For this Cold Lake area family, environmental sustainability is as much about show as it is about process.
With its free-range chickens, turkeys, pigs, sheep, grass-fed cattle, classic red barns and exceptionally clean facade, Muriel Creek Cattle Co. looks like a mixed farm as Norman Rockwell may have envisioned it.
The farm, operated by Greg and Tina Sawchuk of Ardmore, Alberta, is an example of what some have come to term "agritainment" — a fun way to reach out to and educate urban people through on-farm carnivals, farm tours and other events. Even the operation's location just off of Hwy. 28 lends itself to exhibition — much of the farm can be viewed right from the highway leading into the city of Cold Lake.
As visible as it may be, Muriel Creek Cattle Co. is not just for show, and neither is that show just for entertainment's sake. A labour-intensive process goes into creating this pristine environment, and the company's reputation as a supplier of direct farm product hinges on its ability to present itself as the product of an environmentally sustainable, natural farm process.
"When it comes right down to it, we have never considered ourselves environmentalists," says Greg Sawchuk. "Our practices are driven more by our philosophy that our practices should be good for the earth and pleasing to God. We realize that it's impossible for most people to farm like we do, but it's the one we feel is most suited to our goals."
As for the "entertainment" component of the farm, the Sawchuks see a significant educational opportunity. "We don't think agricultural entertainment is the savior of agriculture by any means, but we do think it has the potential to carry some long term value," says Sawchuk.
"First of all, it gives people a taste of the farming process that, say, a 10,000 bird chicken barn could never realistically offer. And there's always the possibility that some of these kids or adults might decide they'd like to try farming for a living. We see it playing a role in the overall sustainability of agriculture."
Greg Sawchuk calls his management of Muriel Creek Cattle Co. his "second career." Up until 10 years ago, the Ontario native was an air force flight engineer stationed in Cold Lake, where he met his wife Tina. It was Tina's family that gave the couple the opportunity to start a farm of their own.
The Sawchuks knew what they wanted out of their operation from the outset. "We saw the shrinking profit margins in the commodity sector and knew right away that we had to do something different," says Sawchuk. "We wanted to do something in which we could control the pricing and service a growing market."
Being relatively new to agriculture has given them a unique perspective. "We don't feel some of the peer pressure some other producers might be working under. We don't feel any pressure to do things the way our fathers or grandfathers did. That's given us a fresh start and something of an advantage."
But if anything has driven the Sawchuks' desire to maintain an environmentally sustainable operation, it's their four children, ages two through eight. "When you start having kids, you start to look at things differently. Instead of thinking in terms of 'my land' or 'my farm' you start to think of it as belonging to the upcoming generation and the generations beyond. We feel it's our responsibility to look after it and make it better for them."
With wells only a few feet below the surface and a creek running through the property, water presents perhaps the biggest environmental challenge on the Sawchuk farm. "Preventing contamination of the creek, which runs right through the land we graze, is a constant challenge," he says. "We've fenced off the creek and dugouts with electric fencing in order to prevent livestock access and we use solar-paneled waterers for off-site watering."
The Sawchuks hope to eliminate some of the risk of water contamination by minimizing input storage on the farm. "We don't use a lot of fuel, so we're eliminating a lot of our on-farm storage, and we don't use any fertilizers."
A major tool the Sawchuks have used to identify and address the environmental challenges on their farm is their Environmental Farm Plan (EFP), a free, voluntary assessment of environmental strengths and risks on a farm or ranch. A focus of the EFP program is the protection of water bodies from chemicals, petroleum and fertilizers.
"I think the EFP workbook is full of ideas," says Sawchuk. "When I first went through it, one thought that kept going through my mind was 'I never even thought about that. Here are ideas I can use right away.'"
The difference between Sawchuk's farm and many others is that the benefits of an EFP are visible to their customers as soon as they enter the property. However, he believes it won't be long before other producers will be able to use an EFP as a marketing tool.
"Having an EFP is already proving to be a valuable tool for people going into some of these new co-operatives. These co-operatives are a real opportunity for bigger operators to move a lot of animals and crops. An EFP might be valuable in raising the value of some of those products."
Depending on the time of year, a wide variety of animals including beef cattle, turkeys and chickens graze on the Sawchuks' 1,300 acres of owned and rented grassland. There are also a range of novelty animals such as miniature donkeys, pygmy goats and baby doll sheep that are intended primarily for the entertainment of visitors. It all started with their beef operation, in which the animals are entirely pasture-finished on a mix of alfalfa and meadow brome.
"We found out that our customers also wanted pasture-fed chicken, turkey and pork, so our cow/calf activity transitioned naturally into those other areas. And then people wanted to come see these animals and we recognized that we had a real educational opportunity."
Some of the practices Sawchuk explains to farm visitors seem foreign to some. "Even to other farmers, the thought of putting chickens in a pen and moving them every morning onto a fresh piece of grass seems ludicrous. But the advantage is that we create a clean place for these animals — they get a buffet of new things to eat every day along with their grain rations.
"At the same time, they're doing a couple of jobs for us by laying down the perfect amount of fertilizer each day. If we have a rain, within three days that just-grazed area is greened up, and it's a dark, dark green so you know the fertility is optimized. Any place we run them the grass is thick as a shag carpet. Also, it's soft to walk on so we know that the soil is improving."
These practices are also paying off on the consumer side of the equation. "People describe our broilers as having more 'chicken flavour.' The meat has a more dense texture simply because these birds know how to walk. When we open those chicken pens in the morning, there are 500 birds that all come running. I tell people that if you could see a chicken smile, these chickens are smiling."
This article is reprintable with credit to AEFP as follows "Reprinted courtesy of the Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company; www.albertaEFP.com".
