In 1993, the Eusi family left their dairy farm in Switzerland, arriving in southwestern Ontario with a vision for building something that could support not just one generation, but many to come.

The skies were clear as the sun flirted with the idea of peeking over the mountains to the east. Despite the cool of the early spring morning, it promised to be a beautiful day.

When wildfires tore through the Nebraska Sandhills this spring, they moved fast – faster than communication, faster than formal response systems and, at times, faster than families could fully process what was happening.

JPD Angus in Oro-Medonte, Ontario, grew into a family operation through evenings after long off-farm workdays and weekends spent raising Angus cattle.

Winter Sundays after church often found our family gathered around the ice cream bucket, cranking fresh cream into a tradition that blended labor, laughter and lasting joy.

For many of us, Christmas looks a little different than it does in a Hallmark movie. The snow doesn’t fall just right, the wind bites harder than we’d like, and chores don’t take a holiday.

It was a dreary April day this past spring in western Wisconsin. I spent the afternoon driving back from a cattle event, heading right to another community commitment I had that evening. That’s where I got the dreaded text, “Looks like 048 is calving.”

Gratitude is more than a feeling – for many, it’s a way of life.

When the King Ranch owners recognized professional ranch management is critical for successful cattle operations, they established the King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management (KRIRM) with Texas A&M University – Kingsville in 2003. They realized the ranching business has changed and continues to evolve, and keeping up with or even anticipating changes is a critical business management component of a profitable ranch.