I am sharing with you my personal cattle BRANDING MANUAL 
This branding manual is a step‑by‑step look at how I personally organize our branding. After years of flipping through old handwritten notes, screenshots, and dusty photos, I finally decided it was time to pull everything together in one place.
 
This includes my tried & tested recipes (and tips for ensuring you can serve it early or late), my branding pen checklists and my personal to-do lists from a month out, all the way to the day after. 
The tips, tricks, and recipes  are a culmination of generations of women before me and a killer crew of ranch women who support me daily. So here's to all the bada** babes juggling the farm, the kids, the husband, and the long list of “other duties as required” like complete cowbosses, day in and day out.
 
May your branding day be filled with healthy fat calves, sunshine and good company!

Click the photo below to download your copy. 

There are few places that offer as much uninterrupted listening time as a tractor cab in the middle of haying season. Between cutting, raking, baling, hauling and everything else July and August throw your way, the hours can add up quickly. While there's plenty of time for thinking, planning and solving the world's problems from the driver's seat, sometimes it's nice to have a good conversation, a great story or a few laughs riding along with you.
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So fill your water jug, fuel up the tractor and hit play. Here's our roundup of podcasts to keep you company between sunup and sundown!

Registered Ranching Podcast 
Barn Talk
​Discover Ag 
Ag's Most Okayest Farm Girls 
​Beyond the Crops 
The Future Herd 
​The First Sixteen 
Science in Your Shopping Cart 
​AgriTalk
​Mind Your Farm Business 

Cowgirls over Coffee 
Quote of the Day Show
​Leaders of the West 
Boldly Grounded with Kylie Epperson 
The Rural Woman Podcast 
Diary of a CEO ​
Bananas- Funny news from around the world 
Tony & Ryan Podcast 
Call her Daddy with Alix Cooper
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce 

Morbid
Crime Junkie
Real Survival Stories 
Serialously
​True Crime with Kendall Rae 
​Legally Brunette 
Serial
My Favorite Murder
In the Dark 
​Scamfluencers 

Smash Boom Best 
Moment of Um 
Brains On 
Smologies 
Million Bazillion 
Real Cool History for Kids 
Tumble Science Podcast for Kids 
Forever Ago 
Lingokids: Growin; Up! 
​Lingokids: Stories for Kids
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​Be the dumbest person in the room. 
Hear me out. I was talking with a mentor recently, filling her in on some insecurities—feeling like I hadn't earned my seat at the table, worrying I “didn't know enough,” wondering if I was in over my head. She stopped me and said something that hit me like a brick:
 
“It's usually best if you're the least knowledgeable person in the room.”
 
At first, my ego flinched. But she was right. If you're the dumbest person in the room, it means you've done something brilliant: you've surrounded yourself with people who stretch you, challenge you, and pull you upward.
 
You are the company you keep. So why not keep smart company?
 
If you look around and think, “Dang, I'm the smartest one here,” that's not a flex—that's a ceiling. We all have room to grow, whether it's technical knowledge about a crop, learning how to parent in a way that fits our kids' needs, or figuring out how to close that next big sale.
 
This month, I want you to take inventory of your circle: 

• Notice the women who inspire you. 
• Notice the ones who carry themselves with confidence you admire. 
• Notice the ones who hold knowledge you value.

 
And then—here's the part most people skip--reach out to them. Tell them you admire their strengths. Ask if they'd be willing to share what they know. You'll be surprised how many people are thrilled to pour into someone who's hungry to learn.
 
And if you're looking for a place to meet more of those women? Join us for the next Brag, B*tch & Build. It's basically a room full of smart cookies—and you're invited.
 

Work ON your business not just IN it. 
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 Working on your business instead of getting swallowed by the daily grind is one of the hardest shifts for any business owner— especially when your “workday” includes kids, cows, chores, and a to‑do list that never actually ends. But it’s also the shift that separates businesses that survive from businesses that grow with purpose. And whether your business is beef production, commodity crops, social media influencing or a bookkeeping side gig, we all deserve to grow & blossom. 
 
Being busy isn’t the same as building something.
 
Working in your business keeps the wheels turning. 
Working on your business decides where those wheels are going.
 
When you carve out even a little time to step back, you create space for the things that actually move you forward—clarity, strategy, and intention. That’s where growth happens. Get started with these:

• Carve out 15 minutes each day to connect to someone about your business. Reach out on socials, LinkedIn, make a call or shoot a text you've been meaning to send. NETWORK.
• Sign up for a course, webinar or conference that will bring VALUE to your business- hello Advancing Women in Agriculture, a book keeping 101 or a leadership typing course. Even better? Sign up for the Masterclass: From Barnyard to Boss Mode
• Book a one-hour CEO meeting with yourself each week. Block it off or it won't happen. Then ask yourself “What opportunity am I ignoring because I’m too busy?”
• When was the last time your team (yes, even if that's just the hubs & you) sat down and made goals? Celebrated the wins? Did a team building event? Happy staff (yes, you can call hubs your staff here, I won't tell ;) ) = more production.

