Arron Nerbas of Nerbas Brothers Angus, near Shellmouth, in western Manitoba, says their breeding program emphasizes forage-based genetics, and focuses primarily on maternal traits. “Our goal is to make better cows,” says Nerbas. “We sell bulls, but producing bulls is not what drives our genetic decisions. We are primarily trying to make better cows, on our own operation

“We often get asked if we have any heifer bulls. There’s no such thing as a heifer bull in our world. Our goal is for every bull we use to be capable of producing a high-quality female that has the potential to be a productive cow in our herd. That transfers to the bulls we sell to our customers. Generally, ‘heifer bulls’ are used to ensure that calving ease is the top priority (above any other traits) and in most cases that calf will never be retained in the herd as a female. This does not serve our goal.”

The Nerbas program is mainly a commercial operation, with a smaller herd of purebred cows. They run 600 cows total, and the commercial cows in the Nerbas herd are straight-bred Angus, but not papered.

“Our purpose for the registered cows is to create our own bulls for use on the commercial herd,” he says. “We have not purchased an outside animal for more than 20 years. We use artificial insemination to bring in new bloodlines that complement what we are doing. As a byproduct of making our own bulls for our commercial herd, we sell about 60 bulls to other ranchers each year. About 10 per cent of those are purebred bulls because we have more of them than what we can use for ourselves, and 90 per cent are commercial bulls. They are not papered, have no parent verification and no numbers behind them. Our cow herd, and what they produce, are proof enough of what these bulls will do.”

Producing what the customer wants

This program works for their bull buyers.

“We target our marketing toward the people who appreciate what we are doing and are like-minded,” Nerbas says. “If a rancher has grass-based genetics and wants a good bull that provides forage efficiency and good maternal traits, these are the type of bulls that work well.”

Nerbas says their bulls also work well for crossbreeding. They provide good maternal influence, and calving ease. He has strong opinions about calving ease. People market heifer bulls, but in their ranch environment they are all heifer bulls.

“All of our genetics are suitable for breeding heifers,” he says. “If a person is not trying for extremes in growth, and other traits that are antagonistic to maternal traits, all bulls should be heifer bulls.”

The Nerbas bulls are developed a little differently than most seedstock operations. They calve in May and wean the first week of December. This is a little early (the calves are six to seven months old) but they wean at that time so the calves are off the cows and the cows can go to bale grazing. The cows bale graze for several months, starting mid-December until mid-April.

“We experimented with later weaning in the past but we feel that weaning in December works a little better for us,” Nerbas says. When the bulls are weaned they go to their own big pasture/wintering site and not into a corral. Only the sale bulls (approaching two-years-old) are held temporarily in corral for viewing.

The young weaned bulls go to a wintering site and are fed good-quality hay and no grain.

“We roll out hay for them, usually a few days’ feed at a time, and provide straw for bedding to protect them from the elements a little and prevent scrotal frostbite,” Nerbas says.

“Those young bulls gain between one to 1.5 pounds per day through their first winter. Some people would say this slow rate of growth is detrimental to their long-term development, but we feel the opposite is true. As long as you are not in a hurry to use that bull for breeding — waiting until he’s a two-year-old rather than a yearling — this works very well.” The two-year-old has had time to grow into what he needs to be.

Eating, not fighting

“Some Angus breeders have yearling bulls that weigh 1,400 pounds,” Nerbas says. “Our bulls are nowhere near that size, but we are looking at how long our bulls will last in the breeding herd. When our young bulls come off their wintering site they stay in their group when they go to pasture. We try to keep them together the whole time they are growing up, and don’t introduce any new animals. This helps reduce fighting. We want them eating grass and growing, not fighting.

“Each group of bulls has their grass pasture for summer. Pastures with better-quality forage are selected for the young growing bulls. They are brought home in fall, usually in November, and put on good-quality hay. They have access to a corral where there is water, but they go out to their feeding area. Bulls are fed some whole oats at that time, but no more than one per cent of their body weight.”

“At some point we may eliminate the oats as part of the ration,” says Nerbas. “But it gives these young bulls a boost on their nutrition as they go through that second winter. It gives them a little added weight gain and condition, while not being detrimental to their development.” Bulls are sold from February through April just under two years of age.

