Calving season beginning for southern Alberta ranchers

Calving season has started for ranchers in southern Alberta, and they say it's their most important time of year as they watch their investment grow.

Owen Deeton has his cattle herd close to home. That’s convenient, because Deeton will be spending the next few weeks with sleepless nights watching over the 65 cows that are ready to calve.

Deeton is a fourth-generation rancher whose property is located between Bottrel and Water Valley in Mountain View County.

In most cases, Deeton said, the cows are fine on their own to give birth but he has to intervene if the calf is too large or isn’t positioned properly to come out of the cow.

His goal is to make sure all cow-calf pairs survive the ordeal safely.

“You got to have a combination of a lot of different hats and I don’t really think that the public understands that,” said Deeton. “They don’t know what you go through to put food on their plate, they just go to the grocery store and that’s it.”

Deeton is seeing a handful of calves that are all 12 to 36 hours old and while he watches the other cows for signs of birth, he also has to keep an eye out on the weather.

“Mother nature’s a challenge,” he said. “So if it gets too cold, anything -10 and below, you got to bring them in and then you’ve got coyotes and wolves to watch out for.”

Deeton’s herd represents a major investment, with cows ranging in price from $2,000 to $4,250. Calving season is the most important time of year for ranchers across the country.

“Food security is (an issue) from coast to coast and every day there’s people doing what I’m doing, some on a larger scale, some on the smaller scale,” he said. “They’re working hard right now, getting the calves on the ground, processing other cattle, getting ready for summer, getting their bulls sorted out and getting cattle out on pastures.”

And world events are not helping to make things easier for ranchers, according to Deeton.

“You’ve got tariff challenges, financial challenges, everything that’s going on in the world today from the Netherlands, Britain to America,” he said. “I mean there’s just no end to stuff that you got to do and things that you got to face.”

Ranching on social media

Deeton has toyed with sharing what ranch life is like through a series of videos he’s posted on FaceBook and YouTube.

“My idea was, I was going to start working with this colt that I bought and people could follow along and you could learn as you go,” he said. “And also if you want to order some beef you can see where everything’s coming from.”

He’s just purchased a new GoPro camera and is planning to post some calving videos in the near future. It’s an initiative that his daughter Shontana Dewitt thinks is a good idea.

“I think it gives a little insight to what goes on in a ranch and how things are done,” she said. “It just opens up so many doors for a lot of people who don’t fully understand what goes on when you run a ranch.

“I’ve got friends who live in the city,” she said, “and they’re always asking questions -- they always want to know what’s up and what we do.”

Dewitt and her sister will one day take over the ranch along with their children, who represent the sixth generation, to work the 7 Diamond Ranch.

Dewitt said her kids love calving season.

“My husband and I with our two kids moved back up here two years ago and now that we’re up here full-time, we’re always helping,” she said. “So are my kids, they’re here after school feeding the cows, taking the baby calves, they love it.”

Deeton says it’s not an easy life, but it’s been something he’s done for close to 40 years.

“Every day is what you make it,” he said. “That can be a good day or a bad day -- and I mean, you might as well make it a good day, right?”