Intro, interview, and transcription conducted by Shannon Hart and Conlan Donahue.
Watershed Stewardship Assistants Shannon Hart and Conlan Donahue were lucky enough to sit down for an interview with Mike Munton. Mike is the owner and operator of Benchmark Angus and Ben’s Quality Meats. In agriculture, especially the cattle business, the interactions with water and the land are crucial components of the industry. They are responsible for creating delicious food products that residents across the country enjoy eating almost every single day. Mike tells us how he is leading the industry in the ways of producing food that people enjoy, while going the extra mile to take long term care of the part of the watershed his operations reside in. We enjoyed some fantastic doughnuts from Bootsma Bakery while diving deeper with Mike into what it takes to produce food in the cattle industry.
1. Tell us a bit about your area of the watershed and what you do.
Our ranch is at Warner, Alberta, we ranch on the Milk River Ridge. Farm ground is on the flats and the grass country is up on the ridge. We go down to the river, and then onto the south side of the river. We have lots of wells; natural flowing spring fed wells are what waters the cattle when they are on grass and then the river itself when we are grazing down on the south side of the river. Water for us is huge, we have a monstrous dugout or catch at the bottom of the ridge that catches all the melting snow in the springtime. That is a big part of what we do, then cattle will water out of that using livestock watering systems. Controlling and utilizing all the water that comes and goes from runoff is huge for us.
At Benchmark Angus, we raise purebred Angus cattle and have a bull sale every fall where we merchandise bulls to our customers. Bulls will go from Ontario to British Columbia and all the points in between; we also have our own meat business. We harvest cattle that are either our own home raised cattle or ones we would buy back from our bull customers so that we know the genetics in those cattle. We will then market that beef into Calgary, Edmonton, Banff, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, and lots of other places. We are truly pasture to plate. We organize the genetics to be able to produce a better product and then we process that product, harvest that beef, merchandise, and deliver the product as well.
2. How has agriculture changed over time?
I think agriculture has changed a lot. It is a very slow change, especially on the cattle side of things. Typically, everybody does things how they have been done; it's kinda like a train going down the tracks, it's pretty hard to get off the tracks. Friends of mine or people that I know have been doing the same thing for no other reason than their grandfather did it that way. Not necessarily that it is right or wrong, but it's pretty hard to see it a different way. Very traditional, and in a lot of ways not to the best end, but I think largely because of economic reasons things have had to change. I still don’t think they have changed enough. If we look at the cropping side, equipment has gotten bigger because of time, fuel, etc. Those kinds of things change your efficiency in a lot of ways; I think we have started to see changes on the side of crop production. On the cattle side, it is a very slow moving wheel. We do a lot of things at our place that I think are good and progressive to try and make cattle better, try to make beef better, and I think we are starting to see some of those changes. My family has been ranching since 1912 and probably 30 years ago, a lot of the practices were the same way that they were back then. In a lot of places, they still are and again not that that’s wrong or right, we just need to broaden our horizons a little bit to try and see what could be more economically beneficial. I think on the cattle side, we've seen a lot of producers just get out of the cattle business. It hasn't been very good to raise cattle over quite a good number of years and it takes a whole pile of work. Lots of the new generations — to no fault of theirs — can go and do something and make 4-10 times as much and not be working 18 hour days through the weather, through the this, through the that. It’s just a different — I wouldn't say a better — lifestyle, because that's really what agriculture is, it's a lifestyle.
I think those of us that are truly invested in agriculture, we’re hopefully going to be doing it for another hundred years. That's going to take some foresight to be able to see some things that need to be changed in order to stay in business, be profitable, and have a business that will continue to go on. We really have tried to study the cattle a lot better for efficiency. When I came back from school, our cows would average about 1850 lbs per cow which is a little bit bigger than the average cow in Canada. We've crushed that down to about a 1350 lb average cow size. We are also weaning more weight so we've got an animal out there that is consuming less and producing more. It's really maximizing grass, water, time, maximizing everything just to be more efficient. Those big cows in our outfit just don't pay; the simple math is, a cow will eat 2.5% of her body weight a day. If she's 2000 lbs, that's a lot; if it's 1200 lbs, that's almost half. That's a lot of change.
