From cattle rancher to industry leader: Doug Roxburgh intends to make a difference

How do you lead a billion-dollar industry while feeding cattle on the weekend? Meet Doug Roxburgh, the newly elected Chair of Alberta Beef Producers.

From his humble beginnings as a first-generation cattle producer to his deep dive into the world of "cattle politics," Doug shares his passion for the beef industry, the challenges ahead, and his bold vision for Alberta's producers. 

Host Kara Mastel guides us through a wide-ranging conversation on everything from tariffs and trade to weather outlooks, business risk management, and the importance of strong communication. 

Whether you're deep in the industry or just beef-curious, this episode offers a rare inside look at leadership on the frontlines of Alberta agriculture.

Listen For:

07:15 – Fixing the communication gap

15:04 – Wildlife and regional farming realities

20:48 – Navigating tariffs and global uncertainty

22:46 – Weather warnings and risk management tools

26:15 – Doug’s message to producers: Get involved and stay informed

GUEST: Doug Roxburgh

Doug Roxburgh is the Chair on the Board of Directors for Alberta Beef Producers. He resides near Rimbey, Alberta, with his wife, where they manage a first-generation cattle farm. They are involved in backgrounding their calves, marketing bulls and females, and raising commercial bread heifers. Doug also works as a senior nutrition consultant, assisting producers in creating year-round nutritional plans.

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Chapters

• 7:15 Fixing the Communication Gap
• 15:04 Wildlife and Regional Farming Realities
• 20:48 Navigating Tariffs and Global Uncertainty
• 22:46 Weather Warnings and Risk Management Tools
• 26:15 Doug’s Message to Producers: Get Involved and Stay Informed

Transcript

Kara Mastel (00:11):

Hi. Hey, hello and welcome back to another episode of the Bovine podcast, brought to you by Alberta Beef Producers. I'm your host, Kara Mastel. Today I have the pleasure of being joined by Doug Roxburgh, who's the new chair of Alberta Beef Producers. He took on this esteemed role on March 5th, 2025, where he was elected at our annual general meeting held in Calgary, Alberta. Doug brings a wealth of experience and passion to the position, and we are so excited to dive into his journey and vision for the future of Alberta's beef industry. Doug lives near Rimbey Alberta where he and his wife run a thriving first generation cattle operation. Their dedication to the industry is evident in their diverse activities, from background and calves to marketing bulls and females and raising commercial bread heifers. Doug's hands-on experience and commitment to excellence is set to make him a valuable leader for Alberta beef producers. In addition to his role as Chair, Doug is a senior nutrition consultant helping producers develop comprehensive year round nutritional programs. Now I won't dive into this much further is I may as well let the information come from the source itself. Doug, thanks so much for joining us on the Bovine today. Let's start here by diving a bit more into your background. Tell me about yourself.

Doug Roxburgh (01:29):

Yeah, for sure. So my wife and I were first generation cow-calf and backgrounder producers. We farmed just south of Mby, Alberta on the west side of Gall Lake. Both my wife and I are actually originally from Chillowak, British Columbia, and we migrated here back after we finished our high school education and came out and went through the old college program, separate divisions of it, but graduated from Olds college and then started up our operation. I've been heavily involved in the livestock nutrition side of things for many years now, but definitely farming at home the last maybe five years has become a full-time job for my wife. She definitely holds down the place and keeps things going for us at home there while I travel as much as I do. Gee, was also involved in the agriculture industry, worked for a pharmaceutical company for a number of years and then prior to coming home and taking over the operation on a full-time basis.

Kara Mastel (02:24):

Very cool. So you've mentioned you do sit on the CCA board, so you're somebody who has been very involved within the agricultural beef industry. What led you to wanting to be involved in it?

