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WRITTEN BY
PHOTOGRAPHY
Tessa Verbeek
The Limousin Voice
COMMERCIAL PROFILE
HAWKINS BROS.
Limousin Bulls Bring Profits To Shamrock, Saskatchewan
LIMOUSIN VOICE / DECEMBER 2019
A
n hour southeast of Swift Current, on the prairie farmland of southern Saskatchewan, the community of Shamrock is home to the Hawkins Bros. family farm. While Shamrock may be but a dot on the map, the Hawkins Bros. farm is anything but small. The farm was originally established in 1918, earning the family their Century Family Farm Award in 2018. In 1970, patriarch of the operation, Tom Hawkins, passed away at only 54 years of age. Pat Hawkins was 22 years old at the time, the eldest of 12 children. The family had six quarters of land when Pat’s father passed away. Today, Hawkins Bros. own nearly all of their land. They seed 35,000 acres, calve 1,000 head of mother cows, and background up to 3,500 head in their home feedlot, with additional cattle custom fed at Red Coat Cattle Feeders in Hazenmore, Sask. If that wasn’t enough, they are also dealers for a number of agricultural products including salt and lick tubs and fence posts. They have their own seed cleaning plant that has proved to be a tremendous asset to the operation. There is even their own on-site butcher shop. Everything they have, they have built – and nothing is taken for granted. What’s more, the operation is run by a fraction of the manpower that most other enterprises of comparable size would be. Four of the Hawkins Bros., Pat, Fred, Walter and Chris, still have roles on the farm today. Their brother Sam owns a funeral home business. Another brother, John, passed away 10 years ago. He had a chemical retail company which Hawkin Bros. took over and ran under the name
Patrick Hawkins Junior and Jeff Hawkins.
