Canadian Cattle Young Leaders
Austin Ashbacher was born and raised in Alberta. After graduating high school, he travelled to Australia and then completed an agriculture business degree from the University of Alberta.
Having grown up on a primarily beef farm, Ashbacher returned to his family farm to pursue a farming career. Now with his wife, parents and two young daughters, he works to expand and diversify the family farm. He has his hands in a little bit of everything with Ashbacher Land and Cattle, ranging from beef cattle to rodeo stock, cash crops, cover crops, cattle grazing practices, purebred Simmentals and backgrounding feeders. Ashbacher’s mentors are Jeff and Lyndsay Smith. Jeff is the general manager at Gateway Livestock Exchange based in Taber, Alta., has been in the livestock marketing industry since 2001 and sits on several industry boards. Lyndsay owns Prime Analytics, providing contract employment, with contracts in the beef industry including market analysis, risk management, project management, software development and data analysis.
Despite not having been born into a farming family, Danika Mayer has been involved in agriculture for the better part of her life. Growing up in L’Orignal, Ont., a nearby farm sparked her love for farm animals. After her family moved to a hobby farm, a local farmer approached her to show his purebred Simmental calves in her local 4-H club and she has been hooked ever since. Mayer and her boyfriend, John, currently calve out 20 head of purebred Simmentals, produce seedstock for their commercial and purebred clients and have plans to expand their operation. Mayer works as a nurse at a local rural hospital and hopes to eventually be able to farm full-time. Mayer’s mentor is Sandra Vos, who runs a small 80-acre cow-calf farm in Brant County, Ont. Vos, a nurse, also worked in health care for several years before switching to farming.
Congratulations to Ray Robertson, winner of the 2022 Canadian Forage and Grassland Association Leadership Award. Robertson has been at the helm of the Ontario Forage Council since 2000, where he’s worked to increase the council’s membership, profile and event attendance each year. He’s developed everything from educational programs and equipment demos to the Ontario Hay Marketing Forum, which led to the Ontario Hay and Forage Co-op. Robertson was also a founding director of the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association (CFGA). Through the CFGA, he was part of several forage fact-finding and marketing missions in Nepal, UAE, China and Saudi Arabia. He also hosted delegations from Kenya, Nepal and Costa Rica, and set up a co-op connection program between Janaki Dairy Co-operative in Nepal and Gay Lea Foods Co-operative in Ontario.
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Effective January 1, Brian Sikes became president and CEO of Cargill. Sikes previously served as the company’s chief operating officer, and also grew the company’s protein and salt business into an industry leader.
Dana Larouche is the new ag manager at the Lloydminster Ex’s Stockade Round-Up. She started back in September and made it through her first Stockade Round-Up but is looking forward to 2023 and all it has to offer. When she isn’t working, she loves hanging out with her boys and helping during the CPCA chuckwagon season.
Congratulations to the national winners of Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers (see photo at top): Allison Squires and Cody Straza of Wood Mountain, Sask.; and brothers Étienne and Guillaume Lessard of St-Honoré- de-Shenley, Que. Cody and Allison established Upland Organics in 2010, adding a seed-cleaning plant a few years later. In 2019, they introduced 300 head of cattle, and now also background calves for market. They also use the cattle to trample cover crops, eliminating the need for fall tillage. The Lessards began farming together at age 16, buying a cow instead of a quad and running a 100-tap maple bush operation. Today, their farm, Ferme Holdream, includes a 280K dairy quota, 3,500 organic pigs, 32,000 maple syrup taps and 1,700 acres.
Congratulations as well to Karilynn and Ian Marshall, who received the 2022 W.R. Motherwell Award from Canada’s Out- standing Young Farmers program. The Marshalls are program alumni, as the 2004 Alberta honourees. At that time they had a 9,500-head feedlot and ran 300 cow-calf pairs. Karilynn became the co-chair for the 2008 national Outstanding Young Farmers event in Calgary. As the program grew, managing the program became too much for volunteers, and Karilynn stepped into the Alberta regional co-ordinator role. For 10 years, she provided stability to the program, co-ordinating press releases, working with nominees, gathering sponsorship and organizing meetings, as well as the regional competition event. Ian provided support behind the scenes. Today their children — Katie, Garnett and Ky — are involved in the farm business.
