About The Fossay's
After marrying in November of 1997, Bryan and Faye Fossay moved from their first home in Dacotah, MB to their second and current home in Woodlands, MB in July of 1999. Bryan and Faye also have two children, Matthew and Jennifer who are very happy to be growing up on a farm, and always eager to help out in any way that they can. The Fossay's love their life in the country, and look forward to the many blessings and adventures each new day on the farm has to bring.
While Bryan focuses his time on their beef and grain operation, Faye also owns and operates her own business... F3 Designs where she offers services in web design, desktop publishing, and more... with this website being one of her designs that she's pleased to share with you.
Please visit our Contact Us page, as we'd be happy to hear from you. Whether you're looking for your next hereford sire, purebred replacement females, bred commercial hereford/angus cross heifers, processed beef to order OR web, graphic, desktop publishing, and/or multi-media services, customer satisfaction is always our top priority, and we look forward to doing business with you!
Our Program
At Fossay Beef Farm (FBF), you will find cattle that are raised to be efficient and hardy. We believe the best cows are the ones that produce a live calf every year and pay for more than themselves. We strive to breed and sell a complete product with exceptional growth and carcass traits, yet we will never sacrifice fertility and the hereford's strong maternal qualities.
Whether you're looking for:
- your next hereford sire;
- purebred replacement females;
- bred commercial hereford/angus cross heifers; or,
- processed beef to order ...
... customer satisfaction is always our top priority. Please feel free to contact us, should you have any questions about the content provided within this website. We thank you for your interest in Fossay Beef Farm.
Why Herefords
With the high price of land and feed, today's cattleman is faced with the challenge of maximizing profitability by reducing costs! The ideal cow must winter on a low cost ration while maintaining her condition. She must then calve and re-breed to calve at the same time next year, while providing enough milk to raise a large, bloomy calf but not milk so much that she looses her condition. Because she is low maintenance, she is more fertile and has greater longevity reducing your replacement costs.
Throw in the fact that the Herefords quiet temperament makes them easier to handle, giving you less stress when your family or friends are working along side you.
Whether you are selling your Charolais/Hereford cross steers or red and black baldy heifers, feedlots and producers are consistently paying premiums for these high quality animals.
Our Herd History
The Fossay Beef Farm herd began in 1987 just outside of Dacotah, Manitoba with Bryan as a young Farmer just out of high-school. From the Gladstone Auction Mart, Bryan brought home two cow calf pairs to eat the grass around the barns. Five more bred cows were purchased that same Fall... thus the beginning of the Fossay Beef Farm cattle herd. By Fall of 1998, Bryan and Faye were up to 100 commercial cows. A lot of time and effort was devoted during that Fall into remodelling the existing corals and a new calving facility was also built.
Along came the Spring of 1999 where it was very hot, dry and windy. A small grass fire quickly spread and destroyed the remodelled corals, calving facility and other buildings. Shortly thereafter, a good neighbour and friend shared word with Bryan and Faye that a small cattle farm was for sale "up North" near Woodlands, Manitoba. These shared words peaked Bryan and Faye's interest and it was decided that they would purchase this farm and move "up North" rather than rebuild from the fire damage.
While operating their beef farm in Woodlands, Bryan also continues to grain farm "back home" with his three brothers in and around the Dacotah area. While commuting along HIghway #248 between Woodlands and Dacotah, Bryan always took strong note of an exceptional herd of hereford cows. The owners of this noted herd, were Joe and Lorraine Lamb whom Bryan has become good neighbours and friends with over the years. Bryan was so impressed with these animals, that he decided to purchase a bull from Joe and Lorraine in Spring of 2005.
Seeing the exceptional off-spring from this hereford bull, and always admiring Joe and Lorraine's cattle, Bryan quickly learned the true strengths of the hereford breed. These herefords are easy-doing, hardy, and docile with excellent udders and lots of milk. The calves they wean are thick, with good hair and easily weigh over 50% of their mothers weight. In the Spring of 2006, Bryan approached Joe and Lorraine expressing an interest to purchase this exceptional herd.
Today, we are proud to say that we are purebred hereford producers. The history of our herefords, began with the history of Joe and Lorraine Lamb's herefords. We thank Joe and Lorraine for allowing us to share some of their herd history with you. Joe as a young lad grew up working as a herdsmen for a reputable hereford stock farm. In 1985, Joe purchased his first hereford, Double U Miss Spidel 97H (image on left). She was a smaller framed cow but had everything else going for her. A daughter of hers, Spidel 2 (a Milkman daughter) has many daughters and granddaughters in this herd today. Through artificial insemination (AI) and selective breeding, Joe built a very strong herd. Frame size has slightly increased, yet without sacrificing birth weights. Herd bulls were chosen with the genetic backgrounds that were compatible with Joe's own herd. Bulls had to be straight, easy-doing, with large scrotums, and had to be growthy. At the same time, these bulls have to produce great daughters.
Joe for years has put bulls in the Gunton Test Station and almost all have sold at the top or near the top of each sale. Many of these bulls are still around today. A bull named Cody, is twelve years old and still in use. One of the bulls purchased that Joe is most proud of is ANL 236G Power Play 18L from ANL Farms in 2002. Power Play is a son of Remitall Governor, whom is well known for producing heavy milking, perfectly uddered daughters, and growthy sons. This herd today has many of these Governor influenced daughters.
LJL ANL 18L Power Up 1N (image to the right) is an example of the sires produced by ANL 236G Power Play 18L.
The bull that Bryan purchased from Joe and Lorraine for his commercial cows in Spring of 2005, happens to be ANL 236G Power Play 18L. Joe wasn't keen of the idea of his bull going into a commercial herd, but he reluctantly sold him to Bryan and ironically he is back where he should be, with this herd.
Joe is very proud of this herd he built, the cows have plenty of milk, beautiful udders with small teats. Birth weights have never been sacrificed. They're easy-doers that produce calves that grow and grow. This is an excellent herd to start with, and one that Bryan and Faye are very proud of and look forward to growing with.
