Cody Miller By: Piper Whelan Cody Miller Is Changing Career Paths
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Excelling in the Real World: Cody Miller By: Piper Whelan Cody Miller is changing career paths. The 27 year-old from Westlock, Alberta, studied at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and became an electrical engineering technologist. He then went on to become a journeyman power system electrician. The day we spoke, however, was the second-last at his job. He has a plan to eventually lead him home full time, and he hopes to be able to “put more energy and time into the farm and the cattle industry as a whole.” For Miller, home is Excel Ranches, where his parents, Ron and Barb Miller, started raising Limousin cattle 28 years ago.“They originally started with 13 crossbred females and bred them up to being purebred, and went from there,” Miller explains. His brother, Trevor, lives in Michigan and his sister, Katelyn, lives in Calgary, but are both still involved in the family farm. Miller and his wife, Amy, have one son, Lincoln. Amy works at Farm Credit Canada. Miller began showing cattle at local summer shows in the Westlock area when he was five. At nine, he joined 4-H, and counts the first calf off his original 4-H cow, now 16 years old, as his favourite animal.“She’s had a calf every year and still has a perfect udder, perfect feet, everything. She maybe doesn’t try as hard as she used to, but she’s still on the farm.” At the moment, Miller and his family plan on breeding 175 females this year. Purebred Limousin make up 95 per cent of their herd, with some Angus and Limflex in the mix. Excel sells bulls each spring at the Prime Limousin Club bull sale.“We’re hoping to calve out 130 next year, and we’re going to have a production sale this fall.” When it comes to selecting cattle in their herd, Miller notes that he and his wife sometimes view cattle differently. Amy was raised on a Red Angus operation, and she and Miller sometimes look for different traits. “I think it weighs well in having two opinions to process the animals correctly and make correct decisions,” he explains. Limousin Voice Summer Issue 2014 12 Some of the traits he admires in the Limousin breed include milk, muscling ability and vigour.“The strength of the Limousin breed is that as Limousin breeders, we do not always try to sell our own genetics, and, rather, the genetics that will strengthen the Limousin breed as a whole. And with this, we’ll constantly be putting ourselves in the Limousin breed in a position to succeed.” Speaking of success, the 2014 Prime Limousin Club bull sale was quite fruitful for Excel Ranches. Miller attributes this to local buyers who keep coming back year after year.“We really take advantage of some of the local markets and have been able to promote our cattle that way,” he says. “A lot of the local commercial breeders really support the bottom end and drive up the prices.” “The strength of our herd is the success of our cattle in other peoples’ herds. It seems that when our females and bulls go into other peoples’ herds, they seem to do great things … There are always repeat customers who keep supporting us.” Increasing the use of embryo transplant in their herd’s breeding program is something Miller would like to pursue. Last year, 30 Excel females received embryo transplants, and Miller says this is about “constantly improving on your top- end genetics.” In addition to farming full time, Miller’s plans for the next few years include establishing a biannual fall production sale to get Excel females into more markets.“We usually only sell one or two females a year, and there’s just been a ton of success with them for topping other peoples’ bull sales or even raising purebred bulls and going to other purebred herds.” “We’d really like to get a successful fall production sale on the female end of things just to get those genetics constantly improving,” he says. From a career away from agriculture, Miller is engineering his way back to the farm, with some important reasons for going back home: “Providing a service and a product for consumers really gets me excited. As well, the beef industry is a very family-oriented situation, so it’s a good place to raise a family.” Limousin Voice Summer Issue 2014 13.