When it comes to grass consumption and winter feeding, you are having to put a whole lot into them and if you're getting the same amount out, that's not a good return. That is one of the biggest things we worked on to start with. I think the bigger picture in the beef business is that beef quality in Canada is pretty poor. Typically, you will see about 50% of cattle graded AAA and the other 50% will grade AA. The eating experience of the AA beef is about 40% as satisfactory as AAA. This means that half of the beef that is produced in Canada 60% of the time is not enjoyable to the consumer. That’s sad and kind of depressing; here we are putting our heart and soul into producing something that 3 of us will sit down to eat and not enjoy. What we've really focused on is on the genetics side, to be able to produce a product that tastes better. If the consumer enjoys the product, they will eat more of it and if they want more of it, we need more good cattle. Those two things are probably some of the bigger picture things; other things we do at our ranch to make it more efficient is our installed GrowSafe system that allows us to monitor what an animal consumes. Every one of our animals at roughly 12 months of age would go under the GrowSafe system where for 90 days we measure how much they ate and how much they gained. The average conversion for beef cattle is 7.5 lbs. If you think about it, in order for an animal to gain a thousand pounds, they need to eat 7500 lbs of feed, which is over 3 tons. With research and GrowSafe, we have been able to push the conversion rate to about 5 lbs on average. We take 2.5 lbs less to make a pound of beef, which seems small scale but if you look at a feedyard that has 35,000 head, that is monstrous. That's what we're really pushing on our side is to make the cattle more efficient because we're gonna feed them and grow them no matter what so let's make it better. We’ve also done lots of cross fencing, lots of swath grazing, we've changed our calving time to April so we’re not in stupid weather, which is life-changing.
*everyone laughs*
January and February is when we would calve for my whole entire life and you get frozen ears, frozen tails, and it's hard on everything. Further to that, if you calve at that time in the year, you have to have the cows in to feed them because they need the nutrients to be able to feed and grow that late stage calf. For us now, we push that back and our cows are not in such a need for nutrition because they are two months away from calving so it works out infinitely better. Typically, we are in a better weather cycle, and the only thing we need to fight is rain but that's pretty manageable compared to 40 below with wind chill. I always equated a calf being born outside to us getting in the shower and then running outside when it's 45 below. I'm not interested in doing that, neither is the calf, and neither is the mother.
3. Tell us about some of the innovations you’re seeing in agriculture.
I think that label for our region hinges greatly on the high level of productivity of agriculture in our region, which is really attributed to the availability of water in the fields that is delivered through irrigation projects. Irrigation in Southern Alberta goes back to the late 1800s; there were many early projects that were delivered by the father of Lethbridge. Mr Galt owned all kinds of enterprises such as coal mining, railroads, and irrigation projects. Back then, there were projects diverting water from the St. Mary river. Even in the 1920s, there were the Lethbridge irrigation district diversions from the Oldman; diversions from the Bow were all done about a hundred years ago. Those projects in the last century have really contributed to the high level of productivity that we have in this region for food. There's a lot of different crops that are produced in our region; everything from corn, potatoes, carrots, beets, and onions are all produced at various scales locally for consumption. The region also supports a really high percentage of meat production. This is especially true for beef and feedlots; there are all kinds of mind blowing stats that about ¾ to 80 percent of all the beef sold in Canada comes from a cow that at least spent some time in this region before being processed. There’s some enormous feedlot operations, entire sections of land are where beef is finished. Within 50-100 km of Lethbridge, there is a huge amount of food that is produced and exported across the world.