Announced just last month the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef shared they will be providing CRSB certified operations with $400 automatically in 2026. Now, I am certainly not here to tell you what to do on your farm, rather share one producer's experience with another. As a business owner its up to you to determine the value (or lack thereof) to your operation. Personally, I find the best knowledge nuggets (what to do and what to avoid) by listening to other ranchers. So here's what I know. You decide the value. 

 
The Process
Because it can be a process, if I am being honest. Full transparency we started this process 7 years ago when the incentives were different (and maybe more lucrative?), but continued as its not terribly difficult and we have seen ROI (some years).

In order to be CRSB Certified and get that $400 carrot they're dangling, you need to be certified first by one of their approved certification bodies (VBP+ or Where Food Comes From). We have went through allllll of the iterations of VBP+ (before it had the “+”!) but the jist is that to check the VBP+ box you will watch a webinar or do the reading on industry standards, keep records (you're already probably doing) and then invite an auditor to your farm for a walk through every 5 years. The kicker is that it now costs $250/yr (for a cow/calf operation) to participate.
 
Next steps in the road to CRSB Sustainable Beef certification are to email a copy of that VBP+ certificate to CRSB, age verify cattle born on your farm through CLTS (you may already be doing this or programs like HerdTrax or AngusWorks will automatically do it for you) and give CLTS permission to share your CCIA information. DONE (phew- that seemed like a lot, no?).   
 

The Value
Now, you've got those hurdles mastered, you may be asking yourself  how does this certification actually bring VALUE to my farm? I'll break down the monetary opportunities, but you decide if its right for your operation. For very real but hard-to-measure value around industry stewardship, marketing opportunities, employee training, consumer demand and a whole lot more, visit CRSB and VBP+. I'm just talking cash money here. 

1. NEW (Feb 2026): CRSB Certified Producer Incentive $400/year from CRSB just for keeping up to date with your certification

2. CRSB FCC Sustainability Incentive If you have loans with FCC, they will give you up to $4000/year (based on the size of your loans) for being a CRSB certified operation.

3. If you  participate in the AAFC AgriInvest program and your farm reaches a certain allowable net sales ($1Million +) you are now required you to do an Agri-Environmental Risk Assessment. The easiest way to satisfy this component is to either have a valid Environmental Farm Plan or be CRSB certified.

4. VBP Incentives: Depending on your province, you have access to funding opportunities just for being certified with VBP+. Applicable expenses include certification costs or biosecurity and animal welfare improvements like RFID tags, panels, fencing, oilers, calving cameras, chutes, scales, maternity pens, remote watering surveillance and much more

• AB (50% cost share up to $5000)        
• SK (50% up to $15,000)
• MB ($500)               
• ON (up to 100% of certification fees)

When pitching the idea of the Branding Pot to a few (non-agricultural) business entrepeneurs, I had some surprising, yet telling conversations I thought I'd share with you, my girl gang.

We often times operate within our own echo chambers- we hang out with people who share very similar thought patterns, understandings and values (think your family, your neighbours, your friend group). Hello, validation, we love you! 

But what if we made an effort to step outside (even just a little bit at first) those echoing walls of glassy-eyed head-nodders and seek advice, relationships and perspectives that challenge us?

I'll tell you what happens:  growth, mindset shifts and opportunities; its the cross-pollination of ideas and values to create something new with the most desirable traits from both flowers. And the more varied the pollen, the more vibrant the bloom.

So go ahead: mingle with new minds.Your next big idea might be waiting in unfamiliar soil.  
 
Spend time outside your comfort zone 

Explain what you do. Practice your elevator speech. 

If you don't like the feedback, change how you tell the story. 
If you don't like the story, maybe its time to pen a new one. 

We bring VALUE every day, be it on the farm, in the boardroom, in friendships or in the trenches of motherhood. Now, read that again. You bring VALUE. You're a bada** BOSS babe. 
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Sometimes, I must admit, its hard to always remember that, especially when you're arguing with a toddler or trying to repair a swather canvas (you can't win them all). Once in a while we need some inspiration. You would have found these anyways (you're a smart cookie) but it never hurts to have some  conversation starters, quick facts or new resources to pull out of your pocket the next time you're at the auction market or the farm store talking shop with the men. 
And remember, the smartest girlie in the room is one who speaks facts, not gossip.
 
“you can get a pretty good understanding of how people talk about you when you're not around by what they say about others when you're in the room”.
 
 Spread kindness. (And science facts, folks.)