Wilf & Doris Sieger and Family
Coronation, Alberta
The hard prairie grass of east central Alberta has been an integral part in raising some of the finest calves sought after by cattle buyers in the province and the calves at Wildor Farms are no exception. Wildor Farms is a family run operation located northeast of Coronation, Alberta and are the 2011 Canadian Red Angus Promotion Society Commercial Breeders of the Year. Wilf and Doris Sieger and their sons; Wes & Joanne and Danny & Jo-ann have been in the cattle business all their lives. The original homestead is located 6 miles north of where the farm is now and although Wilf who is now 88 still has an active role in the farming operation; running the seeder and the swather and having the title as "Consultant", Wes and Danny run the day to day operations of Wildor farms. While working together on both aspects of the cropland and the cattle, Danny oversees the 3000 acres of cropland and Wes is in charge of the cattle operation. What was very well known as a purebred Charolais operation, in 2000 a decision was made to switch the Wildor cowherd to commercial and crossbreed the Charolais cows. Wes spent 2 years going to shows and sales looking at other breeds trying to find the right cross all the while knowing they wanted to use red bulls on the white cows. The decision was made to use Red Angus bulls on the Charolais cows and as Wes stated "it was a good choice." Seeing the cattle owned by Adams' and Longshores helped make his decision. "I really like the Red Angus females and I knew the bulls would cross good with my cows and I wanted to end up with good cows in the end". The herd of approximately 200 head of mother cows are almost all straight Angus now with some tan cows still remaining. The cows calve in April and May and are generally weaned in October with the top end weighing 700 lbs plus. All of the calves are kept and backgrounded until February depending on the market and sold through the Veteran Auction Mart weighing 900-1000 lbs. The calves are generally purchased by the same feedlot year after year. When Wes is selecting his bulls he looks for performance and eye appeal. "Calves with eye appeal sell better at the market and they have to have performance. Calves are still sold by the pound and that's how we get paid." He looks at a bulls EPD's but it's not a deciding factor for him when purchasing. Most of the bulls purchased by Wes are yearlings as that's what the breeding programs he purchases from mainly sell and he likes what they have to offer. The decision to make the switch to crossbreeding the Wildor cowherd has been very successful and will continue on for years to come. The Canadian Red Angus Promotion Society would like to congratulate Wildor Farms, the Sieger's, for being recognized as the 2011 Commercial Breeder of the Year.
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