What many of you may not know, is the years of hard work that made Ward’s Red Angus the successful purebred operation that it is today. We would like to tell you a little bit about their Angus journey. It all started when Clarke and Denise were married in the fall of 1990. Clarke had been born and raised two miles from their current location and Denise was new to the cattle business when they literally cut a hole in the fence of one of their pasture quarters and started the farm. They had to build everything and develop all the services on the property to create their new home. That year they started with a mobile home, calving barn and four pens for their herd.

That first winter, to say the least, was not without its challenges. In those days, they didn’t have a shop and it was a common occurrence for Clarke to keep their tractor running round the clock to keep it from freezing up. No sooner than their new barn was habitable by cattle, a cow knocked over a heat lamp and burned out the corner of the barn. Their neighbours and friends quickly pitched in and they were able to get the barn back to functional before the rest of the herd started calving.

Not long after their first winter together in their new home, Clarke and Denise welcomed their first son Josh to the family in April of 1991. Ward’s Red Angus was also officially born in 1991 when they registered their herd name with the Canadian Angus Association. The herd at that time consisted of 55 purebred Red Angus cows, a herd that Clarke had been building since his teen years. The new family persevered and their herd began to grow by five to 10 replacement females each year, as they could afford it and circumstances allowed. In April of 1995 they welcomed their second son Cole into the family.

Over the years the farm and herd slowly grew and developed. In 1994 they moved from their house trailer into their new home on the same site. 1994 also saw the construction of their first shop. In 2005 they added their new calving barn that allowed them to more effectively manage their growing cow herd. Clarke’s pride and joy, his new sale barn/shop, was completed in the summer of 2019, just days before hosting as one of the evening stops on the Saskatchewan Angus Summer Tour.

Early bull sales were accomplished by participating in events such as the Regina and Saskatoon Test Stations, as well as Pathlow at Melfort, Lloydminster’s Pride of the Prairies Bull Sale, and Bull Congresses as well as marketing out of the yard. Clarke learned early the value of developing relationships, as he has been selling bulls since he was 15.

In 2005 they were invited to join the Complete Bull Sale at Saskatoon Livestock Sales (SLS). That year they were able to consign 20 bulls to the sale. Over the next four years they participated in partnership sales and in 2009 their first annual bull sale was held at SLS. The sale remained there until the spring of 2020 when they held their 12th annual in their new sale barn, offering their bulls for the first time in a video sale format. It was a great day, with many family, friends, and neighbours joining them to celebrate, as well as see them presented with their Breeder of the Year Award.

Clarke and Denise have always worked together to look for new ways to improve and innovate their cattle enterprise. Clarke handles customer relations and day-to-day management of the herd. Denise has taken on the administrative and promotion roles. They work to their strengths and balance each other very well. When the Canadian cattle industry was met with the major challenge of BSE they decided that Denise would return to full-time employment by working for the R.M. of Vanscoy as an administrative assistant. After several successful years as an assistant, Denise left Vanscoy in 2016 and became the Administrator for the R.M. of Milden, a position she continues to hold today. This brought forth challenges with workload off and on farm, as both Josh and Cole have been away from the farm off and on for school, football and work.

This led to the development of a successful fall calving herd to spread out the workload and to help meet their customer needs. They had customers looking for aged bulls for use in community and co-op pastures. They quickly decided that fall calving was a very cost-effective method of producing older bulls that could be offered during their March bull sale. This program also allowed them to get more use out of their purebred bull pen with the bulls pulling double duty. To cut it in their fall program, the cattle have to be hardy and tough, traits that their commercial customers are looking for in their bull selections.

Ward’s Red Angus has always been a willing and active participant in promoting the Angus breed in Saskatchewan and Clarke served as a director and president on the Saskatchewan Angus Association Board for a number of years along with many committees, including Saskatoon Fall Fair. They were also proud to be a part of the 2011 Saskatoon Gold Show committee and summer tour. Clarke and Denise both spent many years as 4-H leaders and are always willing to step up and help and encourage youth to participate in our great industry. Many of the youth they mentored over the years have become active participants in our breed.

4-H and the Junior Angus programs are near and dear to their hearts. Clarke was very active in his youth and the boys were encouraged to participate as well. In fact, Cole’s first 4-H heifer project is directly responsible for the addition of Black Angus cattle to the herd profile. Shows became a family outing, including Lloydminster Stockade Roundup, Saskatoon Fall Fair and Canadian Western Agribition as well as the first Showdown in 2000 in Regina. Today they don’t do the ‘show barn’ but a display in “The Yards” at Agribition is a main focus in their promotional efforts.

The Canadian Red Angus Promotion Society’s Red Round-up has also played a big part in their herd, with Clarke purchasing his first female at the sale in 1982, which was the start of their Freyja foundation line, to having the high selling cow there in 2009, and in 2020 donating a heifer as a major fundraiser for the Society. Clarke also served as a director on the Promotion Society board for four years.

Family and their community have been a focus, and the boys and now their families have always been involved as much as they can. Cole is a corrections officer at Kilburn Hall and lives in Saskatoon with his fiancé Kathryn, an elementary school teacher and Josh and Kari, along with their children Carter and Olivia live by Pike Lake. Kari is a phlebotomist with the Saskatoon Health Region and Josh worked at the Rocanville mine for a number of years but this fall has returned to the farm. You can just tell that Clarke is anxious to include Carter and Olivia in his legacy when they get a little older.

Today the herd consists of 110 winter calving cows and 70 fall calving cows. The split is approximately two-thirds Red and one-third Black. If you were to describe their target objective in bull production, it would be moderate birth weight bulls that demonstrate strong substantial growth. These are traits that obviously ring true to their commercial customers that come back year after year for replacement bulls.

This is only a small slice of what Clarke and Denise have accomplished within the Angus industry. We have no doubt they will continue to contribute to our breed in the years to come. 2021 marks the 30th year for Ward’s Red Angus and their 13th annual March bull sale, to be held Saturday, March 6 at the farm.

Congratulations! Being named the 2020 Breeder of the Year is a reward well deserved.