Winter 2011_Pages 1-96_e:Layout 5
1/31/2011
5:30 PM
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The Hamilton Family Farm has grown into a large operation, planting four thousand acres of crop land (oats, barley, canola, wheat and three hundred acres of corn silage) twenty five hundred acres of pasture land and eleven hundred acres of hay land. Alfalfa is rotated throughout the crop land and prime hay is marketed to dairies in Manitoba and the United States. In addition to the hay exports, Hamco exports much of the straw that is harvested off the crop lands to United States markets. The cow base is made up of five hundred and forty registered breeding females. Four hundred and twenty are Red Angus and one hundred and twenty are in the Black Angus herd. They continue to use A.I. and embryo transfer along with a powerful group of walking bulls. The yearling heifers are synchronized and bred A.I. and the cows are A.I’d for the first month, prior to bull turn out. Each fall, the yearling bulls are put on a home performance test to get them ready for the annual spring bull sale and to accumulate data on the sires in the program. Albert, Glen and Larissa take care of the duties of the farming and feeding side of the operation, while David and Larissa are active in the genetics and marketing of the Hamco program. David makes most of the selections and breeding decisions. An operation of this scope could not be successful without a core of support staff. The Hamiltons employ three full time men, Cory Manning, Stewart Bertram and Mark Abbey, as well as a couple of seasonal employees. Hamco Cattle Co. was selected 2008 Manitoba Angus Breeder of the Year. In addition to the large workload in running this family farm venture, the Hamiltons are very active in off-farm and community affairs. Albert has been a member of the board of Keystone Agricultural Producers since 1994, serving on the executive for three years. He also serves as Chairman of Glenboro Development Corporation. Glen has served on the board of Glenboro Co-op for twenty-five years, being president for ten years. Larissa is a 4-H leader of Glenboro 4-H Beef Club, after being a member for twelve years. Larissa has recently been elected to the Board of Directors of the Manitoba Angus Association. Both Glen and Albert serve on Church Council and remain active curling in the winter. (In their younger years, they were very active in baseball.) Dr. David Hamilton currently serves on the board of directors of the Canadian Embryo Transfer Association. He has served 9 years on the board and was President of Western Canadian Association of Bovine Practitioners in 1994, six years on the board of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners from 1997 to 2003; President of Manitoba Veterinary Services District Veterinary Association and a member of Manitoba Veterinary Services Commission from 1982 to 1987. In 1999, Dr. Hamilton was awarded the Western Canadian Association of Bovine Practitioners – Veterinarian of the Year. Shelly works full time as an Animal Health Technician and was awarded the Manitoba Animal Health Technician of the year in 2008. The success of Hamco Cattle Co. is based on the roots and goals of the family farm – roots that were planted decades prior. These goals, ethics and traditions have been carried forward by the generations which follow. Using new day technology and old fashion principles, Hamco Cattle Co. and the Hamilton family have become one of Canada’s finest farming and seedstock operations.
Today’s Angus Advantage, Winter 2011
79