LUMBY – William Gamache of Lumby was the sole BC resident selected as one of 16 finalists for this year’s Canadian Cattle Young Leaders Program, a national youth initiative of the Canadian Cattle Association.
“I’m trying to gain as much knowledge and experience as I can and then put it to work on our farm,” says Gamache of his reasons for participating in the program. “There are so many intelligent people there that you can learn from and if you can just grasp a little bit of the knowledge that they have, that would be a huge, huge win.”
The annual selections event took place at the Canadian Beef Industry Conference in Saskatoon on August 20, with 24 semi-finalists competing for a spot in the 2024 mentorship program.
As a finalist, Gamache will be awarded a $3,000 budget for learning opportunities and will be paired with a hand-picked industry leader for a nine-month mentorship in his specific area of interest.
Gamache would like to be paired with a mentor who can provide guidance on cattle selection and business profitability.
Gamache learned about the program through his brother-in-law Brett Squair, who was selected as a CYL finalist last year.
“Having a mentor and getting to meet professionals out there would be a huge, huge part of building that foundation to start working towards the end goal of being self-sufficient full-time farmers,” Gamache says. “My big thing is building that foundation and working from there.”
Gamache grew up on a small cow-calf operation in Westwold. His wife Katie comes from a ranching background, too.
While Gamache went away for school to Edmonton’s Northern Alberta Institute of Technology for heavy duty mechanics, he wanted to get back into farming.
“When I came back to BC, we were finally able to afford our own farm and now we’re just kind of getting going on building a cow herd,” Gamache says.
The couple bought their Lumby property in 2021 and have since been preparing the land for cattle.
“We’ve been spending the last couple of years ripping down old fence, putting new fence up and building pastures and getting everything fenced off so we can start building a herd,” Gamache says. “We kind of missed the boat on getting cows at a decent price, because now that we’re getting established, cattle prices are through the roof. So, it’s been slower than we expected.” The Gamaches have three bred cows and hope that with the sale of the calves this fall they can buy some heifer calves. Moving forward, they will select Black Angus cows with good feet and stout frames to handle the mountainous terrain in the area.
Gamache looks forward to sharing his journey with his young family and providing his daughters with the lifestyle he was privileged to be raised in.
“We are a very small operation getting going, but we’re very, very fortunate that we have this opportunity to be where we’re at,” he says. “We have three young girls that get to enjoy the ride with us. That’s what it’s all about.”
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