About SW Cattle Co. and Wilson Stock Farms
About Us
Shawn, Stacey, Jayse and Kadin make up the SW Cattle operation. Shawn and Stacey are both 3rd Generation Albertans whose Grandparents where both involved in farming and ranching with the focus in raising beef cattle. Jayse (26) and Kadin (23) both share their parent's love of cattle and sports. Shawn and Stacey along with Shawn's parents purchased the farm at Strathmore in 1994 and were married in 1995.
Shawn has worked in the cattle industry since the early 90's first with Calgary Stockyards-TEAM for 13 years as a fieldman. In 2006 he was hired by Tyson Foods- Lakeside Packers as a buyer of feeder and slaughter cattle. In 2009 Shawn left Lakeside/XL to join Gateway Livestock as the Feeder Cattle Procurement Coordinator. The summer of 2013 Shawn joined ZOETIS (formely Pfizer Animal Health) as a Territory Manager in South Central Alberta. In May 2019 - Shawn stepped away from his full time off farm employment to focus more of his time towards the Sask Ranch and seedstock operation. Shawn currently does some contract work for Phibro Animal Health as their Ruminant Account Manager - Western Canada - but focuses the majority of his time with the Ranch's 2 locations.
Stacey grew up on a ranching & farming operation in Rockyford, AB where her family continues to run a large cow/calf operation. Stacey has been a co-owner in Bangles Hair Studio & Spa in Strathmore since 1993.
Jayse covers Western Canada for Huvepharma Animal Health responsible for Beef Cattle & Feedlot accounts. He plays a key roll in the happenings around the Ranch.
Kadin keeps busy with guiding spring & fall for his outfitting business Wilson Waterfowl. He also plays a pivotal role with calving duties in Alberta (March) & Sask (May/June) plus everyday duties thru the summer in Sask from herd health maintenance -fencing - hay & greenfeed production.
This is the link to the boys Outfitting business
History of our Program-
Shawn's parents Bill & Judi started Wilson Stock Farm in 1972 in which they purchased their first Maine Anjou females. For over 51 years our family has been raising Maine Anjou genetics - unfortunately in Sept of 2021 Mom (Judi) suddenly passed away after a brief illness. Since the early 1970's the Wilson family have been noted for raising top quality Maine Anjou and Mainetainer breeding cattle. In the mid 90's the cowherd was around 40 mother cows. Since the early 2000's Shawn has continued to grow those numbers to the present as we calved 275+ Maine Anjou or Maintainer females in 2023. The majority of the cowherd are all home raised - 1 Iron - something that we are proud of.
Our Mission-
Our emphasis is to breed cattle that suit the needs of the ever changing industry. We have focused on calving ease, fertility, maternal capabilities, performance, feed effiecency, grading quality, marbling, temperament and soundness. We continue to test all herdbulls and donor cows for DNA genetic profiles. As well all calves are weighed at birth, weaning and as a yearling. We also try to stay on top of the data from offspring of our genetics on the grading and performance data from our customers calves whenever possible.
We focus on adding top outcross herdsire/herdsires from some of the the top operations from across North America every year to our bull battery with these key selection guidelines -
- polled
- maternal based power
- performance
- calving ease
- structural integrity
- genetically clean TH/PHA/DD free
- docility
We refuse to chase showring success and continue to run our cowherd in the same manner of our commercial customers as they do in their operations. That is the main reason we have stepped away from exhibiting @ shows - we wanted no bulls or heifers receiving special treatment compared to their herdmates.
The bred heifers run with bulls from Mid June until late July (42 days) on native pastures in Alberta. The hfrs are calved in Alberta in March - early April. The pairs are then hauled to the Sask Ranch in early May.
The cowherd now is fully located in Sask year-round. Cows are calved on grass on about 200 acres. After they calve the pairs are grouped into new pastures based on the birth of their calves - per Sandhills Calving system recommendations. When the calves in a pasture reach 8 weeks of age that group is branded and vaccinated. In early August the groups are then sorted into breeding groups and then herdbulls are turned out into individual bull pastures. We turn out bulls Mid August and are pulled late September (42 days). Calves are given their pre-weaning vaccines in early October then weaned and hauled back to Alberta in late October. Cows are preg-checked and vaccinated in early November.
Bull calves are backgrounded on a rolled low energy ration at Schunicht Farms. They are fed silage based/limit fed grow ration from Nov-April. The top cut is sorted and then moved to grass from mid April to late Sept. Then the bulls are programmed on a TMR grow ration up until Sale time and delivery in April as coming 2's. Heifer calves are handled the same - going to Schunicht Farms and backgrounded until late April then turned out after the top cut is sorted and bulls arrive in June.
We are proud of what we raise and have the utmost respect for nature and try to do our best in working with landowners in rotational grazing and managing our pasture conditions to enable us to turn out early in the spring. As well we care for our cattle with the guidance of Cow/Calf Health Management (cowcalfhealth.com)- Dr Troy Drake-Dr Waylon Wise along with Dr Oliver Schunicht in maintaining regular vaccinations and care of our cowherd. The Wilson herd is on the Zoetis SelectVac Gold + (Plus) Herd Health program.
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