The original herd of longhorns that came up from Texas was soon replaced (1902) with an animal more suited to the region - the Hereford. The Hereford had proven itself to be a good beef animal 'built' to withstand the elements of Southern Alberta. Years and years of critical selection resulted in having one of the finest Hereford herds in not just the country but in North America. Numerous ribbons from the Royal Winter Fair and other 'shows' are testament to the quality animals produced by the Ranch.

As times changed so did the herd at the McIntyre, namely with the introduction of crossbreeding in 1985. The science of cattle breeding had evolved to determine that an improved genetic composition resulted when two or more breeds were combined. This is referred to as hybrid vigour or heterosis. This 'cross breeding' effectively produced a superior animal (stronger, more fertile and longer-lived). Just as with 'Purebreds' or 'Fullbloods', crossbred management selects the desired traits of the breed in seeking to maximize the balance between them. With the Hereford as the 'base' breed, crossbreeding experience with several breeds (Black Angus, Charolais, Red Angus and Tarentaise) ultimately determined the Red Angus breed to be the one of choice.

Today, the Ranch has a purebred herd of approximately 150 Hereford cows and a purebred herd of approximately 150 Red Angus cows. With a purebred herd, it is necessary to know which animal specifically is the sire (father) and dam (mother) of a given offspring. Because of this, 'single sire' breeding is managed. This means that one bull will breed between 25 to 30 females in a separate field. We have twelve separate fields for the purebred breeding season. 6 Red Angus bulls are needed to breed 150 Red Angus females (in groups of 25) and 6 Hereford bulls are needed to breed 150 Hereford females (also in groups of 25). These dozen bulls are referred to as the 'Herd Sires' and we typically keep a spare or two around in the event of injury or otherwise.

Management of the purebred herd consists of precise information gathering and assessing. Individual birth-weights, weaning-weights and yearling-weights are taken and growth performance is factored and combined with a visual assessment to determine what animals will stay in the herd and what animals won't. Those kept will replace the aged and poorest performing animals. Females chosen to stay will join the purebred herd while the males selected to stay will join the 'commercial' bull herd. On occasion, a top performing bull may join the Herd Sires for purebred breeding.

The 'job' of the commercial bull is to breed those females of the commercial (cross-bred) herd. Breeding ratios on the commercials are the same as the purebreds (one bull for 25 females) however 'multi-sire' service occurs rather than 'single sire' service. This means that a group of bulls will be with a group of females and therefore is very difficult to know which bull is the sire of a given calf.

The commercial cow herd comprises approximately 1850 cows and a replacement heifer herd of 375 head is managed to allow for culling the older cows. The McIntyre Ranch has always prided itself on having livestock with industry leading genetics and animals with excellent conformation. As high performance continues in our purebred herd, the replacement heifers will keep adding their benefits to our youthful cow herd that maintains an average age of roughly 4.5 years (cows are most productive between the ages of four and nine years).

The breeding that has been described above leads to the next topic - calving. Gestation for cattle is nine months and because different females are exposed to bulls at different times, calving is somewhat spread out at the McIntyre. The purebreds are the first to calve (starting in early March) and the replacement heifers begin a few weeks later (starting at the end of March). These two female groups are kept close to home at the Farm Headquarters as they require more attention for gathering information and assistance purposes. They are also fed just prior to, during and after calving as the new grass is yet to come. Calving at the Farm is a 24 hour-a-day job. Two, twelve-hour shifts are covered by three of the cowmen during this six to eight week period. Although farming is no longer practiced on the McIntyre, we refer to this area as the Farm in order to distinguish it from the Ranch Headquarters. These two places are the main living and operating areas on the property.

As the purebred and replacement heifers are nearing the end of their calving period, the commercial cow herd calving season is just beginning (near the first of May). This is a planned event as it is not feasible to provide the likely needed shelter a herd this size would require from the weather that is typical during the months of March and April. These females and their calves, are typically monitored by two cowmen in the eight-section area (12,651 hectares) they roam. These cows are not typically fed (at anytime during the year for that matter), as the native grass is usually ample for their needs. Generally, half of the offspring are female and half are male.

