Despite adverse conditions, cattle farmer Robert Krentz sounded optimistic when talking about this past season in an interview during Meals On The Farm this week.

“This current year I did actually buy 7700 head this year, so it was my largest year, and then we had a drought come along so we had to ship some to Alberta earlier than normal but we will get through it.”

Krentz describes himself as a ‘backgrounder’, purchasing calves at auction marts, growing them by 400 to 500 pounds and then sending them to a feedlot in Alberta.

The summer of 2021 will be remembered for its heat and lack of rain. For a farmer hoping his cattle will have enough to eat out in the pastures, those are two crucial ingredients.

"The heat came early this year in June. We already experienced hotter temperatures than normal and less rainfall, so my pastures didn't produce, so I had to thin out cattle, so to say out of different section blocks and send them off earlier just to make do."

With the right amount of rain this weekend, Krentz believes he can continue holding onto the rest of his cattle and can avoid shipping them out west too early.

"We're right on the edge now. I'm hoping it will rain today because then I can stay usually till about mid-October and then I ship them away. But if we don't get enough moisture, then it would be earlier."

With grain prices very high, according to Krentz, every pound his cattle can gain from feeding on grass rather than grain saves him about $1.50 per pound.

Even in a difficult year, Robert Krentz loves farming.

"Oh, I've been a farmer since I was a kid. I was born on a farm and actually, I quit school early. My mother was mad at me in Grade 9 because I wanted to get farming. I didn't want to waste time in a school and so here I am, 65 and doing what I like doing."