Jim & Laurel King and Family
Innisfail, Alberta
Chickadee may not be a name which one would commonly associate to a cattle operation but in the Red Angus business, Chickadee was a household name for many. What began as a purebred Polled Hereford operation in Manitoba, Jim and Laurel King and family moved their Chickadee Farm to Innisfail, Alberta in 1990 and shortly thereafter purchased their first Red Angus cows. Jim states "I've always liked red hided cattle and wanted to make a switch from the Herefords" and the obvious choice for him was Red Angus. The first Red Angus purchased were a group of 10 bred heifers from Ron and Mary Devolin in 1991 and the Herefords were then sold. "At the time we purchased our first Red Angus, the emphasis was on performance testing, and that was an attraction for me." "The Red Angus are easy cattle to have around. They are good working cattle; easy to raise, easy to multiply and are very functional." It wasn't long into Chickadee's Red Angus career that they raised the 1996 National Champion Bull, Red YY Red Knight 640F of which Bar EL purchased half interest in. It was Red Knight that the Chickadee herd became based around. Jim tried to focus on using mainly home raised bulls and had quite a few outcross pedigrees. Bulls such as Norseman King, 5L Explorer and Crowfoot Ole's Oscar were purchased to add to the genetic pool. The Chickadee herd at its peak topped out at 110-120 breeding females. Most of the females that were sold were sold privately and through Red Roundup. The bulls were marketed through the Mountain View Select Angus and Simmental Bull Sale held annually in Innisfail. On October 29, 2010 the Chickadee cowherd was dispersed and cattle with the infamous YY tattoo were sold into almost all Canadian provinces and 9 U.S. states. Jim stated "you spend a lifetime of breeding your cattle and you hope that someone notices what you are doing." People were obviously paying attention to what Jim was doing as their dispersal sale had an impressive average on 140 head. Jim's 42 year career as a commercial pilot started as a bush pilot flying for 8 years in Canada's Arctic and 34 years as a 767 Captain for a commercial airline, giving him the opportunity to fly all over the world while still allowing him to raise his cattle. What does the future hold for Jim and Laurel......? Well, there are a handful of cows around and as Jim confessed, "having cows is like a bad habit, they're hard to break!" Besides putting up hay on their quarter section, other hayland is also rented. "As long as you have a piece of ground, there's always work to do!" Although the Chickadee name came from a children's magazine when Jim and Laurels' kids were younger and was chosen by them to be their farm name, Chickadee Red Angus and the YY tattoo and prefix will live on in Red Angus herds for years to come. Congratulations to Chickadee Farm, Jim and Laurel King, for being recognized as the Canadian Red Angus Promotion Society's 2011 Purebred Breeder of the year. |
