2025 TESA Nominee Profile: Manitoba—Clayton and Shauna Breault and Family

Working with nature creates sustainable ranching operation

Biodiversity is a key watchword for Clayton and Shauna Breault and family who run a cow-calf operation and backgrounding feedlot in the Parkland Region of north-central Manitoba.

After ranching in southern Saskatchewan for a number of years, they bought property at Toutes Aides, about 95 kilometres northeast of Dauphin, Manitoba in 2002, which became the headquarters for Breault Ranching Ltd.

As a first generation ranch, they built up a beef herd, today totalling 4,300 head of cattle, including 2,500 breeding females. The ranch has about 22,000 acres of pasture which includes 16,000 acres of Crown grazing lease.

In 2015 they expanded the operation by buying a feedlot at Ste. Rose du Lac, which is about 50 kilometres south of the ranch. The feedlot also has about 1,325 acres of annual cropping which produces most of the fall and winter feed supply for the herd.

In all aspects of their operation, from managing a large beef herd to rotational grazing on pasture to producing forages for winter feed, they have applied the key principles of holistic management and regenerative agriculture.

"Nowhere in nature do you find a monoculture," says Clayton. "Biodiversity has been a key element in helping us develop a healthy and productive beef herd and land base. We are continually learning and searching for ways to improve practices in which we feel will improve the environment of our ranching operation."

Their commitment to protecting the environment, improving soil health and productivity, and improving overall herd health and performance earned them recognition in 2025 as the Manitoba Beef Producer nominee for The Environmental Stewardship Award (TESA).

The Breaults have four children. Two sons Jesse and Laine are actively involved in the ranch. Daughter Elektra is an educational assistant and helps out on the ranch, while another daughter Ashley and her husband Jeff Beyak and their three children have their own ranching operation nearby at Meadow Portage.

The Breaults have developed a very integrated ranching system in that as they look after the land and soil ecosystem, it will produce high quality forages for a healthy and productive beef herd that in turn returns nutrients to keep the soil healthy and productive. 

They've eliminated tillage, they don't use synthetic fertilizer, herbicides or pesticides on crops and use a limited amount of antibiotics for the beef herd. They protect riparian areas, water sources and wildlife habitat. Their practices have encouraged more beneficial insects, which in part helps to attract songbirds and other wildlife species. These are among the measures which all help to increase the biodiversity of their ranch.

"We consider our ranch’s commitment to regenerative agriculture to be a learning, adaptable journey," says Shauna. "Along the way, the factors that have enabled us to make management changes have come from learning from and working with Understanding Ag, Holistic Management Canada, Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association, Manitoba Beef Producers Association, Environmental Farm Plan, Verified Beef Plus, and EU certified.

"Applying this knowledge and improved production practices has greatly helped to improve soil, plants, riparian areas, and wildlife habitats. When we first bought the feedlot location there were very few birds and few insects due to monoculture cropping practices. Now at both the ranch and the feedlot, regenerative farming practices have made a world of difference. We are seeing all kinds of songbirds including bobolinks, which are endangered. We are also now seeing burrowing owls, monarch butterflies and the fields are buzzing with beneficial insects. We have really noticed the birds and plant diversity increasing on the ranch, which we attribute to the way we operate our ranch and our focus on soil health." 

For the past 17 years, the Breaults have in particular applied the six principles of regenerative agriculture. These are:

1. Context—understand the unique conditions of their farm such as the climate, soil type and water resources

2. Minimize Disturbance—reduce or eliminate tillage and the use of chemical inputs

3. Armour the Soil—keep the soil covered with crops or crop residue

4. Diversity—increase the variety of plant and animal species on the farm

5. Keep Living Roots in the Soil—keep plants growing as long as possible throughout the growing season to optimize continuous nutrient cycling

6. Livestock Integration—properly manage livestock to improve soil health and enhance nutrient cycling 

Their management strategy involves pasturing cattle for the summer at Toutes Aides and then hauling them to the feedlot location for late fall grazing and winter feeding. Calves are backgrounded in the feedlot. Cows and bred heifers are brought back to the ranch at Toutes Aides in May for the summer and fall grazing season. They begin calving on pasture in June.

