Some of that happens publicly through Cow Math, videos and the conversations we share.
About The Forge
Built from the realities of Redline.
For almost 20 years, we have been focused on building our own operation, Redline Livestock.
As it has grown, so have the decisions that come with it. Not just around cattle, but around money, land, people, risk, transition and what we want the farm to look like down the road.
Along the way, we have learned to ask more questions. Look harder at our numbers. Try to understand the parts of the operation we didn't naturally know as well as we probably should.
The Forge has grown from there.
Why The Forge Exists
We don't need to know everything. But we need to be willing to learn.
There are a lot of parts of running a farm that we weren't necessarily prepared for.
Financing, insurance, taxes, transition, employees, financial statements. Somewhere along the way, these things became just as much a part of running our operation as the cattle.
We have good people around us who know far more about some of these things than we do. We need those people.
But we have also learned that we need to understand enough to be part of the conversation. To ask better questions. To know what we are agreeing to and why.
So that when we make decisions in our operation, we've done our homework.
Behind The Forge
We're farmers first.
We're Becky and Travis Page, and together with our family, we own and operate Redline Livestock in Alberta.
For close to 20 years, we have been building Redline. Raising cattle, growing the operation, buying land, raising a family, working with employees and trying to make good decisions about where we go next.
We are always open to learning a better way to do things.
We're still doing the work. Still making decisions. Still getting some right, getting some wrong and changing our minds when the information tells us we should.
Our Approach
You don't have to do it differently. But you should know why you're doing it that way.
We don't believe there is one right way to run a farm.
What we are interested in is asking the questions.
Sometimes, after looking at it, the answer might be to keep doing exactly what you're doing.
That's okay too.
The point is to understand why you're making the decision you're making.
- Why do we do it this way?
- What does it actually cost?
- What are we assuming?
- What happens if something changes?
- Is there another way we haven't considered?
What We're Building
A place to keep asking better questions.
The Forge is a place for us to share some of what we're learning, the questions we're asking and the tools we're building along the way.
Some of it becomes a practical tool that you can use in your own operation.
And The Foundry is where we dig deeper. Each month, we take one part of the operation, learn more about it, ask questions and then take that work back to our own farms.
It's the kind of place we wanted to be part of ourselves.