Q: Tell us about your story

Andrew: Both Laurie and I are very involved in the farm but I handle more of the health and day-to-day management of the cattle and land. Laurie looks more after the marketing and financial side of our farm.

Johnson Livestock was established in 1905 by my great grandfather. He came from Norway and the family lore is that he had seen a flyer saying that Canada’s winters were beautiful. Apparently, he wasn’t out there this winter, because I’m not agreeing with him. But anyway, he settled here in 1905.

The farm has expanded with every generation, I am a fourth-generation rancher and my kids are the fifth. My kids are still in school, but they’re all very involved on the farm.

Q: What makes you most proud about being a Canadian beef farmer?

Andrew: The land and being a caretakerof something that has been in our family for generations –improving and expanding upon it.

Q: How do you ensure your farming is sustainable for the land and cattle?

Andrew: In my mind, everything we do to improve the land makes it better for the cattle. In turn, everything we do to make things better for the cattle also improves the land. For example, with weed management, when we rotational graze, instead of the livestock eating the best grasses and leaving all the coarser ones, they eat everything. When it grows back, we’ve actually improved our best grasses, and the weeds that are out there are being harvested before they go to seed.

Q: Why should consumers trust you?

Andrew: Because of how hard we work, how much we care about our livestock and being caretakers of the land. We do farming as a living, but to tell you the truth, we hardly pay attention to the dollars and cents side of it. We’re not doing for the money–it’s a lifestyle and we truly care about what we do.

Q: If you could only eat one more cut of beef for the rest of your life, what’s it going to be?

Andrew: I’d go with prime rib.

Laurie: I’ll have to go with a classic –ground beef.