4. How has drought impacted you?
Our biggest thing we do is with grass. For us, we will bank grass; if we have a field that we did not graze this year, that would be banked grass. It’s money in the bank, it’s grass we can graze next year. It never goes bad and it never has to change since we predominantly graze native prairie grass. For us, that's how we plan; we always have an excess of grass and always want to do more to have that bank of grass for when that drought comes, we are not in a bad spot. We will typically rotate a field every year or graze a field in a shorter time period to give it a chance to bounce back and be ready for grazing in the spring. We move cattle pasture to pasture to not overwork the ground. We always figure if it's a one year drought we will be just fine, if it's two years we will start to feel it, and if it's three years we are probably in trouble. It's the bigger picture of managing that grass from the get go to be able to know that we have this gift in our hip pocket instead of thinking you were going to graze a field, but then it didn't rain and now you're in trouble.
I think a big part of that is being a good steward of the land and looking after things. If you abuse it, you're not going to be in the game for very long. We need to look after our animals and our ground because those two things working together is what allows us to be here. If we look after that grass and have a little bit of foresight to decide that the field that we haven't touched yet is going to be left alone this year. Then we know we can go after that next year and this field that we grazed a little bit this year will be rested next year. Banked grass is the biggest thing for us; if we know we have feed, we know we have cows. Those two things have to go hand in hand, otherwise you're trying to graze rocks. I haven't seen cattle do very well on that and probably never will.
*everyone laughs*
5. What’s the most fun part of your job?
I think the most fun and the most rewarding parts go hand in hand. I think knowing where my family has come from and knowing where we are today and hopefully being able to see the future of where we’re going and again, that’s agriculture in general. We’re always working for and planning for next year because this year might not be very good. Having that long-term plan to be able to say “I want my kids to be able to be doing what I’m doing” because I really enjoy it and hopefully they do as well. At the end of the day, it’s a pretty neat thing to be able to take cattle in what I would call their natural habitat and raise them in a way that can produce something that’s really enjoyable for people. We’ve had world class chefs here at our little plant in Picture Butte and we’ve had them at the ranch. They’re just in awe because they had no idea that the cattle business was that intricate and that complicated; it really is, especially when you’re always wanting to do something better then you’re putting a lot of work into getting it better. In a very long winded way, I think that the two best things would be planning and hopefully fulfilling the future of what my great grandfather could never have foreseen and probably didn't. Knowing where they were in the early 1900s, it was pretty tough slogging. I mean, this little place and this little outfit, we feed tens of thousands of people every week and that’s a onerous task but it’s pretty cool when you can meet people and they’re like “Man, you guys have the best beef,” or “Yeah, we ate at this place and it was amazing!'' That's a pretty neat thing.
6. Beyond what you are doing, how is the industry managing its impact?
I think for most part, it’s doing pretty good. Always room for improvement in all things that we do but I think especially the people that have been in agriculture for a period of time, they get it, otherwise they wouldn’t be in it. The land is forgiving in a lot of ways and not in others so if we work a field too hard and graze it too hard, with native grass, we’re 4 years out before that grass grows back; that’s a long time. The environment makes us better stewards or at least asks us to be better stewards, otherwise we get hit on the head with a hammer because there’s no grass or you haven’t managed your (grass) reserves. It doesn’t take long for that to come back and bite you pretty hard. I think especially people who have been in it for a period of time, they have to get that or the generation before had to get that because they wouldn’t still be here.
I think ag is largely that way because the cost to get into ag is insane. There’s no banker on the planet that would meet a 22 year old and agree to the request “I need to borrow $40 million. Gonna buy some land and some cows; won’t be able to buy a tractor but we’ll figure that out,”. Even on a small scale, it’s millions and you have to know what you’re doing in order to make it work and if you don’t, then you’re not gonna be around. There isn’t a huge group of people that are trying to get into agriculture because it’s just not accessible. If you don’t have a seed to start, it’s just not gonna happen. I think that puts a fair bit of onus on those that are in it to be good stewards; those that are in it, typically in the last ten to twenty years, have grown because in a lot of ways. Those that don’t have a long-term plan or a succession plan they’re not in it anymore. Famous words in agriculture: you’re asset rich and cash poor; That’s your retirement. If people can’t see a future then, you’re cashing out and I think that’s what happened in the last 20 years, probably more acutely in the last 10 years. Somewhere in that range, 10-20 years, it’s happened in a big, big way and still is happening.
