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Kaitlyn Kimmet Yo u k no w c o w s a r e central to your life when your boyfriend glues his marriage proposal to the side of one of your cows that just calved, to get your attention. On March 30th, 2014, this young lady became engaged. Her teachers in nursing college told her the first two years after graduating would likely be the most exciting and eventful of her life and so far, that has proved true. She is one confident, sure-talking force to be reckoned with in Ontario’s purebred cattle circles. She is a hard worker. She has raised and is managing a cattle herd with her father, promoting that herd at fairs, small and large, under the name of Gold-Wing Ranch. She is vibrant, friendly and unforgettable after you meet her. She says life is short and knows that from life experience. She lives her life by the Golden Rule and wastes no time revealing what is important to her. Herefords fit into that picture. Meet 28-year-old Kaitlyn Kimmett. She has lived away from home and the family’s Hereford operation for two years but is still there every other day, while working full-time as an emergency room nurse. She is looking into calving pen cameras that she can monitor on her cell phone but for now, she continues to get calls from her dad about calving cows. Kaitlyn is a fifth generation cattle producer and farmer. Her greatgrandfather started the family’s current farm in the Desoronto area, about three hours directly east of Toronto, Ontario. The farm was originally an airport/hospital base
Showing at the 2013 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair
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i n World Wa r I, owned by Sir John A. McDonald and the Rathbun Company. Her grandfather Grant K immet t milked Holsteins and raised pigs but his barn burnt down in the late ‘70s after which he went into the business of raising stocker calves. His daug hter Pam – Kaitlyn’s aunt - wanted to show heifers i n 4 -H so her grandpa bought a couple cow/calf pairs at Bobby Hull’s sale. They were Herefords. Over the following year, the herd grew to 10 females. The Kimmett family has now raised registered purebred Herefords for over 25 years. Throughout Kaitlyn’s childhood, the herd numbered between 60 and 80 cows. What most people might not know about Kaitlyn is that when she was six years old, in 1992, she and her brother Josh, of four, lost their mother (Shelly), who died of cancer. Kaitlyn spent a lot of time at the home of her grandparents – Grant and Kathleen “Cookie” - until she and her brother and father moved to the farm permanently in 1997, when Kaitlyn was 10. When Kaitlyn turned 16, in 2004, the family farmhouse that the Kimmetts lived in burnt down. Two years later, the farm became
embroiled in a native land claim issue, which is ongoing still today eight years later. This has resulted in damaged property and has reduced accessibility to their own pasture and farm land. About 120 acres of pastureland on their 324-acre farm became hay land because fences kept being damaged. The Kimmetts have been restricted to using just 180 acres of the farm. As a consequence, all but 10 cows of the Hereford herd were dispersed in 2011, the year Kaitlyn went off to university. Kaitlyn started in the fine arts department of Guelph University but later enrolled in the four-year nursing program at Laurentian University and St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ontario. That four-year program took her six years to complete, with the death of her best friend in a car accident in 2007 and the death of two other close family members, followed by her grandma Cookie’s diagnoses of cancer in 2008. Her grandma passed away in 2011. Later that fall, Kaitlyn met Jeremy. He was the friend of a friend that Kaitlyn knew through 4-H. Jeremy overheard Kaitlyn’s friend talking about “this girl that lived for her cows”. Jeremy is a diesel mechanic who cash crops with his brother in the Madoc area and services large trucks and equipment. Jeremy and Kaitlyn are now looking for a home on farmland close to the family operation. They