"At one time we used to overwinter everything at the ranch by Toutes Aides which meant buying and hauling feed to the cattle," says Clayton. "But we realized that was a lot of trucking. For every semi-load of cows it meant hauling nine loads of hay. So we flipped that around. With the cropland at Ste Rose we can now produce our winter feed supplies. Now we haul 60 loads of cows to the feedlot location in the fall rather than hauling 540 loads of hay."

The Breaults have made several important management changes over the years. At one time they calved cows and heifers in February. They moved to April/May calving hoping to catch better weather, but some years they still experienced snow or flooding. Since 2012 they've managed breeding so the herd starts calving in June on pasture—overall a much better chance of good weather, which is easier for both cattle and humans.

"We have also faced challenges of animal health in the past and we have overcame this by changing calving dates to June 1st to work in harmony with nature and feeding our herd a very diverse diet," says Shauna. "A real success in our eyes is that these practices have reduced the previous 10 percent of treated calves after weaning to the current one percent treated calves."

The ranch runs 1,800 head of Red Angus-cross cows. In the past three years, about 20 percent of the cows have been bred to Saler bulls with the remaining 80 percent bred to Red Angus. Along with cows they also raise about 700 head of bred heifers annually that are bred to easy calving Red Angus bulls. About 250 to 300 head are kept for herd replacements, with the other 400 head sold in their bred heifer program.

Calves are weaned in November and early December, with steers backgrounded in the feedlot over winter and then marketed in April and May. Heifers being grassed are on pasture for the summer and bred in August and September

The herd is overwintered at the feedlot location and then brought back to the ranch at Toutes Aides for turnout onto pasture usually around mid-May, depending on the year.

At the ranch location they have about 2,500 acres of tame grass pasture, the bulk of which is native tall prairie grass. There are also some marshy areas and lots of rough country covered with bush.

The grazing land is divided into some 137 pastures and paddocks ranging in size from 30 acres to as much as eight quarter sections. The herd is divided into 11 different breeding groups that move through pastures at varying rates depending on the growing season. Their battery of 110 head of bulls is turned out about the third week of August and remain with the females until weaning in mid-November.

In fall, cows are collected at four different locations, with calves weaned and brought to the feedlot. The cows and heifers are brought home a few days later and put out on pasture at the feedlot location.

One important change in their annual cropping land at the feedlot was to move away from monoculture crop production to polycrop production.

"When we first took over the feedlot location, we were producing and feeding a lot of straight corn and alfalfa silages, which we eventually realized were causing health problems in the cow herd," says Clayton. They were seeing aborted foetuses deficient in vitamins and minerals and more respiratory disease in cattle, for example.

The Breaults began moving away from mono crop production and in more recent years have been seeding polycrop blends, which can include as many as 14 different crops from different plant families. The blend can include forage collards, brassicas, sunflower, Phacelia (from the borage family), chicory, plantain, clovers, buckwheat, feed beets, flax, peas, oats and barley. "It is important to have crops from different plant families," says Clayton. The diversity not only benefits the soil with different rooting systems but is also beneficial to the cattle's digestive system.

The Breaults have phased out of straight corn production in favour of using polycrops for silage. They still produce some corn, but it is underseeded to polycrops, again providing biodiversity. The cow herd will graze on polycrops after weaning, with the winter-feeding program including polycrop silage along with straw for roughage. They feel that eliminating herbicides in crop production has helped as well. 

"Our challenges have been to grow enough quality feed for our herd, improving the soil health, animal health and maintaining a healthy environment all at the same time," says Clayton. "By using the principles of regenerative agriculture, which includes biodiversity we are achieving that.

"With double cropping for example, we can still achieve 20 ton per acre per year production. The first forage blend crop cut for silage includes triticale, hairy vetch, sweet clover, red clover, chicory and plantain. That's cut by the end of June. Then we will follow that by seeding a polycrop to be harvested in the middle of September. These forage blends have really helped to improve overall herd health while at the same time plant biodiversity has also improved soil health. 

"Our environmental goals for the future are to continue to improve the health of the soil which is the foundation of our operation," he adds. "We have increased our organic matter from 2.3 to 6.8 percent. We are helping climate change by storing carbon in the soil through practicing the principles of regenerative agriculture. We have improved the land by rotating our cattle through our paddocks, and by giving these paddocks proper rest. It is an integrated system with crop and livestock production working in harmony with nature."