Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives

Brenda Belbas - Holistic farm management shows great benefits

If there is a crisis in agriculture, you won't hear about it from Brenda Belbas.

The 49-year-old cow-calf producer, and her husband Jim credit holistic farm management (along with hard work and the invaluable assistance of their 81-year-old neighbour Dennis Brogen) with much of their operation' success and their optimistic view of the future.

Despite the trials and tribulations of BSE and unreliable weather, their farm near Cartwright in southwestern Manitoba has managed to meet all the challenges of raising 152 head of cattle on six quarter sections over the past several years. And there' nothing she'd rather do than raise cattle. "You are doing so many different things that it' always interesting," she says, adding that she loves the privacy of country life.
 

Belbas was raised on a farm and kept cows on her own for several years while she raised her family.
She started out with 35 head, feeding some and leasing out the rest.

Now in a second marriage, and with her children grown, Brenda is focused on building an operation that will allow her and her husband to keep farming well into their retirement years.

Holistic farming goes a long way in helping them meet that goal. The couple share on-farm chores.

Both check and feed the cows, with the regular help of Dennis. Jim is the operation' main mechanic and handyman and works off-farm driving a school bus to supplement the family income.

Brenda, who is the main calf deliverer, also drives a school bus on occasion, and is responsible for the farm' finances.
 

Over the years, Belbas has used strategic borrowing through the Manitoba Agricultural Credit Corporation (now called the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation-MASC) to expand operations and now she and her husband participate in a holistic management group that has helped them enhance their business. They focus on keeping costs low, management intensity high and labour requirements at a minimum.

Belbas has turned to MASC four times in her farming career for land loans and for operating loans which have helped keep operations afloat. Holistic farm management is mainly responsible for her optimistic outlook, although she admits having doubts when first asked to join a group, wondering what it was all about.

"It' been phenomenal," Brenda says. "It' about how to improve your personal life. Don't just think about work, work, work...and the leftover time is for you. You are supposed to plan for some time for yourself."

Brenda has no difficulties buying into the holistic program' stewardship ethic. "this land is not just for us, it' for everybody and it' our job to care for it," she explains, but it is clear that all the producers are realistically focused on making a profit at the same time.

Brenda' holistic management group was the impetus for her and her husband' involvement in the local grazing club, where Brenda picked up strategies that have paid off—not only by reducing production costs, but labour as well.
 

"We are grass farmers," she says, and their cattle are "harvesting machines." The couple no longer stack hay, haul it to the yard to feed cattle over the winter and then pay someone to haul the manure away in the spring. They now graze their cows in the summer, and winter them in the pastures by bale grazing. This method disperses the cattle and the manure over the land base—cutting the cost of manure management, fuel and fertilizer.

Wintering the cattle in the pastures instead of a feed yard has produced healthy cows, reduced disease and the need for vaccinations. The couple have intensified their summer grazing program, and are shifting their calving season from early to late March, to reduce the risk of losing calves to hypothermia.

Brenda says she' had "lots of advice over the years and advice has to be taken with a grain of salt because it' not necessarily for you." She advises women to take in all of the information they can "and then decided what' right for you."

Nonetheless, she' happy to share what she' learned with other farm women. And her tips include: "It' easier to have sheep instead of cattle, if you are on your own; they're easier to birth. And if you have cows, choose the quiet ones. If you end up with an aggressive one, get rid of it."

Mainly, Brenda advises that farmers should stick with what they do best. Her benchmark for successful herd management is: if it works for her cows, then it works for her. And holistic farming is working for both.