Doug Roxburgh (02:37):

Yeah, so I guess I got involved with A BP first came on as just, I want to say just as a delegate in the organization. Quickly I guess had a taste for what was happening and a drive to want to be more involved in terms of understanding policy and things that were happening within our industry. That delegate position moved quickly into being one of the directors and then certainly over time got involved as vice chair here previous. And then moving into the chair role, I stepped onto CCA few years ago as well, simply looking at what was happening within our national organizations and things that were happening right across Canada. And I guess I had a real interest in understanding more as we got into certain things like programming, like BRMs, business risk management and stuff. So the drive was there, I guess to kind of get into this cattle politics side. Maybe wasn't understood when I first got involved as a delegate, but certainly, certainly had an appetite for it as time progressed. And my time at CCA has been extremely good and I've enjoyed every minute of it, but now I am stepping back from my time at CCA here. Now as I step into this role as chair of a BP,

Kara Mastel (03:50):

Have you been somebody that's always wanted to be involved? Like you mentioned becoming a delegate, but something tells me you were involved in college boards as well.

Doug Roxburgh (04:00):

Yeah, I mean, I guess I didn't really maybe realize my passion for this cattle politics side until I got a little bit more involved. But I definitely always had a drive to be somebody that was pushing the envelope a little bit and being more involved than just being at home. I guess on the farm. I did have a desire to understand what was happening within our organizations, within our industry. This industry is, it's every day. I mean, whether I'm at home on weekends, feeding cows with my wife or whether I'm on the road day to day doing nutritional work or in the evenings being involved in a BP or CCA, this agriculture and this cattle thing, it's 24 7 for me and my family. And so we certainly understand what's going on and definitely had a desire to be involved at a higher level and it's certainly been an enjoyable experience.

Kara Mastel (04:52):

Absolutely. And it's such a unique industry in that way that it is such a big part of our lives. Everything that happens impacts our livelihood.

Doug Roxburgh (05:01):

Yeah, exactly.

Kara Mastel (05:03):

So as a new chair of a BP, and this was as of not that long ago as we just wrapped up our A GM top priorities, have you had a chance to sit down and think about what some of your top priorities are?

Doug Roxburgh (05:15):

Yeah, so I mean, I guess when you first get involved in any of these boards as an individual, you have personal drives, things that are important to you and within your own maybe organization at home. And I think that's what gets you involved. Once you get involved with things, organizations like a BP, you start to understand what level of coverage organizations like Alberta Beef Producers is working on. And so I came in with a bit of a personal agenda for me, no questions asked. It was always around things like business risk management tools, improving them, especially improving them for the youth that are trying to be involved within our agriculture industry. So hopefully in two years I can still say that was a focus of mine or a personal drive, but once I got involved with A BP and realized what level of things that they were working on, I would say some of my opinions on that changed a little bit.

(06:14):

And I know a BP has had a drive to improve communications, not just communications to the consumers that buy our product, but also to the people or the producers that we represent. And I know Brad Dubeau, our general manager when he came on, I don't want to speak for, but I know that that was a personal motivation for him was to improve communications within our industry. And they've been working on that or we've been working on that the last few years. And it's my goal, I guess to help forward that and push that even more. Part of that communication has been in the past telling producers what a BP has done or maybe what they're working on today. I'd say a big focus for us is what is a BP doing going forward? What does the next five years look like? And I think that's been feedback from producers is it's great to say what you did the last few years, but where are we going and how are we moving this industry forward?

(07:15):

And part of the way that we're doing that is at our board meetings, we incorporate a lot of other organizations like Western Stock Growers, Alberta Cattle Feeders, veterinary Medicine Association. I'm just going to pick a few names along the way, certainly many more that are involved, but they get to come to the table and sit with us and visit with us. They tell their story, they get to hear what Alberta Beef Producers is working on. And I think that's really key because we are so integrated within our own industry, but we're also segmented. And so the goal of A BP the last while, and it's a goal of mine to keep strengthening that, is to strengthen that communication within our organization just so that we can do better as an industry on a whole

Kara Mastel (08:00):

And we can spread that message over and over communication. Every part of our lives needs communication and it's so incredibly huge and I know to anyone that might be listening, you'll probably hear Doug, I know Doug has done plenty of interviews already. He's been thrown straight into the fire. We deal with all sorts of different political things right now. But yeah, communicating to all aspects of the industry is huge. The recent A GM obviously wrapped up, you were elected. What were some of the key takeaways from AG GM itself?

