Shelley and Rod Bradshaw and their two sons together run Beck Farms in central Alberta. For over 30 years, their farm has been known for growing the best-tasting, sweetest carrots around. The family now also produces beets, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, dill, parsnips, peppers, eggplant and preserves.
While the farm sells between 800,000 to 900,000 pounds of carrots each year, there are still some carrots that don’t quite make the grade. Shelley estimates about 30% of the carrots through their plant are culled. “For us, a culled carrot is anything that’s crooked, deformed, or it might have a bug mark. If a crooked carrot is in the bag, the consumer won’t buy that bag. They think they will, but when they actually go to pick up a bag off the shelf, that’s the last bag that we’ll sell,” she says.
What to do with all those extra carrots?
The Bradshaws give as many as they can to community groups, but that still leaves a lot of carrots left over.
“We do donate quite a few to food banks, but they can’t use up the volumes that we have. We thought maybe we could just compost them, but let’s try feeding them to the cows and see if they will eat them.”
Rod’s brother, Gordon Bradshaw, raises cattle on Aberlynn Farms, about 20 minutes from the Becks’ produce farm. Gordon began feeding some of the off-type carrots to his cattle. “Once one tried them, they all decided they should try them,” Shelley remembers. “They love them!”
Gordon reports that carrots are a big favourite of his cattle. “Our black bull, he would pick the carrots out and save them for later, like dessert,” he says.
Food waste is a huge issue today and farmers and food companies across Canada are working to come up with new ways to reduce waste and find new uses for products that can’t be fully utilized in the human food stream. To Shelley, it’s a wonderful feeling to realize that their carrots are not only enjoyed by people across Alberta, but they’re also providing another food source for cattle and preventing unneeded waste.
“It’s nice to know that something’s appreciating them. Being able to feed the cattle is awesome,” Shelley says.
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