Our farm is located in the scenic hills of Caledon on the Niagara Escarpment. Our cattle naturally graze the rolling hills of our own farm as well as rented pastures of our neighbours’ acreages.

We purchased our first Black Angus cows in 1975 before Pat and I were married. With the ups and downs of operating a family farm and small business, a few years were spent cowless.

We ‘fed’ cattle in our own feedlot and fed other people’s cattle at our farm over the years while all the time remaining active in the local Angus clubs, helping and learning what we could.

Our present herd of Angus cows was started in the late 1990’s. This strong foundation came from a group of outstanding females purchased from Glen Islay Angus, owned by Don and Jeanette Currie. We have grown to manage about 60 females.

Concentration is on the basics with our females: femininity, high fertility, sound feet and legs, beautiful udders with plenty of milk and lots of volume. The udders on our females are consistently under scrutiny. We continually select to improve udder quality. Visitors to our cow herd often comment on the great udders on our cows.

The only creep feeders you will see on our pastures are from days gone by. Our calves are raised on grass, water and cows’ milk: no creep.

We show our cattle at local fairs and The Royal Winter Fair in Toronto, ON, and have consistently achieved winning status. Most recently, in November 2007, having senior heifer calf champion. A yearling Heatherlea heifer purchased by Rob French and Matt Vanesse was also Reserve Champion.

Each year we harvest our winter forage in June. We use a large amount of wrapped hay bales allowing us to process our grass hay in peak condition and at it’s highest natural quality. All our cattle are raised completely free of hormones or steroids. Our cows have their calves in the winter months starting in January. This allows us to be near the cows and attend to the newborn calves.

We are happy to report a 100% calf crop in 2008, a true testament to Heatherlea cattle. Winter calving does provide its own set of challenges but it has its own rewards. The biggest satisfaction for me personally is that when spring arrives, the calves are on the ground and ready to take advantage of the new grass. Over the fall and winter months we also concentrate on our yearling heifers. During that time we are growing and monitoring our crop of yearling herd bulls. We are fortunate to have a good neighbour and retired Angus breeder, Robert Paul, who is in charge of our bulls. Bob keeps the bulls at his farm and feeds them a high roughage ration for the winter months.