Board & Committees

I ranch with my wife Jody, oldest daughter Kayla and two young boys in the Shuswap area. Our ranch is second generation, and we have a 200+ cow/calf operation where we background our own calves.

I have been a director of our regional association for about 20 years and have served as a BCCA director for about 10 years. During that time, I served for four years as chair of the BCCA Land Stewardship Committee and for the past two years have served as vice president.

It’s with great admiration and gratitude that I have been able to serve with so many committed producer volunteers and staff dedicated to improving the opportunity for ranchers across BC. Although many of the issues we’ve worked on over the years have common themes, the expectations of society continue to climb while understanding of our industry diminishes. Our advocacy work is done within a government framework that is often challenging, but there is great satisfaction when we can achieve a positive outcome.

Thank you for the opportunity to continue to represent your interests.

My wife, Julie, and I run a cow/calf operation just west of Vanderhoof. We have five adult children who were raised on the farm and continue to assist in the operation to various degrees.

I am committed to supporting the beef producers in our region with the challenges they are facing, including access to wood fibre, forage and water resources, wildlife and pest issues, and continuing changes to regulation that burden producers unnecessarily.

I worked for 10 years as a brand inspector and have a keen interest in brand inspection. I currently sit as one of the BCCA representatives on the board of Ownership Identification Inc (OII).

I have served two terms as a Zone 2 director and am currently serving as the chairperson for the Beef Production and Innovation Committee. I think that I still have something to contribute to the association, and I look forward to the chance to once again represent the cattlemen of our region as a BCCA director.

I’m a third generation rancher in Okanagan Falls. Our cow/calf operation is run by myself, my nephew and a cousin.

 I have had the honour of being the president of the BCCA for the last two years and am looking forward to stepping into the roll of Past President. I have been a director for four years and vice president for two years for the BC Cattlemen’s Association as well as a director for the South Okanagan Stockmen’s Association, and a director for the Grasslands Conservation Council of BC.

During the six years on the BCCA board, it has amazed me how many different issues the BCCA deals with and the time and commitment the staff and other directors put in. Most of the time it is an uphill battle, talking to and trying to reason with people who don’t understand the beef industry.

I am a third generation rancher, running a commercial cow/calf operation in Upper Cache Creek that my grandfather started in 1952.

I have served as president of my local cattlemen's association for the last three years and have a strong interest in Crown grazing tenures, particularly in regard to prescribed burns and forage enhancement.

Judy is a fourth generation rancher presently running a cow/calf operation with her partner northwest of Dawson Creek. She was a member, leader and key leader for 4-H BC.

Judy has also been a member of the BC South Peace River Stockmen’s Association, Peace River Regional Cattlemen’s and the BCCA since she was 18 year old. She has served as secretary, director, and president of the BCSPRSA, as secretary and association representative for the PRRCA and as a Zone 1 BCCA director.

Judy continues to be concerned with the ongoing government legislative and regulatory reviews which may impact the way ranchers are allowed to do business in the future, particularly around water use and environmental issues.

Ken White is 21 years old, and he and his wife Cadence have been members of BCCA for two years. Bboth come from large family farms in the Dawson Creek area where they grew up ranching.

They own a small ranch in the uppercut bank area south of Dawson Creek and have a small herd of cows. They are building their ranch together slowly, year by year, and are hoping for a better hay crop this coming season to buy more cows.

Ken believes it is important to get more younger people involved and interested in the ranching industry and looks forward to learning more and being more involved as a junior representative for Zone 1 - Peace River.

I and my wife, Lisa, ranch southeast of Quesnel, along the Quesnel River. We have a cow-calf operation and grow our own feed, with the exception of drought years. We summer our cattle on crown range that is adjacent to our ranch.

Lisa and I share the job of brand inspector for the Quesnel area. In the summer months, I also work as the pasture rider for the Hallis Lake community pasture not far from our ranch.

My path to ranching began as a 4-year-old in England. Like many immigrants, my dad came to Canada a year ahead of the rest of the family to get things set up for our arrival. We spent a year living on my grandparent’s dairy farm, and I followed him everywhere he went. From that experience, I decided that something to do with livestock and farming was what I wanted for my life.

A big opportunity for me came after my first year of college. I got a job in a logging camp on the north end of Vancouver Island. High lead logging paid my way through university and paid for the first ranch my wife Cya and I bought near Merritt in 1987. Everything else kind of followed from that.

We now ranch on the south side of Francois Lake. My son Chris has joined us on the ranch and now works with us full time, and one of our other sons, Owen, is also coming back. I know this unbelievable ride is coming to the end for me at some point, but it looks like the ranch is built up to a point where it can keep going.

I ranch in the 100 Mile House area along with my husband, Ed, and our two sons. We are a third generation ranch family in the Cariboo and hope that we've built something for our family to carry on with.

