The Canadian Gelbvieh Association very busy to end the year

The Canadian Gelbvieh Association was proud to sponsor Ron Sebastian and his team Cap and Jeff from Lumsden, SK in the heavy horse pull competition at Canadian Western Agribition, Regina SK in November 2022.

Ron and his wife Marg are first generation farmers that got their start in Lumsden, SK with the purchase of their first quarter in 1973. Together they raised their three children Ryan, Janine, and Gina working hard to expand their operation to what it is today paying as they went. For many years Marg worked in the city as a telephone operator or running the cash office at Sears. Ron always worked on the farm and they coordinated their jobs so that one of them could look after the kids during the day.

Ron and Marg have 250 to 350 commercial cows that they run on 22 quarters of pasture land spread out up to 80 miles away from home. The cow herd is made up of Gelbvieh cross and Simmental cross females on a Hereford base. Most of the cows have the white face.He likes to get the brockle face cows and as many goggle eyes as he can. Ron explained “I like the udder formation, milking ability, and moderate frame size that the Gelbvieh breed brings.” Ron trys to keep his average cow size at 1450lbs ranging from 1400lbs to 1500lbs. He breeds his females to Charolais bulls to get buckskin calves that have been getting a market premium. As he starts to slow down he has been trying to keep the herd down at 250 head.

It was Ron’s love and interest in horses that got him started in heavy horse pulling. For 40 years Ron bred 80 draft mares. In an effort to slow down he doesn’t breed horses anymore. He gets 3 year old horses that are broke to drive and then he trains them to pull. Ron said “It takes a knack to get horses to pull, especially heavy pulls”. Presently Ron has 12 horses, 5 teams that he works. Ron starts training the horses in March and they work every day until November. Working 5 teams, each team gets a day off every 5th day, Every day each team pulls 5 miles with 1500lbs to 1800lbs behind them. These horses have to fit into weight classes so all feed is weighed out to each horse except for the heavy weight teams. They can eat as much as they want because they like to keep them big.

Ron is most proud of his 19 banners won at the Calgary Stampede. When Farmfair International was running their heavy horse pull competition, Ron won many banners there. There has been talk that the competition will come back in 2023 and Ron hopes it will saying “It was a great pull and we were always well treated”. Ron has also won many banners at Agribition and the past two years he has won all three weight classes by a full pull. This means that his teams were able to pull one more full load than anybody else. This is a great achievement.

Ron explained that it is getting harder to compete. The competitor gets half of the sponsorship at Agribition and $1200 for each class win. It costs $250 to enter and half of their winnings goes to Stars. Ron explained at 77 he is starting to slow down and it is getting harder and harder to find good help. After having an ad in the paper for over three months he hasn’t been able to find reliable help at home. He hopes to continue competing in the heavy horse pulls and says “The key is to be a die hard old man with nothing much to do except look after the cows and a will to want to win.”

Ron’s son Ryan and two grandchildren Clay and Hoyt are interested and passionate about the farm as well but everyone has their own businesses and jobs preventing them from taking over. He and his wife Marg started the farm together and Ron hopes that they leave together.

The Canadian Gelbvieh Association would like to congratulate Ron on his win at Agribition and we hope to see him in years to come at the Agricultural events at the heavy horse pull.