About Me
I run a 200-head commercial Angus cow/calf operation with my parents (Mark and Brenda) and my wife and daughters. My wife, Teauna and I were married in 2006 and welcomed our first daughter Kinley in August 2007. We moved to the farm in Oct 2007. In November 2009 we welcomed Macey. In January 2012 Scarlett was born and to finish things off Arwen arrived in June 2014. Our days are filled with activities including Volleyball, golf, curling, hockey and figure skating. We love watching our girls grow on our farm.
Image: Owen, Kinley, Macey, Scarlett, Arwen, & Teauna
We start calving in mid-April on stockpiled grass and rotationally graze our cattle throughout the grazing season. For the last few years, we've been selling the steer calves in mid-November and keeping the heifer calves to breed the following summer.
Why Did I Choose Covers?
Dad started experimenting with blends more than a decade ago. Mostly oats/peas for the purpose of livestock feed. We started trying more complex blends with limited results. We were using 6-8 species but only ever saw 2-3 species in any amount. When Joe explained to me that plant diversity is important but the right amount of plant diversity is crucial (not too much of 1 or 2 species) we started to see the benefits of plant diversity truly. We have used no synthetic fertilizer for 4 years on our farm.
We use Covers blends for silage bales, dry bales, mob grazing, early spring grazing, fall grazing and swath grazing.