7. What do you see as the future in your industry?
I don’t know what I think the future is but what I would like for the future would be producers that are more attentive to the consumer, especially when you compare beef to other proteins. A chicken is the same at Sunrise Poultry in Lethbridge as it is in Denmark. They have done all of that based on genetics because they’ve said that’s what everyone wants that chicken breast or thigh to look and taste like so the genetics on poultry is nothing; there is no vast array within poultry. Pork is much the same way, it’s a little bit bigger on the genetics side than poultry but those proteins, they’ve figured out that this is what we want a porkchop to look like and taste like so they just make them all that way. The beef cattle industry, again, is slower changing and very independent-minded. All three of us here might have three totally different opinions of what that ideal is and then we’ll each make our own ideal but at the end of the day, none of our ideals matter because we’re only eating what we’re eating; the masses are what we need to be a little bit more in tune with to be able to say this is what the consumer is saying they’re wanting and they’ll pay this for it. Why are we making this? I think in the cattle business, that’s the biggest disconnect in my mind. Again, 50% of cattle are AA and more than average of AA cuts on the steak side are not enjoyable. So, what are we doing here? If we all sat down to eat a porkchop, we would all be satisfied because they’re all the same. If we have chicken of any kind, we’d be satisfied because it’s all the same and our expectation is this and that product is going to be there. With beef, lots of people haven’t consumed really good beef so they don’t even know what good beef is because it’s not available because it’s such a small quantity that’s produced, which is kind of sad.
8. What is your favourite thing to eat in the watershed?
Beef! I’m a bit of a beef enthusiast, for sure, so it would be beef 100%. I think what our area produces is better than anything in the world and there’s so many things that go into that whether that’s the water that’s coming out of the ground, native grass, the barley and silage that’s grown here, all of those things feed into that protein that we consume and make it unique and really, really good and I think that’s something that really can be capitalized on because if you have something better, that’s a pretty good thing. It’s not like you can transplant Southern Alberta to somewhere else, it’s unique as far as the dirt, the wind, the minerals, everything that produces a blade of grass, our cattle are consuming and that makes that product taste different and be what it is.
9. What do you find inspiring about the ag industry?
I think agriculture in general is inspiring just because of the amount of work that goes in and I think not only work but the passion of it. You don’t get up every two hours to do night checks because it’s a big bucket of fun, you do it because it’s your commitment to the cattle and yourself and your family and the people that are around you and I think that’s inspirational. What we touched on earlier, an inspiration is that we make food and that’s pretty cool because people in Calgary tonight will go and eat a steak that originated in Warner, Alberta. I remember talking with my dad when we started this venture and he said “We can be the best hillbilly cowboys on the face of the planet but if nobody knows about the cattle and nobody knows about the product, then we’re just hillbillies,” *laughs* There’s nothing wrong with that but the inspiration of it is, one of the restaurants was voted the number one new restaurant in Canada, another restaurant has been the #1 steakhouse in Calgary for six years, we’ve supplied them for six years.
The success of the places that we supply here locally, that’s inspiring because there’s a lot of work that goes into that and then to be sitting in Cattlemen’s Chophouse and watching people out of the corner of your eye going “Man, this steak is amazing,”; that’s inspiring because they don’t know what it took to get that there but we do. Even everybody here at the packing plant wouldn’t know the ranch side and our guys at the ranch, they wouldn’t know the packing side; there’s so many chances for failure along the way that it’s amazing that it’s successful. You first have to get a cow pregnant, which may not work. She then has to have a live calf; what happens if that calf dies? That calf then needs to be healthy, but what happens if it’s not? Then it needs to go on feed but what happens if it doesn’t eat well? Then it has to come here (Ben’s Quality Meats) and we have a kill floor process, fab process, packaging process, boxing process, shipping process; all of those things are short little bits and pieces but that’s huge. We can produce everything perfectly and if our packaging quality doesn’t get that product to the customer in the best state that it can, then the effort is ruined.
