Meet our Team
Our Cattle
At Schooten and Sons we strive for excellence in all aspects of raising cattle on our yards. We focus on food safety, optimal cattle health and nutrition, and best practices in animal welfare.
We purchase cattle 365 days of the year through auction marts, video sales or ranch direct buys. Once they arrive at our feedlot they are entered into our computer system and receive instant care including fresh bedding, proper vaccinations and clean water.
We teamed up with our veterinarian to create a computerized health system with protocols to aid our highly trained employees in taking the best care of our cattle.
Our cattle receive different feed rations including silage (corn, barley, soft wheat, hay) that is grown off our farmland. As well as grains such as barley, wheat and DDG’s. The mix of these ingredients combined with our cold climate, fertile soil and fresh mountain water allow us to produce the best tasting beef in the world.
Beef produced at Schooten and Sons will find plates all across the world. It is important that we are supplying a safe and delicious product.
Our Farm
Schooten and Sons farms close to 15,000 acres in and around Picture Butte, Diamond City and Mossleigh AB. With most of those acres under pivot it allows optimal irrigation with precision application—maximizing yields and profits.
Our harvest crew puts up close to 300,000 tonnes of silage per year!! All of which goes to feed our cattle in the feedlots.
We have a symbiotic relationship between our farm and feed yards which allow us to utilize a closed-loop nutrient cycle. The crops grown on our farm provide high quality nutrients for the healthy growth of our cattle fed in the feed yards. The composted and raw manure from our feed yards is then applied to our land to supply our crops with the nutrients they need. We strive to match the exact needs of the growing plants by delivering the nutrients at the precise time, amount, and location.
Work Safety
Employee safety is a top priority of our company. We strive to maintain safe working conditions for our employees through education and training practices.
With help from CINTAS we have a Workplace First Aid and Safety program to make sure every facility at every yard has fully stocked first aid supplies as well as training for our employees.
Through Canada Life we provide our employees with affordable life and disability insurance as well as important health benefits.
We closely work with AgSafe Alberta to create and develop farm safety management tools, resources, and programs for our company.
We strive to make our workplace accident free
Animal Care
Schooten and Sons teams up with industry partners to make sure Animal Welfare and Food Safety stay a top priority.
NUTRITION
We work closely with Cargill Animal Nutrition to create and maintain a healthy ration for our cattle while staying within the guidelines of CFIA and other government food safety organizations.
VETERINARIAN
We work together with Lethbridge Animal Clinic to maintain proper protocols and practices to ensure our employees are confident when dealing with Animal Welfare.
TRACEABILITY
With programs like Fusion we are able to increase efficiency, performance, and accountability by tracking animals from when they arrive off the truck to when they go to slaughter. With our Fusion program we can easily manage daily activities while having real time reports and accurate historical data for bench marking and informed decision making. We can increase efficiency in data collection and management to ensure enhanced accountability and reliability.
John Schooten specifically engineered what is now know as Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Beef Cattle. It was introduced in 2018 after a 5 year review. This is given to producers as a set of guidelines to follow when caring for animals in your yards.
For more information on how important animal welfare is to Schooten and Sons please visit the National Farm Animal Care Councils website and view the Code Of Practice we adhere to.
Community
Our family has been a part of the Picture Butte and surrounding communities for more than 40 years. This is our home. We are proud to be a part of this community and contribute to it whenever we can. We are fortunate to have good neighbors and good people around that help in our success.
We are excited to reach into new communities like Mossleigh, Arrowwood and Vulcan and establish our business’ giving method there.
Our employees keep a relationship outside of work as well. From staff bbq’s and get togethers, Rodeo’s and even our feedlot softball teams.
We have been proud supporters of
- Picture Butte Community Pool opening in 2020
- Local charities and Food Banks
- Sponsorship of local school and sports teams
- Hot lunch programs at local schools