Nerbas says they are at an age when they can go to work and can breed a lot more cows and last a lot longer than yearlings that were pushed to get to “sale weight” as yearlings.

“The downside of what we do is that our bulls last too long. Our customers don’t have to come back very soon. They are not buying a bull nearly as often, but this is better for our customers.”

Their own bulls, after two years of age, winter as a group and are fed good-quality hay along with some greenfeed or slough hay.

“They never look super good until the following spring when grass is green,” he says. “But they really bloom before the breeding season and are ready to go to work.”

The post Producing good working bulls appeared first on Grainews.

Although they’ve ranched for many years at Mayerthorpe, north of Edmonton, Stewart and Doreen both grew up near Byemoor, Alta., southeast of Stettler. Stewart graduated from Vermilion College with a degree in animal production, then worked at Prairie Breeders Bull Stud. In the spring of 1967 he helped collect semen from Parisian, the first imported Simmental bull into North America.

Stewart and Doreen were married in September 1967 and lived in Lacombe. She had some Hereford cows, and they bred those cows AI to Parisian, to produce some of the first half-blood Simmentals in North America. They recall selling two half-blood heifer calves the next year for more money than they could have gotten from an entire load of commercial calves, and the half-blood bulls were sold by private treaty.

They then started the Hanna AI unit, and spent summers doing AI for ranchers in the surrounding area and cows at the Bull Pound community pasture. Bull Pound was the first community pasture to use AI in Alberta. In 1971 Stewart and Doreen added their first fullblood Simmental female from Switzerland. They purchased a larger farm at Endiang and this allowed them to expand the cow herd.

They liked the growth and milk production of Simmental cattle and purchased more females from the U.S., bringing some of the first solid-coloured red and black Simmentals into Canada. They later added red and black Angus to their herd and today produce all polled cattle — solid coloured, either red or black. “We were selecting females for calving ease, volume, sound functional cows that produce more pounds at weaning,” Stewart says.

Their three children (Greg, Donna and Grant) were born in 1968, 1970 and 1974, all grew up helping with the farm and cattle and showing cattle in 4-H, at Farmfair in Edmonton and Canadian Western Agribition in Regina.

Ranch starts at Mayerthorpe

In 1977 the family sold the central Alberta farm and moved near Mayerthorpe to start a seedstock operation. This area had higher rainfall, more cattle, and thus more market for seedstock. Most of the cows are purebred Simmentals.

“Today we also sell Beefmakers, which is a Sim-Angus cross,” says Donna. “They make phenomenal cows. They are feminine, deep-bodied, sound and efficient, with good udders and longevity, generally producing well into their teens.”

Calving season is February to early April. After fall weaning the cows run on pasture, crop residues and hayfield regrowth until the snow gets too deep, and then are fed hay and silage on cropland to add manure to the soil.

Donna says the best females are kept as replacements, the next cut is sold as bred heifers, and the rest go with the steers to fatten. Carcass data is retained and utilized to help guide genetic selection of the herd. “We invest in the best herd bulls the industry offers, and retain semen on our best home-raised sires. We sometimes purchase outcross genetics to complement our cow herd.

January sale marks 50 years

Their annual bull sale, January 26, 2019, featuring more than 200 bulls, will mark their 50th year of producing and selling Simmentals.

“We also offer several buyer benefits, including a free wintering program,” says Donna. “Customer can buy bulls at our January sale and we look after them until spring and deliver them to central points in Western Canada. Most of them are in western provinces but we do ship some bulls to Eastern Canada.” They also offer a payment plan. For more information on the ranch and upcoming sale visit the Lazy S Ranch website.

The ranch operation grows their own feed. “We crop about 1,500 acres, and produce hay on another 1,500 acres. Everything we grow is for feed,” says Stewart. “We put up lots of silage; most of what we seed goes in the pit. This year hay crops were really short. Our grain and silage crops were pretty good, however, and we had lots of feed carryover, so we’re in good shape. We do all our own seeding, haying and silage, with our own equipment.”