10. What is one thing you would like the public to know about the ag industry?
I think just more in general; I think one of the neatest things is having stupidly talented world class chefs come to the ranch and be amazed, saying “You do all of that?” and being like “Yeah, we have to,”. Further to that, to know the processes that happen here (at the packing plant) as well. There’s a lot that goes into it and I think even as people in agriculture, we need to know more. As a kid growing up in it, we took a steer to the slaughterhouse every year, it went in the freezer, and we ate and it was just what it was; we know what went into it but then, we’re just feeding our family. It’s hard to separate that out and say “Okay, that was one animal; we raised 500 of them this year, where did the other 499 go? Did people enjoy their meal?” I think that it’s really two-fold; I think ag needs to be more aware of the consumer and I think the consumer genuinely wants to be more aware of the producer. I think we’re literally just missing the connection where we just keep doing what we do in ag and people keep eating it. It’s like we’ll just keep making more of that, whereas any other industry really doesn’t do that. Especially on the cattle side, it’s such a long life cycle. Chicken are processed every 30 days, that’s how old they are when they’re harvested; that’s a pretty quick turnaround. A bird is born and 30 days later, you know whether they were good or not and you can make changes. Cattle are two or three years out; you don’t know whether you have good genetics until you have daughters out of that cow or bull nursing to know whether she’s a good mother or she’s aggressive.
I think the time is right for it because I think all of us as consumers want to know more; it’s about how beef in general gets that message out there because I think we’ve been pretty poor at it for a long time. You look at what massive companies are doing, they’re educating their consumer because their consumer wants to know, not just for their own benefit but it’s full circle. We are giving you this, whether it’s a vest or paper or whatever, you’re consuming or buying it so we want you to know more about it. I think ag has fallen short in the big picture of doing that and I think the consumer is more aware now than they ever were, but there’s definitely an appetite. We’ve had ranch days where we’ve had restaurants shut down the whole entire place to charter buses to the ranch to come and see what we do. The appetite is massive; we could have spent a week there just because they were so interested in everything and that’s great, but it is a challenge because not everybody can shut down and charter buses from Calgary to Warner. I think that’s the path that ag needs to be on because there’s so much information out there on all things, which makes the consumer smarter. If that information can be construed in a different way, then that’s really bad and it just takes one little bit of media that says everybody in Southern Alberta is not looking after their grass or water or abusing their cattle. That one story then lumps everybody and that’s a bad battle to fight. Those things are unfortunate, but in the big picture I think there just needs to be more engagement and some of that can happen in a pretty easy way. Beef in general is missing the mark on that.
There used to be beef educators that would go into elementary schools and talk about the nutritional benefits of beef, but that’s gone by the wayside, which is unfortunate. 50 years ago, everybody was connected somehow with agriculture. If someone wasn’t in ag, one of their buddies likely was and they would have visited that farm or ranch. Now, there’s more removal from ag in general so those kids aren’t having an ag experience growing up and they’re more detached from it. Not intentionally, it’s just the way that it is. I know lots of my friends that lived in town growing up, they loved coming out so they got to have that ag experience. That’s largely gone now so I think there needs to be more of an emphasis on ag to spend time and money on that type of education. Ag producers are working very hard every day to feed the world so it’s very important to understand how that works. There’s a story in all food production and it’s important that it’s told and told well. In-person experiences such as farm days are a great way to connect with people. You can do it, but ag is hard to capture on a video, whereas to come out to the ranch and taste and smell it and all of those things, you can take those things with you. Ag through a screen is informative and it’s impressive and whatnot but to actually touch and see it is much more impactful. I think it’s on those of us in ag to do more of that in a positive way and it can be done, it just takes planning and doing.
This was produced by the OWC as part of the "Uniting Rural Producers and Urban Consumers" program, which was made possible by the support of Canadian Agricultural Partnership program, the Government of Alberta, and the Government of Canada.
Thank you to Mike Munton for his contributions to this project and to bettering the watershed for all those who live, work, and play here.