I have been a BCCA director for the past six years and have participated as the chair for the Public Affairs Committee. I also sit on the Aboriginal Relations committee, the Land Stewardship committee and the LPP Advisory committee. I am also the chair of the Horn Levy committee/fund.

I have been a wildfire liaison during previous fire seasons with the BC Wildfire Service in the Cariboo and North Thompson areas, assisting ranchers in our area to obtain information necessary for decision-making in their operations.

I feel that I fairly and accurately reflect to the Board and the management of BCCA the issues facing ranchers in my area.

I have been involved in both ranching and logging since childhood. I’m a fourth generation rancher on my mother’s side and third generation on my father’s side.

Me and my two siblings were raised and worked on the family ranch in Riske Creek while simultaneously being brought up with hands-on experience in the logging industry. My wife, Deborah, and I have raised our four children in the same manner. While living alongside the family, we built and now run a successful full phase logging company.

For 30 plus years, I have been a contractor firefighter with the Cariboo Fire Centre. Having lived through the 2017 wildfires in the province, and fought them on the front lines, I know firsthand what new challenges face the local cattle industry.

Currently as a director in both the Riske Creek Cattlemen’s Association and Cariboo Cattlemen’s Association, I would like to further participate in future development and enhancement of BC’s cattle industry.

My wife Judy and I were both born and raised on cow/calf operations. Both of our families sold the ranches and moved on. It was our plan to work hard and make enough money to retire on a small cow/calf operation of our own.

In 1995, we purchased our first heifers. In 2003, we retired and purchased more property and slowly grew to a 75 head, mainly purebred, operation. We use pivot irrigation, practice rotational gazing and cull hard. I have always been extremely motivated to try the latest and greatest in new technology and farming methods.

I have been a member of the Hereford Association and a past director and past president of KamStock for over 20 years. Currently I am still a member of the Hereford Association, a director of KamStock, a director of the BCCA and the chair of the Agricultural Advisory Committee for the Thompson-Nicola Regional District.

I manage Nicola Ranch near Merritt and have been with the ranch for 18 years. The ranch is well known for Black Angus cattle and our Quarter Horses.

I was born in Quesnel and grew up in southwest Saskatchewan where my extended family farmed. My wife Bobbi and I have two sons: Duke and Will.

Currently I am serving as president of the Nicola Stockbreeders Association and am also a board member with the BCCA. Hockey, slo pitch and roping are my interests off the ranch.

My Daughters and I proudly represent the third and fourth generations of our ranching family. We operate a commercial cow/calf operation and a small but mighty feeder program in the South Okanagan.

Following in the footsteps of my parents, Jim and Paddy Leir, I am passionate about ranching sustainability, and the current, often disturbing, issues facing our ranching community; grazing tenures, water resources, drought, environment. In addition, the all too frequent, unrealistic government pressure from those who have very little understanding of the growing challenges affecting the viability of our vital food producing industry.

I am looking forward to bringing a strong voice to the director’s table for the Zone 6 South Okanagan producers.

I was born and raised in the North Okanagan and am currently a partner at Davidson Lawyers LLP in Vernon and also a third generation rancher to come off of my family’s cow calf operation in Lumby.

I practise law in the areas of business law, agricultural law, estate planning, estate administration and probate. When I’m not practising law, I work on the family ranch and woodlot and spend time with my wife and three children.

I am also a director of the BCCA, a participant of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Young Leader program, a director of the North Okanagan Livestock Association and the Vice President of the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce.

I am a second generation rancher operating a Purebred Simmental breeding herd on the flats in the Creston Valley and sell breeding bulls throughout the Kootenays.

My wife, Charlene, owns and operates a business called The Pickle Patch, where she pickles fresh vegetables that we grow and markets them all around the Kootenay region. We have both been in business for over 20 years in Creston. We have three boys that pitch in with all the chores we have.

I have been a director for BCCA in the past and have enjoyed working with all the staff, directors and members. One of the issues that interests me the most is the misinformation about animal care and handling that seems to be prevalent in the media. We need to find ways to show that the vast majority of cattle producers do a tremendous job of caring and handling their animals.

The environment is also at the forefront of my thoughts, always looking for better ways to work with nature.

Having been ranching cattle for over three decades, in both the Interior and Island country, Brad has a unique perspective on the considerably different needs and obstacles facing cattle ranchers today. Together with his wife and their two lads, they run a 140 head Purebred Red Angus herd, Heart of the Valley Farms, holding their bull sale each spring in Clinton.

Brad has been heavily involved in the original foundation of both the Island Beef Producers marketing group (16 years) and the now four-year-old and rejuvenated Vancouver Island Cattlemen Association, both for which he is the founding and current president.

Brad has sat on both the BCCA board and the Ownership Identification Inc. board for the last two terms and has recently been elected as president of the Canadian Red Angus Promotion Society. Brad has a strong belief that ranching success and longevity come from less regulatory interference, greater efficiency through progressive stock genetics and agri methods, while insisting on stronger economics for the ranchers themselves.