Doug Roxburgh (08:32):

Yeah, so the A GM this year I would say was a little bit different just in the tone in the sense of, I mean we're dealing with international trade tariffs, things like that as much and as important that we wanted producers to understand that A BP recognized that that was a main focus. Today we still business to do. We still had to get through the meat and potatoes of welcoming our new delegates, bringing them on and forming them. We had to elect some boards. We sent a new group of seven producers to CCA through our ability on what we do with CCA each year we get to bring on seven new members. Now, I will admit a portion of those seven people are returning. They got revolted in, but we went through a series of new elections and we did have some new people that got to be involved in CCA.

(09:32):

I'd say one of the big key takeaways coming out of our producer meetings over the spring January through mid Feb, we did 11 or 12 producer meetings clear across the province. The A GM was a nice way to kind of bring that all together, tear into the resolutions that were brought forward by producers across those meetings, clear across the province, but it gave us the ability to start to see where there was similarities in thinking within producers and maybe some complete differences as we got into regions and zones. The one key takeaway I would say is we're still striving to improve producer engagement. We've got some zones that have full delegate bodies, but we have other zones that are missing some people there. So we do encourage people to reach out, understand what being a delegate looks like, maybe chat with the other delegates within their zone, chat with a BP on a whole, but have some willingness to reach out and see if that maybe is a fit for you. Because we are an organization that is driven by producers first and everything happens from the producers. And so if we don't have that engagement, it becomes more difficult to streamline what projects that we're going to work on going forward.

Kara Mastel (11:00):

It's the old saying of if you don't vote, you can't complain sort of thing.

Doug Roxburgh (11:05):

Yes.

Kara Mastel (11:06):

And correct me if I'm wrong here, Doug, we have different terms as well for delegates, correct?

Doug Roxburgh (11:11):

Yeah, so Delegate Body would basically be kind of the intro level of people getting involved. It's not a huge time commitment. A lot of it's done online Zoom, A lot of the delegate responsibilities are very much focused within your zone. So let's just say you're up in LA Crete, most of your delegate obligations would happen in that North Zone for the most part. It's not like you're traveling down to Medicine hat all the time. We do bring our delegates together a few times a year, whether it's online or in person, just to get that engagement. And a lot of the times the things that the delegates are doing are things that you're at already. Maybe it's going to the local cattle show for the youth association, maybe it's going to the rodeo that's happening in your community. It's just trying to bridge that gap and having a little bit of community engagement from the delegates.

(12:05):

You can be elected to become a director. That's kind of the next level up. And those directors definitely have a little bit more of a time commitment. We bring them together every month or so, whether again it's online or whether it's in person, usually in Calgary, if we're doing it in person, that's where we're starting to get to some of the voting and pushing those delegates, or sorry, those directors to be involved in some of our committee groups, issues management, different things like that. And then from there, the directors lead into the executive, which would be our finance chair, vice chair, and then myself as the chair position. So

Kara Mastel (12:42):

As you mentioned, January through March, crazy busy producer meetings, lots and lots of engagement throughout there, but that is where those resolutions come forward to the Ag GM, were there any resolutions that maybe stood out to you or really made an impression?