Lazy S has been feeding their own steers since 1974, providing a good indicator of how their genetics program is working. And their program is delivering results. Donna says the last group of steers graded 100 per cent AAA and Prime.

“Our whole program is unique,” says Stewart. “The cows look alike, as do the bulls. At our sale we have pens of look-alike bulls. Uniformity and consistency is what we offer. Right from the start we tried to breed cattle with a lot of volume, good fertility, calving ease, soundness, disposition and hair coat. They have to be right. We’ve been able to make huge improvements by retaining all of our heifers and then keeping the ones that best fit our program. We calve 150 to 200 heifers each year and retain the ones we want to go back into our program.”

Lazy S Ranch believes there is value in working cattle with horses. “We use horses to sort cattle, bring the cows in for AI one at a time, sort breeding groups, moving and gathering in the summer,” says Donna.

“This is so important,” says Stewart. “Many ranches handle their cattle with horses, and if the bulls are used to being worked with horses it’s so much easier. Now and then we bring in a bull that’s never seen horses, and it’s a challenge.”

The family has about 10 horses. “Some of the older ones were raised on the ranch, but we bought some of the younger geldings and my husband breaks them,” says Donna. “They grow up here and are trained the way we want them.”

Grandkids learn to ride on the older ranch horses. “Stewart’s old buckskin is 29 years old. My girls learned to ride on him and a little bay that’s now well into his 20s. Now they are riding younger horses and the younger grandkids are riding the old guys.”

All of the family is involved with the ranch but have their own cattle and land base as well. Greg and Tracey (and their 17-year-old son Jade) raise Red and Black Simmental, Beefmaker and Black Angus. Donna with her husband Larry and two girls (Shaylyn, age 15, and Lindsay, 13) raise Red and Black Simmental, Beefmaker and Red Angus. Grant and his wife Claire, with sons Carson (eight) and Jace (six) have Red and Black Simmental and Beefmaker cattle. All the families live within eight miles of the main ranch and are able to share farm equipment. The grandchildren enjoy the cattle and help with feeding and other chores.

“When our kids each turned four we gave them a heifer of their own, and we’ve done that with the grandkids as well,” says Stewart. This gives them a start for their own cow herd and they are excited about it.”

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“We truly care about our cattle working out for the next guy and the great thing about being in about 80 customer yards once a year is that I learn so much and I’m inspired by what others are doing,” said Andrew Johnson, 38, who operates Johnson Livestock with his parents, David and Anne Johnson, and his wife Laurie and their four children.

Even though hundreds of bred cows and bulls are sold from this large 700-head operation annually, Laurie, 37, said her goal is to keep the contact with customers as personal as possible.

“People relate to you when you have the personal touch,” said Laurie, pointing to the fact that all four of her daughters are part of the operation and that Johnson Livestock is focused on being a family business.

“This is our family, this is our lifestyle and this is why we do what we do,” said Laurie.

Growing up on what was originally a dairy farm, Andrew knew early on that his passion for livestock would become a career. When the dairy was sold in 1993, Andrew and his dad began amassing both land and cattle to coincide with Andrew’s growing interest in becoming a purebred Angus cattle farmer.

“Dad allowed me to make decisions and make mistakes that taught me to be really interested in raising the best cattle,” said Andrew, who was the only one of his three siblings to stay on the farm.

While David and Anne are still part of the operation, living in the same yard as their son and daughter-in-law, Andrew said his goal is to make the farming experience for his parents less physical and more retirement focused. Hence the building of an 8,500-sq.-ft. state-of-the-art sale barn and storage shed, complete with a heated sale ring, seating areas and kitchen facility.

Andrew said the new building was not so much out of necessity as it was a nice perk for his mom and dad who spent many years in colder and humbler conditions getting the Angus breeding business off the ground. The former sale building has now been converted into an indoor cattle chute area where Andrew and his older three daughters administer shots, dewormer and general cattle care to as many as 70 or so cattle a day during the busy season.

Andrew focuses his time and energy working directly with the cattle, taking care of pregnancy checks, insemination and breeding while his full-time hired hand handles the day-to-day feeding and some of the field work.

