Joyce and the late George Templeton

Irrigation Pivot at Sunrise

Doran's Family

Steer trial at Hwy 52 Feedlot, Coaldale, Ab

Medicine Hat Bull Sale

Byron,Carolyn and girls

Ross ranch cattle at Balog's

Our main focus has always been to produce the strong functional type of Hereford bulls that will be the most profitable for the rancher. We strive to raise this consistent type in numbers for ranchers to have confidence in selection. Our main merchandising event is our Amigos Sale with Pahl Livestock held the last week of November. As well, we have a select group of bulls for the Medicine Hat Bull Sale each spring. We have always felt that if the Ranchers believe in us, we are money and reputation ahead. Our focus has always been on how the cattle perform for the commercial sale ring, not the show ring. We feel we have been proven right over the years, with many, many repeat buyers from large ranches and small herds of commercial cattle.

George Templeton came to Alberta at the age of 13 with his widowed mother. They moved to the Warner area, where George went to High school and met Joyce through his friend Jimmy Doenz. Jimmy and George married sisters Joyce and Betty Minion and spent some 50 years as brothers. George became friends with Irvy and Leo Doenz, LCI Herefords, and learned to love Hereford Cattle through their influence. In 1948 George borrowed $5000.00 from his mother and bought land at Readymade and an army surplus truck. He and Joyce were married and started growing crops and children and started a commercial Hereford herd. In 1963 they purchased a group of heifers from Matt Fraser, Hussar, Alberta. Our Kim, Heather and Eve cow lines trace back to this purchase on the maternal line. He also bought a group of cows from Hans Ulrich at this time.

1980 we purchased 20 heifers from Les and Marg Gilmour. These bloodlines still figure prominently at XTC. Marg and Gale are strong maternal lines. Other purchases over the years including the purchase of Ray Powelsland's herd in 1978, as well as females from breeders such as Jones, Nixdorff, Balog, Fenton, LCI and other great breeders have helped to develop our herd. In the fall of 2002 we purchased 60 cows from the great Corbiell herd.

George loved farming and brought pivot irrigation to this area in a tangled mess of metal in 1975. From this first used pivot, trucked in from Idaho, George was able to develop the XTC farm into a full time livelihood for three families. Doran, his wife Denise and their son Brant and Sarah have become the farming and seed business end of XTC, carrying on in the spirit of excellence instilled by George and Joyce. Doran and Brant raise and sell several varieties of pedigreed wheat, barley Faba Beans, Flax and canola. The 2009 Crop is looking marvelous.  We are growing: CDC Thompson Barley (grown with special permission) and Sundre Barley both for Seed and for Silage (under seeded to Italian Rye grass, for fall grazing); Canola as a commodity crop; CDC Go Wheat, a new variety of hard red spring wheat; Winter Wheat; and Faba Beans.  We like the yields and the soil improvement from growing legumes.

George was a numbers man. Our herd was a top performance herd through the 70's and 80's through his influence and strict adherence to performance testing. Over the years we have had much success testing and selling performance bulls at Shaw Test in Idaho as well as the Alberta and Bassano Test centres.

This was a very fortunate place to work from for Byron. Although numbers remain a consideration for him, he is a cow man. Functionality, femininity and fertility are Byron's main consideration. With a strong base in numbers, we have worked hard to develop a herd that carries the optimum balance. These are cattle that are functional and will carry performance genetics into your herd. We have continued this focus lately by testing our steers at Ryan Kasko's feedlot both privately and through the Alberta Hereford Test projects. The quality of cattle we have brought to feed have performed well and proven to be very competitive for cost and gain.

Since joining the operation in 1983, Carolyn has been an integral part of the XTC cattle operation. She assists in all areas, from calving to bull sales and is the main "office gal" responsible for registration and performance data work. We have been fortunate that our girls are just as excited about the business as we are. They have been very involved in 4-H as well as the Canadian Junior Hereford Association. They have found opportunities in Agriculture. Roberta is in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan studying Veterinary Medicine. Jocelyn traveled to New Zealand last winter to study pasture management and Sheep farming and is registered at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in Animal Science in the fall of 2009. Rosie is keen about agriculture as well; she has had the prestigious honour of being Alberta 4-H Premier award recipient and Provincial Public Speaking Champion for 2009. All three have taken an active role in riding, feeding and helping with our herd.

Customers of ours have rung the bell at Balog Auction, topping the sale with bloomy uniform draughts of top quality steers and heifers. XTC produces functional, performance cattle that work in your cow herd, at the market in the fall and through to slaughter.