horses vs cattle

Why is it when a case of a disease is discovered in a beef animal that the industry crashes and borders are slamed shut but when a fatal disease that is spread easily is found in a horse not much is done? I think that Canada should shut their borders to American horses since that is where the equine herpes was traced to. Let me know what you think!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's out there, you are cheerished by your kids, I hope you all have a wonderful day. Today My dads parents came out for brunch and we had a great time. I was planning on cooking supper for my mom and rest of the family totaling 5. However within the last 20 hours we have manage to add another 10 people. They include my mom's parents, her two sisters and parts of there families and her only brother. Luckly I had enough pork tenderlion in the fridge and enough potatoes and veggies, and I am hoping that there will be enough homemade french vanilla raspberry ice cream cake for dessert.
Once again this shows how close my family is and how important we are to one another.

Families in Business Together

I am so envious of families that can life in close proximity, work side by side day in and day out, and get along for the most part. I can only image how hard it must be to run a sucessful operation while maintaining a good relationship amongs all members of the family. Considering the major decisions that are made on a farm and the influence it has on not only yourself but the rest of the family as well making these choices usually involves consulting with the other family members. However, there is definitely a lot of positives of a family fun farm. The costs are divided, the labour and pressure divided, and you always have support from your family members. The hardest part I believe is when there is an odd number of family members. for example in a family operation of the dad and two sons, the father and one son "gang" up on the other son when making decisions and blaming one another. It takes a special family to run a family agriculture operation, in fact any family fun business.

Family Relations

I am amazed at how different families can be in the way they show affection, treat each other, and the way they celebrate holiday's. My family show affection frequently and use holidays to get together and enjoy each others company. My family is the most important thing in my life, they are the ones who I credit who i am too. For the most part my family treats everyone with respect and love except in those events that there is an agruement. my family also has formed very strong traditions over the years and I plan to carry them on for years to come.
However, since I moved away from home I have learned that not every family is like mine. To some holidays don't mean a whole lot. Some never say I love you or show their affection in any other way. Some families have grown to treat each other without respect and what I consider horribly.
Please comment on you family dynamics and what you have learned about family.

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Personalities

To this day I still am amazed at how strong horses personalities are and how different they can be from one another. I heard a quote yesterday from our farrier: "some of us learn about people through horses". I find this to be so true as horses can teach us that no one is the same and that our personalities determine our actions. I also believe that some of us learn patients from our horses, we rely onthis in life to deal with other people. For example my horse, Whiz, is very shy until he gets to know someone, he has a hard time trusting others but once he does trust you he would do anything for you. I have had to have a lot of patients with working with him since I have had him since he was 2. With working with him I have learned to be patient and eventually thing will turn out the way you want.
This is also true to most animals that I have come in contact with including: cattle, dogs, and cats.

Conservative win majority

thank you everyone for voting yesterday, as the conservatives won the majority vote and have over 160 seats. This is the best outcome that could happened for Alberta farmers as well as Alberta's oilpatch. Since I have interest in both this makes me very happy. The biggest surprise was that the liberals are not the offical opposition but instead the NDP. Also the Bolc-Quebecious no longer have party status since they only recieved four seats, this is for the best I believe. The funniest thing to me was that liberal leader Ignattia didn't even win the vote in his riding, this shows how much people support him and his ideas.

Welcome

Welcome everyone,
This is my first blog that I have ever done but I hope that i will have some opinions that will encourage you to participate in the conversation.

• First off I would like to talk about the election that is happening as we speak! In my opinion if any farmer that is eligible to vote didn't vote or didn't vote conservative, I am disappointed. This is because I believe that Alberta and other western farmers will be in big trouble without the conservatives having majority.
• Second thing that I will discuss over this blog is the tension that managing an operation with the family on the relationships in that family and how it effects everyone.
• The third thing that I will discuss throughout my blog is the unneed conflict and rivalery between breeds and escpecially the youth in these breeds. In my opinion we all need to get along and work together to build the agriculuture industry, especially the beef industry.

Hope you will post your ideas about my topics and check back regularly for updates.