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Marina’s plans just mooing along

Marina owner Steve MacKay is bringing his Alberta roots to Point Roberts, with plans to raise cattle on unused marina land east of the airport.

“Why waste perfectly good grass?” asked MacKay from his ranch in Alberta where his family homesteaded 150 years ago. “There’s a lot of land that has been sitting around here for a long time unused. We want to start doing something with it.”

Going over how the company’s vacant land was used made MacKay think of cattle. “Cows tend to sort of clean things up and they’re fun to look at,” he said. Animal husbandry is a permitted use on the land, zoned R5A. He brought in the equipment to mow and bale hay and started putting up hay for the winter. “We’ve got the electric fencing in now and we’ll put them into 10 acre pieces and move the fencing around.” He is looking into getting the property certified organic.
His Point Roberts ranching efforts will initially be very limited, MacKay said, but they could grow. “Nothing ever happens unless you just do it,” he said.

They plan to start with six to 10 animals this fall and see how they do over winter, and then perhaps add up to 20 if they can develop a successful system. The steers would ultimately be shipped to a slaughterhouse and the meat packaged, then sent back to Point Roberts to sell. “I would love to eventually have a country store down at the marina where people could buy local organic meat, fresh fish, local cheeses,” he said, adding that he is in discussion with San Juan Seafoods to return a local fish buyer to the Point.