Doug Roxburgh (12:58):

Yeah, I mean twofold. I guess to answer that number one, we did have resolutions that I would say we repeats from years previous. So every year we update our policy handbook and we bring that with us to all of our producer meetings. So we did see a little bit of overlap in some of the resolutions in saying that as times progress, we saw maybe a little bit more focus on certain areas, and I'll just bring up business risk management. So we've had a focus on BRM programs over the last number of years. It's written right in our policy handbook. We've been working on that day after day. Now with that said, there was a resolution that came forward that had a little bit more focus around some of our business risk management, especially around LPI or livestock price insurance that maybe fine tune things a little bit.

(13:50):

So that was really interesting to get producers information or updates on how they see programs or how they've been working or where there's areas for improvement. With that said, it's always interesting. Wildlife has become a huge one, and it's really interesting how wildlife is really zoned to zone and wildlife might be something you talked about heavily up north, but then all of a sudden you skip through most essential Alberta and got down into Southern Alberta and found that maybe wildlife on the east side of the Rockies became a huge issue for them as well in terms of just the sheer numbers of wildlife issues or concerns around potential disease and a lot of it just around how wildlife are using feed stocks that were meant for cattle consumption. So really interesting to get into things because as me as an individual or as a person I farm at home, I'm out in Rimbey just doing my day to day and certain resolutions that are brought forward are just things that maybe I didn't think about or maybe other producers in my zone weren't dealing with.

(15:04):

But it is interesting to get out and about and see the similarities within certain resolutions and how they have an effect. So wildlife was definitely one lots of follow up around our BRMs, our business risk management programs, some discussion around concerns around coal going forward. So we're updating our policy handbook from what came out of those resolutions. We voted on 'em at the Ag GM and then now it's about taking those resolutions back, itemizing them, not in terms of importance, but in terms of maybe how we score them and how we pass 'em off onto Brad Bo and his team of staff that are back at the office at A BP and how they start to implement strategies to essentially rectify resolutions that have come forward.

Kara Mastel (15:58):

I find the resolution process super interesting for that reason as well. I'm located in Southern Alberta and you can sometimes end up in your own little bubble or you think on one hand you can think everything's the same across the province, and then on the other hand you can be like, oh wow, they don't understand what we're going through, whatever. But it's really cool to sometimes hear those things that are happening in northern Alberta and you're like, that impacts us too. Hundred percent. We really do have a lot of things that impact all of us. You talked a bit about the resolution process. I mean, it was a little bit of a crazy week, like you said. I mean two hours after you were elected, you were put straight into a joint media scrum surrounding tariffs. Do you want to talk a bit about what that was like, what your relationship is with doing interviews? I know that's something you actually, I think anyways, you don't mind doing.

Doug Roxburgh (16:50):

No, I don't know why. Maybe I'm just kind of weird that way. I enjoy getting involved with media. Yeah, it was a very interesting day. We started early that morning, kind of got set into this chair position and then as you said, rolled right into a media scrum. Really positive in the sense that we were able to have Curtis Vander, Hayden, vice Chair of Alberta Cattle Feeders and Dennis Lay Craft, executive director, vice president of Canadian Cattle Association. They'd be there alongside with us. Really nice to have that support from both other organizations. I'm going to say something about the media or speak to the scrum I guess a little bit in the sense that the media presence at the Ag GM and at Abic was really good. It was unfortunate for the reasons why we had to have the scrum, why we had to have the media press conference.

(17:51):

But the thing I will say about media, and I'll speak to the cattle industry within Alberta, is the media has a really big appetite to visit with us and specifically with Alberta beef producers, they want to know what's going on. They're asking some very genuine questions, lots of discussion about how does the cow herd look today, where do we see it going forward? Why is it the way it is and how is that going to affect consumers? Consumers have been so supportive of purchasing our product even at the price points in which we see it today. They're understanding that taste, texture, and quality have improved so much over the last five years in terms of the product that we're putting in front of consumers. So the media appetite to visit and understand our industry has been so strong. And so I was really happy that the media wanted to visit with us that day.

