Farming & Family: The Kinkead's

I’m Dana, a very proud mommy to the most beautiful little girl who is almost 11 months. I am Benjamin “Button’s” oh so loving farmwife. We have been together 10 years and married for just about 2. I studied Agribusiness in college so that makes me our on farm agronomist. When I’m not enjoying every single second of my yearlong maternity leave I am banker (Ag/Commercial Lender to be exact).  I like to help on the farm as much as possible….my job is to do our soil sampling, fertilizer recommendations and crop scouting but by far my favorite thing to do is combine.  My favorite pastime is napping (whenever possible!)

We are located in the Great White North….also known as Manitoba Canada!

(And yes, it really done look like this 6-ish months of the year!!)

I am a farm import…my husband was already farming with his parents when I snagged him ;) However the farm has been in his family since his grandparents were farming the land.

We are mainly a cow/calf operation of about 400 head. Along with that we grow a lot of alfalfa hay that is cut and baled for feed throughout the winter. Cash crops are oat, barley and canola.

The husband also has a logging company for the purpose of providing fire wood for the use of heating homes.  We recently started a Bull Riding Production company (the husband spends most of his life riding bulls) called Crossfire Bullriding Promotions….that is our “hobby”. 

With many different aspects and so much on the go, it is a nut house around here 365 days a year! Worst case though is when our spring calvers overlap with spring field work and the start of bullriding season!

Our little one is of course much too young for farm work just yet, around here though she is known as the boss’s, boss’s boss!  However the husband’s younger cousins are a huge help during the summers.

I love cattle sale days (and not just cause its pay day haha). Any farm wife of a cattle producer knows that’s where all the hot dates happen….a drive into town, hours spent sitting together (our daughter just loves listening to the auctioneer) and watching the cows come and go, followed by a “romantic” dinner date at the auction mart cafeteria.

We farm alongside my husband’s parents, with countless aunts, uncles and cousins around to call on when things get busy, need fixing, the baby needs watching….we really couldn’t do it without all of our family!!

The media portrays “us” (farmers) as horrible environmentalist. That couldn’t be more untrue!! Every single thing we do on a daily basis is to work with the land, improve the land, sustain the land etc. Our land is our legacy, we may not have large fortunes to leave to our children but as long as we take care of our land and the environment around it, we will have our farm to pass on to them.

Things may not always be easy and some years may seem impossible but we love what we do. So please stop being so hard on the farmers, it takes a special breed to be a farmer and without us the world would starve!!!!!