About Us

Purposefully Raised Beef

Raising cattle is a responsibility steeped in a give-and-take relationship. What we give is what we get. Treat as you would yourself, with empathy and understanding. In return, this contract between animal and rancher delivers food made with intention and designed for the next craftsman. Precision all the way to the Chef.

Rooted in Regenerative

Regenerative agriculture brings healthier, more flavourful food as it restores lands by rebuilding the nutritional value of soil, feeding grasslands, and fostering species that depend on it. The deeper roots retain carbon, promoting more of the same in a lifecycle as old as the hills. In turn, water systems are left cleaner, free from leaching chemicals. The future is our past: going back to what worked generations ago. And around it goes, the ecosystem and the planet.

Where We Raise Beef

Floating Stone Ranch is a place shrouded in stick-like Aspens and iron-backed, hard dirt. Land that still sees newcomers, even after Canada's earliest Western settlers have teased out a peaceful existence from the place. A single store sells sustenance, liquor and scratch-card lottery. Gravel roads lead in compass directions, and wild grasses are broken and peppered by lakes and hillocks. In one of those lakes resides a stone big enough to be seen from the shore. It stubbornly waits, half-seen, for something to transpire.

Grit-built folk live and work the land, putting back more than they took. Most of us have lived next to cattle our entire lives in a repeating loop of generations. These cattle speak to us, with no words. We live together, giving ourselves over to each other, animal and human, in a union at once art and alchemy.

Strength of Generations

From a modest homestead in 1918 to cutting-edge innovations in clean energy and ethical beef production, the Kotelko family story is one of deep roots, forward thinking, and generational commitment. Their work continues to shape Alberta's agricultural landscape and the values that define Canadian beef on a global scale. This is a truly Canadian story of pioneering spirit, a striving to make things better and creating a world where families can flourish and live in harmony with nature, learning alongside Canada’s first peoples and others who chose a similar path: the cowboy way.

1918

Settling the Prairies

The Kotelko family’s agricultural roots begin when Mike Kotelko’s Ukrainian ancestors settled near Vegreville, Alberta, establishing a deep connection to Canadian prairie farming.

1940s–1970s

Building Highland View Farms

Jack Kotelko continues the family legacy with a mixed grain and purebred cattle operation, Highland View Farms.
Sons Mike and Bern were raised in the tradition of hard work, land stewardship, and innovation.

1980s

Founding Highland Feeders Ltd.

Mike and Bern Kotelko partner with their father, Jack, to transform Highland View Farms into Highland Feeders Ltd.
The operation evolves into one of Canada’s most progressive feedlots, housing up to 36,000 head of cattle.

1994

Entrepreneurial Recognition

Mike and Bern are named Western Regional Finalists in Canada’s Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

1995

National Business Growth

Highland Feeders is recognized by Profit magazine as one of Canada’s fastest-growing companies, reflecting their leadership in quality and innovation.

1997

Environmental Excellence

Highland Feeders receives the Alberta Cattle Commission Environmental Stewardship Award, marking the family’s early commitment to sustainable agriculture.

2001

National Stewardship Champion

The Canadian Cattlemen's Association honours Highland Feeders with the National Environmental Stewardship Award.

2002

Leadership Acknowledged

Mike receives the ATB Financial Growing Alberta Leadership Award, recognizing his influence on Alberta’s agricultural future.

2005

Innovation in Clean Energy

Mike co-developed the Integrated Manure Utilization System (IMUS), which turns manure into electricity, heat, water, and bio-fertilizer.
The innovation earns:
- The ASTech Award for Outstanding Applied Technology and Innovation
- The Emerald Award for Environmental Excellence

IMUS clean‑energy facility setup – A snapshot of renewable manure processing infrastructure, illustrating Alberta’s early biogas pilot design (similar conceptually to IMUS).

2005

Spring Creek Brand Development

Under Highland’s leadership, Mike helps launch Spring Creek, a premium beef brand known for hormone- and antibiotic-free cattle.
Spring Creek is eventually acquired by JBS Canada, continuing its national presence.

2017

Lifetime Achievement

Lakeland College inducts Mike Kotelko into its Alumni Wall of Distinction, honouring a lifetime of innovation and leadership in Canadian agriculture.

2025

Launch Floating Stone Ranch beef brand, starting with the little-known Speckle Park breed for chefs and discerning home cooks through FSR DIRECT

Floating Stone Ranch

The Generations

Mike and his wife Denise have continued the family tradition with 3 of their five sons now actively working in the family business. Together, they have established a 3,000-head cow-calf operation on the expansive Floating Stone Ranch, 3 hours by vehicle North-East of Edmonton, Alberta, at Floating Stone Lake.

The family has always believed in sustainability, even before most people understood it as a concept. They actively pursue regenerative grazing and farming practices designed to make things better than when they found them. Ethical and humane cattle care is a core value to the Kotelkos. With Grandson Parker now playing a role, he represents the 5th generation to work the land and partner with cattle to bring the best foods to the planet.

Our Partnerships to Success

Partner Ranches

Self-sufficiency out here can sometimes resemble survival. When a storm rolls through or when spare hands are essential, you need your neighbours. Oftentimes, they are hours or even days away, but this isn't a fulsome life without them. They're there in a pinch, or keeping you company in the earliest of mornings to smoke a brisket for the crew. Same goes for making sure you have all the cattle your beef brand needs. That's why we have partner farms and ranches in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and across Alberta. We bring in the herd one way or another.

Indigenous Partnerships

Fences and gates are seen in the distance, but it is an easy fix in the mind to realize that, without those, we walk on First Nations land and Metis settlements surrounding Floating Stone Ranch. A symbiotic generational wealth between a rancher and the original peoples exists in a shared understanding of animals, the environment, and responsibility to future generations. For many reasons, we raise cattle and farm directly with each other, not because we should, but because our shared knowledge defines a more straightforward path to bettering everything around us.