(18:49):

Unfortunately, it was around some difficult talking points and tariffs and dealing with our largest trading partner, the United States. So stressful in terms of trying to understand the media, asked the questions, where are we at? What's happening, what's going on? A hundred percent honest, we're still trying to digest that and figure that out ourselves. Even at the national organization level with CCA, we're still trying to figure out how we pivot what we're doing. So it was really important I think, for us as an industry and organization to communicate and visit with media. And I'm so happy that they've taken such a vested interest in our industry, and I think it's really important that going forward we continue to be there and share our story with them because they've done a tremendous job in terms of supporting our industry right now.

Kara Mastel (19:39):

And now obviously, I don't want to spend too much time on tariffs here, but talk about how it's been managing such an impactful situation straight from the start of your term.

Doug Roxburgh (19:50):

Yeah. I mean, when Brad Dubo and I were up north for a few days doing some of our northern producer meetings, we were getting a lot of communication coming out of government, coming out of industry, trying to figure out what the impacts of tariffs were going to look like within the next few months. I mean, there was potential that day of coming out back in January into Feb, and then it happened in Feb and anyways, we can talk about it all day long, but it's been stressful in the sense of just the unknown. We're trying to figure out what the impact looks like. We're trying to figure out how producers can pivot, how they can adapt. The one thing I will say about tariffs is there's always the potential for short term issues within our industry, but I think our industry is extremely insightful. They're extremely resilient, and I think they've got a lot of ideas of how going to manage this.

(20:48):

I will say from Alberta Beef producers and from CCA standpoint, we've been in discussion every day with organizations like our packers, like Alberta Cattle Feeders, working with government to communicate what this is going to look like. And so we we're navigating it, we're pivoting, we're adapting and working through it on a daily basis. Full disclosure, I don't know if we have a silver bullet to say if tariffs come back on, this is exactly how things are going to look, but we're certainly navigating a lot of different options looking to see how we can be as resilient going forward as we can.

Kara Mastel (21:27):

And within the week of a GM and all of that going on as well, it was the Alberta Beef Industry Conference. I know you attended as well. Anything exciting you'd like to talk about from there or any conversations that were

Doug Roxburgh (21:41):

Yeah, I mean, a B is always a great conference. I maybe cheat a little bit in the sense that I use abic as a bit of a time to connect and network with a lot of other organizations and a lot of other producers while I'm there. So I always work to attend as many of the conference speakers as I can and get the key takeaways. This one this year for me, I think Matt Mackins came up from Cattle Facts. He did a tremendous job in terms of a weather outlook. I can't say the weather outlook for the entire province of Alberta looks overly promising in terms of huge amounts of moisture. He does have some predictions and models that say we're maybe in for a bit of another dry year within the province of Alberta. Now that sounds negative, but I think it speaks to the work that's been done and trying to communicate back to producers that we have seen huge improvements in programs like Moisture Deficiency Insurance, MDI has been a program that's been an ongoing progress through A FSC.

(22:46):

There's always changes and improvements made to it. So I really encourage producers as I come out of a meeting that maybe had a bit of a negative tone to it in terms of weather and say there's business risk management tools like MDI right in front of you. Take advantage of 'em. Look at the programs, identify your zones, your regions, see how those programs might help. Hopefully maybe everything will fall together and you'll never have to use MDI or you'll never have to get a payout out of the program, but it is there. And I just encourage more producers to reach out, understand how the programs work, understand that we had a bit of a model in front of us that said, maybe if you haven't utilized those programs, this is the year to do it. And so we have 'em there. The excitement for me has been around over the last number of years. We've seen an uptake on MDI in terms of how programs like A FSC or organizations like A FSC have been willing to modify and adapt and improve the programs they've listened to, the resolutions put forward by producers. They have made changes, they continue to make changes, and so those tools are there. The excitement for me is that they are there and they can really help mitigate some risk within your organization or within your farm business.

