Scott and Paula Cornish with their children, Jason (far left) and Shelby (second from right.)
Peterborough Hereford and Angus beef farm awarded farm family of the year
Nelson Zandbergen
Farmers Forum
INDIAN RIVER — In 2001, newlyweds Scott and Paula Cornish founded a beef farm together on a compromise and an intoxicating name.
Nearly a quarter century later, Whiskey Lane Livestock is still distinguished by an even split of only purebred Hereford and purebred Angus cattle. The 50-50 herd makeup is a reflection of the owners’ compromise and their respective favourite breeds. He grew up with purebred Herefords. She came into the marriage with some purebred Angus. They produce both in equal numbers at their 75-dam cow-calf operation, which recently earned them the Peterborough-Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce’s 2024 Farm Family of the Year.
The Hereford-versus-Angus subject “can provide for some entertaining conversation with the kids at the dinner table,” Scott says, acknowledging they still argue about which breed is best.
“But I think we both know that they have good traits and actually complement each other quite well if you’re doing a cross-breeding program.”
He’s currently president of the Ontario Hereford Association, while Paula is a former Ontario Angus Association president, now on the board of the Canadian association.
He lauds Herefords for their docility, good feet, fertility and maternal instincts. The Angus bring “some more carcass help, with marbling,” he adds. “And they’re really good mothers as well.” Temperament in the Angus just isn’t as good as the Hereford, he says “but they do cross very well.”
The couple started by purchasing an initial 150 acres next door to the farm where Scott grew up. His father had rented that same acreage from another farmer and nicknamed the place “Whiskey Lane,” an inside joke, referring to the landlord’s alleged taste for the spirit. The name stuck when the Cornishes set up their own operation on the property.
Scott and Paula bought another neighbouring parcel of 150 acres, bringing their current land base to 300 acres. Just over half of that is tillable. They graze the rest.
Like many Ontario beef farmers, they both hold full-time off-farm jobs: He’s an EastGen regional sales manager specialist and she’s an agricultural accounts specialist at TD Bank. Maintaining a self-supporting beef farm amid tough economic conditions — including low beef prices — have been key challenges through the years, he says. “The challenge is to make our product economical from a cost standpoint and still get something out of it at the end. We don’t want our off-farm jobs to be supporting our beef farm.”
They produce 75 calves annually, for stockers and the commercial cattle market. They also sell some purebred breeding stock. To raise awareness of the respected Whiskey Lane prefix, they love showing cattle each year at Toronto’s Royal Winter Fair and at the Agribition show in Saskatchewan every other year. They once had the female Hereford champion at the Royal.
Scott says they sold a top-flight Hereford heifer for $13,000 to a South Dakota buyer, about 20 years ago, which was a highlight in their ongoing breeding efforts. “He showed her very successfully and her progeny were pretty influential in the whole Hereford scene.”
Producing quality animals capable of producing more quality animals is their goal. “We don’t chase any extreme fads. We just try to treat our customers right,” he says. “We want them to succeed with the animals they buy.”
Balancing the time demands of farm, career and family is another challenge, he says.
They have a 16-year-old son, Jason and 14-year-old daughter, Shelby. Their daughter is more interested in the cattle. One of the perks of growing up in the Cornish household is arriving at Grade 8 graduation in a cattle trailer with a few friends in a good-humoured show of beef-farming pride. Shelby followed the tradition, in her brother’s footsteps, this past June.
