Raising livestock in the South Cariboo to be marketed locally can be a rewarding experience.
Local producer Ann Armann currently follows this theory in raising her cattle, sheep, and meat (Boer) goats on Circle H Ranch in Lone Butte.
With a background in mixed farming that goes back to her childhood in Scotland, this local rancher has raised cattle since 1995 and has produced lambs here for the past 18 years.
"I'm very proud and honoured that so many of my customers have returned year after year. It keeps up my confidence in continuing to supply local food."
Armann produces naturally raised, pasture-grazed Angus cattle to provide all the benefits of grass-fed beef for direct marketing to local consumers.
Her motto is "raise on the ranch, market on the ranch."
After years of being "squeezed" by poor market prices, the rancher explains she has modified her methods and production style to combat the impact of world economics.
"Selling in auctions on the open market, your management is too affected by and tied to the sliding dollar, happenings in the United States and the global market.
"For me on a small scale, you can fight all that by doing it all at home. On lambs, for example, you can name your price, one that is fair to both the producer and consumer."
By offering smaller frame butcher beef by the whole or half and her beef-in-a-box, which she notes has been "flying off the ranch," Armann says it is easier for some people to manage buying locally raised meat.
She follows a holistic approach to caring for her animals' welfare and the biodiversity of the land and environment, as opposed to a stressful, carbon-loaded system of lengthy transportation.
As compared to grain-fed beef that often comes out of the large feed lots and lands on the grocery store shelves, Armann says cattle grazed on pasture is leaner, and has other important nutritional values.
Grass-fed beef provides two to four times the level of the healthy Omega-3 fatty acid, and is much higher in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), she explains.
Studies have shown CLA in grass-fed beef is high in anti-cancer properties, she adds, and consuming it also reduces the risk for cardiovascular disease, helps fight inflammation and can even help manage or lose body weight.
Anyone with access to the Internet can easily search and find research on the added nutrition in grass-fed beef, she notes.
Using no antibiotics and the humane animal treatment from birth to abattoir is another key objective on Circle H Ranch, she adds.
Happy cows are healthy cows, Armann says, adding it all results in better-tasting beef with higher nutrition levels.
A producer member of the South Cariboo Meat Co-op, she says its plans for a new local abattoir were "totally critical" to her decision to carry on with a different focus to her methodology.
After learning what she has over the past few years, Armann doesn't want to take her livestock to just any abattoir in the region, but rather to a local facility where she knows the handling and transport process.
"The co-op holds together the whole sustainability of the supply of local meat products and the long-term viability for farming and ranching families, which is key to the regional economy.
"I think the co-op needs the community’s year-round support to ensure its long-term survival."
If a world crisis were to happen, she notes, the South Cariboo would have the local capacity to maintain its independence.
"The power of the people in this community who showed their concern and support for the meat co-op project [through memberships] indicates its importance, in their hearts and minds, to preserve the strength of our own self-sustainability for food production."
Armann says she believes there is a need for people to know where their food comes from with "complete” transparency.
"They can come out and see where and how the animals are raised, and put a local name, face and place that gives that sense of security."
With the importance she places on ensuring animals are handled in a low-stress manner throughout their life span and operating with a low carbon footprint in her transition away from the commodity market, Armann says the local abattoir is essential to her business plan.
For more information, she can be reached at 250-395-0138 or e-mail her at annarmann@highlandponies.ca.