Bethany Yewsuk by Bonnie Warnyca
May, 2010
At 22 years of age, having graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a Diploma in Agriculture, majoring in Agronomy, Bethany Yewsuk is grateful for those 4-H calves. "I first used the money from my 4-H calves to increase my Red Angus cow numbers over the years," says this articulate and self-assured young woman. "When I needed my first car and money for university, I sold all my cows and together with several scholarships, I was able to pay for school without incurring a lot of debt."
Having already worked as an agronomist in the industry for a few years, Yewsuk has just begun a new position with Saskatchewan Crop Insurance as an adjuster. She plans to use part of her professional income to begin building back her herd. She says, "Even though my heart is in the cattle industry, I felt that there were more opportunities on the crop side as a profession. I'm only a couple of hours from home, and I'm still at the farm just as much as possible."
When Yewsuk looks in the rearview mirror, growing up on a farm south of Wynyard, Saskatchewan, she's grateful for her farming background. "All our social activities revolved around 4-H," she remembers fondly. "My parents put a lot of effort into our activities by taking us and our cattle to the summer shows. Besides 4-H, we were very involved in the Junior Angus program and we took cattle to a different province every year for the Canadian Junior Angus summer show."
For Yewsuk, the highlight of her 4-H memories, besides the cattle and income, was the 4-H exchange program. She traveled to Ontario and got a first hand insight into the dairy industry and took in many of that province's historical sights. When the Ontario kids came to the prairies, she was nervous about matching the experience. "I didn't think we had anything the likes of Niagara Falls to impress them with," she says. "I was surprised that they wanted to see old grain elevators, and that they thought flax and canola fields were really cool. It was a good lesson for me to realize that what is ordinary for me is new and interesting to others in Canada."
Yewsuk says she grew up in a family that was more optimistic than most. "We had just built up our purebred, registered Red Angus herd when BSE hit the industry," she recalls. "But my parents still believed that the cattle industry would rebound and we continued to sell good purebred Red Angus bulls and replacements to our customers. Even though the industry seems to be strengthening, I'm worried that the family farm is being swallowed up into the corporate paradigm."
Having said that, Yewsuk admits that the only way her parents have been able to sustain their family farm has been with off farm jobs. "My dad is a heavy duty mechanic with a shop on the farm; my mom works at the health centre in town and runs a catering business with my aunt," she tells us. "My brother bought his own farm a couple of years ago, and he works as a journeyman carpenter. I believe that it will take off farm jobs for my fiancé and me to set up our own cattle operation in the future."
Speaking of fiancé, Yewsuk met Chad Wyatt as a young teen attending the Yorkton Spring and Heifer Show. Wyatt has just received his heavy duty mechanic journeymen papers and the young couple plan to wed in August. Wyatt grew up on a purebred Black Angus mixed farm in southern Saskatchewan, but Yewsuk quips that they will raise red cattle.
This gal has proven that she is willing to go that extra mile to accomplish her dreams. In school, she excelled in track, volleyball and cross country running and made it to the provincials in all three sports. As she heads out into the fields in her new position as a Crop Insurance Adjuster, she worries that it may have to take some shortages to prove to the consumer the value of agriculture. She says, "I think it may take a shortage of food in some areas for people to realize that producers need to be paid even more than the cost of production to continue to stay in business. Meanwhile my family and Chad and I will try our best to keep the family farm from disappearing." |
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