Volume 11 Issue January 2012 Inside Blairswest Land Cattle Blairswest Land Cattle Family roots entrenched in soil Family roots entrenched in soil Gate Post Simmental leads with research Simmental Innovation Breed Improvement General genomics Advice Grazing Management Timing is everything Baxter Black Happening Publication Mail Agreement 40012794 rake, Saskatchewan is a farming community in the central part of the province located 100 miles east of Saskatoon and 100 miles north of Regina. The land in this area is sandy loam soil in dark brown soil zone. The Blairs of Blairswest Land Cattle have had their roots firmly entrenched in this soil for five generations and today the operation is a definite model of a successful family run business. Scott and Calla Blair, their three boys Cameron, Nolan and Maguire; along with parents Dale and Janet, all share various duties in running the operation which consists of 5,000 acres of crop land and another 1000 acres that are seeded to pasture and hay. The Blairs have one full time employee, Gary Wyton, who has been with them for 30 years. With the family actively involved in sports, school, community and juggling their busy schedules, it takes many hands to get the work done. Everyone pitches in and does what is needed to be successful. The Blairs have been using Simmental genetics almost as long as the breed has been in Canada. Coming from a family motivated to become leaders in the industry and not afraid to try something new, Dale imported some of the first Simmental cattle into Canada in 1970. When asked why he made the decision to import these animals, Dale said that he could see the tremendous opportunity that was there. He had originally purchased Simmental semen, then purchased some percentage animals and liked what they produced: Simmental genetics have been used ever since. The cattle operation at Blairswest has grown to a cow herd of 250 head and the base of the herd is purebred Simmental and Simmental Red Angus cross cows. The Blairs breed their Simmental cows to Red continued on page Commercial Country Semi-Annual Publication