By Patti Wilson Contributing Editor
Who’s watching out for your well-being? It might be Kelly Smith-Fraser of Innisfail, Alberta, Canada. Smith-Fraser runs her family’s 100-cow, mixed purebred cattle operation, is raising a family and does hundreds of hours of work for agricultural advocacy in Canada.
She is mother to Aubrey, 13, and wife to Scott, CEO of a company that manufactures and supplies oil field valves and electrical instrumentation. She describes his help as “mandatory volunteer labor for the ranch.”
The family ranch, Nu Haven Cattle Company, produces seedstock and provides daughter Aubrey with junior show heifers. Aubrey is a successful exhibitor on a national scale.
Smith-Fraser believes strongly in the junior show programs, wanting to become more involved in the future. It is a sure-fire way for youth to improve their skillsets and eventually advocate for the agricultural industry, regardless of the path in life they choose. She wants all ag youth to be successful, whether they stay on the farm or not. Wanting to put kids in places where they can grow and learn, she says they are truly our biggest asset.
Smith-Fraser is deeply embedded in Canadian cattle industry politics. She is a past chair of the Alberta Beef Producers and has enjoyed her time in developing Results Driven Agricultural Research Corporation (RDAR), which she described as a “huge task.”
Currently, she is board chair of the government-owned Agricultural Financial Services Corp (AFSC), which helps provide ag lending to new and young producers, crop insurance and business risk management for farmers.
Her youth was spent on the family’s farm, a three-generation business. They specialized in cattle and semen exports worldwide, as well as raising purebred Maine Anjou. Smith-Fraser says she was involved in recordkeeping since the age of 12 and loved growing up with her cousins. She attended Texas Tech University, majoring in marketing.
Her final thought came squarely back to youth. “We need to maintain our strength through youth,” she asserts. “Every agricultural kid can advocate for ag. They need to be proud and strong to do this, regardless of wherever life leads them. Junior show programs provide that strength, making them confident of what they’re doing at home.”
