KISBEY - Darren Ippolito and his spouse Kylie McRae, along with their three children, Kord, Etta and Ray-Lynn, call the Moose Creek Red Angus farm their home. It has been in the family since the early 1900s.
The land was purchased by Ippolito’s great grandparents Alvarito and Laura Ippolito. In 1949, Ippolito’s grandparents Raymond and Betsy began to build on the land. Their son Glenn and his wife Donna ran the farm with Glenn’s parents.
The farm’s name Moose Creek Red Angus was formed in the 1970’s and has held the name ever since.
Darren Ippolito returned from college in 2001 after getting his agricultural production degree in Olds, Alta., and he went full force into farming.
Today, Ippolito and his family run the farm, and his children are the fifth generation to enjoy the farm life.
McRae also works on the family farm but has a job with Ducks Unlimited as a rangeland agrologist and has received many awards for her work and recognition of service with the organization.
Their farm is located south of Kisbey, and it runs 500 head of cattle. All are registered red angus cattle. With a herd this size, they need 25 bulls to service the cows, as each bull usually breeds 20-25 cows.
“Bulls can breed more than this, but this is how we do it,” said Ippolito.
They cannot do all the work themselves and have two employees. Max Gauthier is the cow boss, and he takes care of the herd health, including needling, tagging calves and feeding. Tanis Palmer is the lead operator and she runs the equipment and does the feeding. They both do whatever it takes to make the farm run smoothly.
To feed a herd of this caliber, it takes 3,000 large bales of hay. Each cow will eat 2 1/2 metric tonnes during the winter.
“Younger stock will eat less,” said Ippolito.
They harvest as much feed off of their own land, which includes hay and silage.
It is calving season at Moose Creek and on any given day, they can have 10-12 calves. With a video monitor in the house, they can see the calving pens. If a problem comes up, they can easily go to the pens.
The calving pens are checked several times a day and night to ensure everything runs smoothly, and the herd is checked as well, in case a cow is closer than they anticipated.
This year they have had several sets of twins. This is not something that farmers want, as usually the calves are smaller and at times the cow will reject one calf.
To grow their own herd, they keep their own heifers, which has a higher degree of keeping records and they can grow the herd through their own genetics. They also keep bull calves, and when they are a year and two years old, they are sold for breeding. This sale is coming up on the farm April 14 with 90 bulls on the sale list.
They had not shown any cattle since 2009, and for 15 years worked on customer service.
In 2023 their bull Viper became the Canadian reserve national champion, and in 2024 Viper was the reserve champion bull at the National Western Stock Show in Denver. Viper remains on the farm.
“This is our business,” said Ippolito. “It is what we do, and we love it. Farming is our life.”
