painstaking work that has taken years, even decades?
It all makes me wonder about the nature of resilience, and how ranching families have survived, often for several generations. Coppock, in his last address, hoped that readers would hew to the values that had served them well, and I think many people have. Producers should see themselves as “the source of authority of grass-roots thinking,” value hard work, stay informed “on all new methods and devices” and develop a “creative attitude,” cut production costs, improve stock continuously, be fair and supportive to children, know one’s history and traditions without being “bound entirely by them,” he wrote.
Coppock also wrote of the sense that everyone was working together, which is why he made the magazine name plural, rather than singular. We’ve all heard the jokes about how hard it is to get ranchers to agree on anything, and there’s certainly truth in that. A sense of individualism, and independence, runs deep. And I think there is value in those ideals when they don’t tip into hyperbole.
But it’s also true that when the people in this industry decide to pull in the same direction, they get a lot done. You can see this in everything from events such as community brandings to the institutions and programs built over the decades. These days, it seems that society is splitting into different camps, and some are trying to pit us against each other. While it’s natural that we will have some fundamental disagreements, more and more I think we need to resist this urge to break into smaller groups and view people as “other.” My feeling is that we’ll need to lean into the relationships we’ve created, and forge new ones, if we want to build on past successes, or even maintain them.
Yet none of those things fully explain this industry’s past success or how we might navigate the future. After all, when navigating, the first step is to know where you want to go. You might call this a north star, a vision, or a goal, but regardless of the terminology, you need a destination as much as a map.
Don Campbell of B-C Ranch talks about the importance of goal setting to their ranch in his interview with writer Tara Mulhern Davidson. He recommends writing down your goals, to make them more concrete, and sharing them with the important people in your life, so you’ll stay accountable. Goal setting was very important during B-C Ranch’s transition process, he adds, during which they set a goal the whole family got behind.
“That goal is the single most important thing that kept us in business. The first year (after transition) we had a drought, then BSE.” They looked to their goal for direction whenever they encountered big challenges, he adds.
Readers can look for me during Ag in Motion at Langham, Sask., July 18 to 20. I would love to hear your thoughts on the opportunities you see for ranchers and beef farmers, as well as the challenges. I’d also be happy to hear your thoughts on the magazine — good, bad or ugly — and hope to talk about a new project we should be rolling out around then. I’ll be very “findable” throughout the show, whether at the Canadian Cattlemen booth or on the show grounds.
I think I’ll give this magazine’s inaugural editor, Kenneth Coppock, the last word:
“And above all, have vision, faith and patience — vision to see that Canada’s beef cattle industry has a growing and permanent place of importance in Canada’s national economy, faith that your conclusions are correct, and patience to see that your vision and your faith are given time to become actualities.”
