Fewer cattle but bigger herds: Alberta cow-calf farmers in a shifting industry

Calving season has just ended on the Crooked Lake Farm southeast of Edmonton, meaning an end to sometimes odd hours through the night to bring new calves into the world.

"Your labour isn't a set day," Jill Burkhardt said. "It's not like you can say, I need someone to work from eight to five, five days a week."

Burkhardt grew up on a farm in Montana and runs the fifth-generation family farm near Gwynne, Alta., with her husband. It's a cow-calf operation — a herd of about 150 cows is maintained to produce calves for later sale. 

It is the very beginning of a long chain in Canada's beef sector, much of it centred in Alberta and Saskatchewan. From here the calves would typically be sold at auction or sent to feeding and finishing operations to put on more pounds.

Over the last 15 years, the number of beef cows on cow-calf farms in Canada has shrunk: from 4.5 million in January of 2008 to 3.3 million in January of 2023.

The average number of cattle and calves per farm — on all operations, not just cow-calf — has increased from 134 in January 2008 to 155 in January 2023.

For Alberta, those numbers went from 204 to 229, although there were steady decreases from 2019 through to 2023.

The average age of farmers in Canada is increasing. In 2021, it was 56, which is close to retirement age in many sectors. In Alberta, around 62 per cent of farmers are 55 or older.

Those shifting demographics have been a topic of discussion within the industry for half a decade or longer, Burkhardt says.

"Are the older folks getting out and the younger guys getting bigger? Perhaps."

A trend of consolidation

Brenna Grant, executive director of CanFax, the Canadian Cattle Association's analysis division, says the beef industry has always had producers leaving and coming in. Merging herds is also nothing new, she said.

"If you actually went back more than 15 years, if you're going back 100 years, you would see that agriculture in general has had a trend of consolidation, which means fewer producers on larger operations."

Grant also points to Statistics Canada's 2021 census of agriculture: only five per cent of cow-calf farms had 250 or more beef cows while 61 per cent had fewer than 47.

Grant suggests the top reason behind the diminishing total cattle number is new efficiencies. In the beef sector, for instance, carcass weights have increased.

She said Canada has also gone from a net exporter of feeder cattle — calves mature enough to be fattened for slaughter — to a net importer. Calves that historically went into veal are now finishing to full weights and adding to the pounds of beef produced.

The beef sector itself has grown — 2021 marked the sixth year in a row of hitting record export values for Canadian beef, according to the cattle association. Grant said Canada's domestic beef production in 2022 was the third largest on record after 2004 and 2005.

But Grant admits there are challenges for cow-calf operations, especially with rising input costs — including feed and utility prices for barns — driven by inflation.

"Profitability does not necessarily mean that some of these operations are large enough to support an entire family from their cow-calf income alone," Grant said.

For beef farming, off-farm income grew to 88 per cent in 2020, up from 73 per cent five years earlier.

"There's lots of producers that maybe have a spouse, maybe themselves, have an off-farm job that they're doing either on the side or a spouse that's working full time off the farm."

Grant said the number of cow-calf operations that could meet all their expenses in 2021 had declined since the previous year. Cash flow can be challenging, especially in drought years, she said.

Next-generation success

At 32, Brodie Haugan is one of the younger cow-calf producers. Alongside his parents, he runs Haugan Land and Cattle, south of Medicine Hat.

Haugan is also the chair of Alberta Beef Producers, which represents the industry in the province.

"We are definitely seeing that exodus of that older generation," he said in an interview.

Haugan said there are many things in play within the beef industry right now. Some ranchers have seen severe drought while others have contended with too-mild winters. Labour is an ongoing issue as well.

Like Grant, Haugan said input costs have soared, outpacing income.

"Our margins, especially the farther you get down the chain … have been consistently low," he said. "With the cow-calf industry, it's such a long-term type of business."

Haugan said while young producers are getting into the industry, it is a challenge to continue being ranchers.

Industry advocates are doing everything they can to ensure an even playing field for the next generation, he said. Alberta Beef Producers is pushing to work with the government on risk mitigation programming.

"We'll definitely get through this," Haugan said. "It just might look a little different on the other end."