During the course of the year all cattle are gathered and brought to one of four sets of corrals for 'processing' in one manner or another. Processing cattle in a timely and reasonable manner makes an investment in handling facilities essential. The first process after calving is branding and this 30 second process is done sometime in the first six to eight weeks after birth. All commercial calves are branded, vaccinated and dehorned (30% have horns) and the bull calves are castrated. All purebred calves are also branded and vaccinated, however the bull calves are not dehorned nor castrated. The heifer calves are dehorned. Red Angus cattle are naturally without horns (polled) while the Hereford breed can be either polled or horned. McIntyre Herefords are horned and the purpose of leaving the horns on the bulls is to provide the Hereford bulls with an element of defence against the more aggressive Red Angus bulls. Purebred calves also receive an identity tattoo in one ear and an identity ear-tag in the other ear as the assurance of identity is required.

The practice of castration is partialy the result of consumer demand (the consumer of yester-year did not like the dark colouration and lack of tenderness that bull meat produced). A castrated male is called a steer. Female calves are called heifers (i before e except after c ?) and this term refers to a female that has yet to have a calf of her own. Dehorning is done on the 30% that have them because they can inflict considerable injury to other animals. These injuries often result in bruising that decreases meat quality on those that will be slaughtered.

Another process that occurs sometime between calving and breeding is fertility testing the bulls. Assessing the semen quality of the bulls will determine those with good or poor morphology (the form and structure of an organism or of any part of an organism) and motility (capable of or demonstrating movement by independent means). A scrotal measurement and physical examination of the testes is also done at this time because it has been deemed that 'size does matter' to fertility and libido. These processes are performed by a veterinarian. Those bulls that do not meet the minimum standards are culled from the herd and sold for slaughter.

The breeding season starts about a month after branding. As previously mentioned, cow-to-bull ratios are usually 25 to1. The bulls are exposed to the commercial cows, first-calf heifers and purebred females for a period of eight weeks and only six weeks to the replacement heifers. The purpose of a shorter time on the replacement heifers is to heighten the probability that the most fertile will be bred.

Not much corral work goes on during the summer months as this is primarily a time for riding through the various herds to monitor health condition, to move herds from field to field and to work on miscellaneous projects.

There are two major cattle handling processes that happen once the summer is over. The first is weaning (early October). This is when the calves are separated from their mothers (where they have been gaining approximately two lbs per day since birth). The calves are vaccinated, weighed and then trucked to the Farm where they will be cared for during the winter. The second is pregnancy testing the females that were expose to bulls (early November). This is done to eliminate those females from the herd that will not produce a calf in the spring. The percent of non-pregnant females typically ranges between 4% and 11%. All females that are 'in calf' will spend the winter grazing fields with good natural shelter and available spring water.

As mentioned above, the calves that have been weaned are cared for at the Farm Headquarters. We referred to this as 'back-grounding' as the calves are fed to gain between a pound and a quarter and a pound and a half per day. It is a delicate process to provide a ration that is sufficient for their growth needs while ensuring they do not get too 'fleshy' (fat). Straw bedding is provided on an as-needed basis and the calves are looked at daily by the cowmen to monitor health conditions.

Winter feeding involves only the weaned calves and all of the bulls. The bulls require more attention than the cows as frozen testicles can render a bull useless. The purebred females, commercial cows and replacement heifers all winter out on the grass without being fed (extreme conditions may warrant the need for feed to be taken to these animals). They are kept in fields with flowing springs, natural shelter and field that are free of dams and dugouts. Grass management and weather conditions have made this possible more than 95 % of the time during the last 30 years as feeding for these females has happened not more that 60 days during this time.

In the spring, the corral work begins again when the calves have reached the age one year old (yearlings). At this point (sometime in April) the steers are all weighed and put out to grass in one large group. All steers are 'terminal' (will be slaughtered for consumption) and at the end of the summer (after gaining approximately 2 lbs per day ) are usually sold as long-yearling 'feeders'. At this stage they enter the feedlot fattening process for at least 120 days before slaughter. On occasion, the Ranch retains ownership of the steers and contracts a feedlot to fatten them until they are ready to be sold as 'fats'.

Where the steers stay in one group, the heifers are sorted into two groups. The purpose of sorting the heifers is to identify and select those females best suited as replacement females. Those females that are not chosen as replacements will follow the same program as the steers. Both female groups will be weighed and then moved out to grass in separate pastures. Replacement heifers will be bred at 14 to 16 months of age and give birth as two year olds. Most consumers are unaware that the best meats come from such steers and heifers while most meat from bulls and cows ends up as hamburger.

Over the years, the McIntyre Ranch has also raised horses, pigs, chickens and dairy cows. None of these are raised today nor have they been for some time. The last to go was probably the brood mares and the stallion - sometime in the 1980's.