A large land base allows the Johnsons to grow all of their own feed, which includes corn, alfalfa and barley silage as well as grain and hay. On any given day 17-year-old Brielle can be found baling or putting up silage; 14-year-old Maya might be bottle feeding an orphaned calf and 12-year-old Desta could be administering dewormer or halter breaking the girls’ 4-H calves.

“On sale day, it’s basically the girls and their friends who put the cattle through the ring on their own. I give them a two-minute pep talk ahead of time and then I’m busy with customers and they take care of moving all the cattle through,” said Andrew, adding that his youngest daughter, three-year-old Indy, likes to tag along and emulate her three big sisters.

The Johnsons host two large sales a year — the purebred female sale in December where 350 to 400 bred cows are sold and a bull sale in March featuring 150 males. The size of the sale allows customers to come from as far as Alberta and Ontario to buy up to 60 or 70 head at one time.

With Andrew and the kids focusing on the outside work, Laurie concentrates on the marketing end of the business, photographing and laying out the sale catalogues and taking care of the farm’s social media presence. With a passion for design, the Saskatoon-raised matriarch of the family has developed a black and white Johnson Livestock brand that extends from their new black-sided home with white interior to the Johnson logo and the black and white T-shirts and sweatshirts the family sports.

Laurie and Andrew have also developed a Johnson Livestock blog, Facebook feed and Instagram account that highlights their purebred cattle and their rural lifestyle.

“The farming lifestyle is really en vogue right now and people are interested in it. When I grew up you were embarrassed to say you were from a farm family but today it’s become a cool thing,” said Andrew.

Spending 90 per cent of their time on the farm, the Johnsons put family first both while working with the cattle and in the farmhouse.

“It’s fun to all be working together to put a meal together in the kitchen,” said Laurie who helped design a state-of-the-art area for her girls to prepare their garden- and beef-centred menus.

“The girls are extremely competent in the kitchen… one day I came home and Maya had made salsa and canned it all on her own,” said Laurie.

The Johnsons are the new face of cattle farming, one that is rooted in old-fashioned family values and personalized customer service, but has embraced technology and large-scale farming as the way of the future.

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Hollinger, who is in his late 20s, farms with his father and grandfather near Neudorf, Saskatchewan, cropping about 3,700 acres of grain land and running 250 head of commercial and purebred Angus.

“Our land is well-suited to both cattle and grain,” Hollinger said during an interview at the 2016 Canadian Western Agribition.

Hollinger is a Lakeland College alumnus, and credits the Vermilion program for giving him practical knowledge in everything from animal nutrition to pharmacology. “It’s just a tremendous college in that respect, that it’s so hands-on,” he says.

Weather is always a challenge, as 2016’s growing season proved. Market fluctuations are also a risk. The Hollinger family is looking at marketing more steers directly to buyers, although auction marts are still a good option, Hollinger says.

They also forward-price both grain and cattle. “You know what your payments are so you have to get some on the books.”

Marketing grain has given him insight he uses on the cattle side. He’s noticed how farmers tend to sell on the downward trend because they were waiting for prices to go higher. And it’s important to know the break-evens on both sides of the operation so he knows what he needs to sell at to make a profit or pay the bills.

Young producers ready for challenges

But unlike earlier generations, today’s producers face consumer scepticism. Hollinger sees a need for farmers and livestock producers to educate consumers. “That’s one big challenge because there’s a lot of consumer misperception,” he says. “Especially with social media and TV.”

Hollinger isn’t the only young producer who feels that way. Teresa Mann is finishing her last year at Lakeland College, where she serves as the general manager of the college’s purebred herd. Mann grew up on a commercial cattle operation, and has developed her own purebred Simmental herd. She plans to complete an animal science degree at the University of Saskatchewan after graduating from Lakeland.

Asked what challenges she sees ahead for young producers like her, Mann mentioned changing technology. But in her opinion, the big one is adapting to what consumers want while also educating them about food production. She sees a bigger role for ag advocates in the future.

