Women in Simmental Country
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Bobbi-Gayle Hosegood
t the tender age of seven, Bobbi-Gayle Hosegood became a Simmental breeder. “While most other kids were saving their allowance and birthday money for toys or a bike, I was saving up for something bigger,” she recalls. “Dad and I drove past our neighbor’s yard – Mike and Sharon Barr’s place near Didsbury, AB. I pointed out the window to their Simmental cows, and told him ‘I want one of those. I like their big fuzzy ears!’ With that, Bobbi-Gayle purchased her first cow from KLM Simmentals, and Yellow Rose Cattle Company was born. At age eight she became a 4-H member, after receiving special approval from the Alberta 4-H Council to join because the minimum age at the time was nine. “Raising cattle alongside my dad and grandpa is always what I wanted to do, and these two great cattlemen were my main influences,” she says.
Prior to her first heifer purchase, Bobbi-Gayle’s family had used Simmental bulls in their commercial cow herd. But it didn’t take long for her choice in cattle to take over the family farm– and for reasons more than their ears. “Dad always used Simmental bulls in our commercial herd because of the extra pounds at weaning. He wanted to sell Februaryborn calves that weighed over 800 pounds at the beginning of October, and our buckskin Simmental-cross calves did that,” says Bobbi-Gayle. “Hearing my dad and grandpa talk so positively about how the Simmental calves brought more dollars in the fall, knowing how well Simmental performed in our commercial herd, and the docility of Simmental cattle really sold me on the breed at a very young age.” By 1998, the Hosegood’s cow herd was entirely purebred Simmental. Bobbi-Gayle also has a long family history in agriculture. One-hundredand-eleven years ago this spring, her great-grandfather emigrated from
England to settle on the quarter section she lives on, seven miles north of Cremona, AB. Bobbi-Gayle is the fourth generation Hosegood on the farm, and her son J.R. represents the fifth. Day-to-day farm operations at Yellow Rose Cattle Company are managed by Bobbi-Gayle and her parents, Roger and Linda. Although only seven years old, J.R. is also active on the farm and already has his own animals. One of Bobbi-Gayle’s fondest cattle memories is when her grandfather, Percy Hosegood, watched her sell at the Calgary Bull Sale for the first time in 1992. “I was just out of high school, and no matter how much I did at home my grandpa still didn’t see the bull sale as a woman’s place. It was difficult to convince him – like many other old ranchers – that a woman could be in the cattle business, but when he saw me talking Mom and Dad to buyers in Calgary he was won over.” She hasn’t looked back since then. At the 1993 Calgary Stampede, Bobbi-Gayle raised and exhibited Supreme Champion Female – the first time Simmental had ever taken this honor. At the 2001 Calgary Stampede, she made the same history with her Supreme Champion Bull. Today, Yellow Rose females are marketed through purebred sales like Checkers and Red & Black in the fall, and bulls through the Rocky Mountain Bull Sale group each spring. Cow numbers have fluctuated over the years, but Bobbi-Gayle says 90 to 100 purebreds is optimal right now. Yellow Rose genetics can been found at work across Canada and as far away as China, but BobbiGayle’s biggest customers are commercial cattlemen – including several Hutterite colonies. She has worked hard to establish strong relationships with her bull-buyers in this male-dominated industry.
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