Kara Mastel (24:08):

And I think that's such a terrific perspective because lots of times we can hear these weather outlooks and we can almost want to put our head in the sand and be like, I'd just rather not know if it's going to be bad. And there are these programs available that if we just educate, hopefully we do not have to use them. But there's nothing wrong with being educated on the programs.

Doug Roxburgh (24:26):

A hundred percent.

Kara Mastel (24:27):

So currently, as you've had a bit of a whirlwind, now you're in Ottawa for the Canadian Cattle Association, A GM. Talk about what this week has in store for you. Why do you see it as important to A BP that representatives are out in Ottawa this week too?

Doug Roxburgh (24:45):

Yeah, so I mean C-C-A-G-M happens about this time mid to late March every year right here in Ottawa. I believe that as a provincial organization like a BP, it is incredibly important that we're here right now. Alberta Beef Producers funds approximately 52% of CCAs annual budget. And so I think as Alberta being the epicenter of the cattle industry, whether it's from the cow calf, the backgrounders, the feeders, or the packing side of things, I think it's incredibly important for a VP to have boots on the ground, be here, be a part of the different subcommittees that are happening, communicate what's been going on within Alberta. Certainly we respect the opinions and conversation coming out from all parts of the country. I mean, let's face it, Ontario has been a huge supporter of purchasing wean calves in the fall from Western Canada, Alberta specifically. So as much as we're here to chat and say, Hey, this is what's going on within the province of Alberta, we also want to know what's happening in other parts of the country like Ontario because they have been a huge supporter of purchasing fall wean calves from Western Canada.

Kara Mastel (26:04):

Absolutely. Okay. Before we wrap up here, I know you've got to keep going on. What message would you like to send to Alberta beef producers in the broader agricultural community?

Doug Roxburgh (26:15):

Yeah, so I guess two things. Number one, as a beef producers in the province get involved, understand that Alberta Beef producers is working extremely hard to communicate back to consumers, and they're working extremely hard to communicate back to the producers that we represent. A BP Daily, a BP magazine. There's a lot of media going out. Lots of you as producers, might've seen the ads running on TV during periods of time like Stampede, whether it's talking about nutrition, whether it's talking about sustainability and environmental impacts and how great of a job Alberta beef producers does. There's a lot of communication out there really focused to try to help producers and consumers understand what Alberta Beef Producers is doing and will continue to do. So I guess that would be kind of my message number one. On a personal note, there's no secret. We have challenges. We've got tariffs, we've got threats of disease and things that are happening globally.

(27:23):

We continue to work through that and model what that looks like and work on prevention. But with that said, I think there's always opportunity to think outside the box. Be willing as a private individual or as a business to pivot, adjust and find the opportunities within our industry with your own personal operations. Use the tools available to you to strengthen yourself and your business. A BP is working so closely with our partners and our national organizations each and every day to make industry improvements. I believe the future is strong, and I believe the future is bright, and a BP is certainly here to do our part to help strengthen that.

Kara Mastel (28:06):

Great. Absolutely. That is a wonderful note to end on, and I know we are very excited to have you lead the organization and see what's coming next for a BP. Well, yet again, we've made it to the end of another episode of the Bovine. I cannot believe we're approaching the end of March so quickly. It sure came in like a lamb here where I live in Southern Alberta, so I'm wondering, hoping not if it'll go out like a lion. Hopefully it's all nice lamb weather wherever you are located. Although I will say if line brings some moisture, we're probably not going to complain. But for my own personal mental wellbeing, the sunshine is so nice. Thanks for tuning into this episode. I wouldn't be able to do this without you, the listener. I mean, I could, but then I'd just be talking to myself and Well, that could be interesting. And thanks of course to Doug for joining in on this episode. If you have any questions or feedback from this episode, don't hesitate to reach out Kara m@albertabeef.org. Until next time, stay safe. Enjoy calving and watch out for those early prairie crocuses coming out of the ground. I can already see their beautiful purple. Here we go. Spring is coming. Okay, everyone. Bye for now.