Communicate with the public

Royce Moellenbeck, who is still in high school, agrees that his generation will need to communicate with the public. Moellenbeck said most of his classmates in rural Saskatchewan have a general idea of what happens on the farm, but even they miss some of the more subtle things. “They’ll call a straw bale a hay bale. Mostly things like that.”

Moellenbeck’s family raises purebred Shorthorns, along with commercial cattle, east of Humboldt. Moellenbeck plans to work in ag marketing and raise cattle. He’s been coming to Agribition since he was a baby, and notes it was the first year his family won Grand Champion Bull at the show.

Agribition provided Moellenbeck with plenty of opportunities to talk about agriculture as families and school groups walked through the barns.

“A lot of them will have questions to ask about what do you do, what’s your role and stuff,” he says. Moellenbeck enjoys talking to people about agriculture and explaining what he does at the show.

Mann, a 10-year veteran of Agribition, was helping show Lakeland College’s genetics and programs at Agribition. She said she was getting plenty of questions from kids, adding “it’s great telling them what we get to do on a daily basis at school because it’s part of our learning program.”

Hollinger said he’s closing in on 20 years of attending Agribition. Hollinger tends to have more conversations with parents, but some kids were interested in what he was doing, too. He said he encouraged questions from the public.

“We’re here to market our product and really they’re the end consumer,” he says.

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Ainsworth, who along with family members is part of Lazy S Ranch at Mayerthorpe, Alberta, just northwest of Edmonton, says it wasn’t a record year, “but still we were very pleased with the results” … considering the year, and the beef industry economics, the Lazy S crew was happy.

Lazy S has been producing and marketing Simmental and Angus cattle for 48 years. Stewart says they started out with the traditional white and tan Simmentals in 1969 and later moved into the red and black Simmental and Angus genetics.

While they sell purebred red and black Simmental and Angus bulls, they also have good customer demand for crossbred bulls they call Red and Black Beefmaker cattle.

So here’s how the 48th annual sale at the ranch stacked up:

• Red Simmental averaged $6,108
• Black Simmental averaged $5,841
• Red Beefmaker – (SimAngus) averaged $6,108
• Black Beefmaker – (SimAngus) averaged $4,929
• Black Angus averaged $5,103
• Red Angus averaged $5,844
• A total of 233 lots grossed $1,328,700 for an overall average of $5,703.

Volume buyers this year included: Coldstream Ranch, 14 head, Rolling N Ranching, eight head and Osadczuk Cattle Co., eight head.

Keeping everything running there at Lazy S Ranch are Stewart and Doreen along with their son Grant and his sons, Carson and Jace; son Greg and his wife Tracy and son Jade; and daughter Donna and her husband Larry and their children Shaylyn and Lindsay. Their daughter-in-law Claire runs the local veterinary clinic in Mayerthorpe and Whitecourt.

Coming events: Livestock care next week

If you’re in the Leduc, Alta. area next week, there is probably a chance you can still find a chair at the 2017 Livestock Care Conference sponsored by Alberta Farm Animal Care. The event runs March 21 and 22 at the Best Western Denham Inn in Leduc. There is a great lineup of speakers from Canada and the U.S. all related to safe, proper and humane treatment and care of farm animals, whether it be beef, dairy, hogs, poultry and even rodeo stock.

For more details on the event visit their website at: www.afac.ab.ca/2017.

UCVM Beef Cattle Conference

Set aside a couple days in late June to attend the 2017 Beef Cattle Conference hosted by the University of Calgary Veterinary Medicine school.

This two-day event — June 22 and 23 is developed around the theme Raising Healthy Beef Cattle in a Changing World. For more details and to register visit the conference website at: http://www.vet.ucalgary.ca/beef/.

The first morning of the conference will be held at the vet school Spyhill campus in N.W. Calgary for some hands on sessions with Eugene Janzen and Carolyn Legge talking about feedlot pathology and disease and sickness diagnoses.

On the cow-calf side Claire Windeyer and Karen Schmid will be talking about the how, when and why of body condition scoring.

After lunch that first day, the conference moves to the Deerfoot Inn and Casino conference centre in southeast Calgary for the remainder of presentations on a wide range of animal health related topics.

Speakers this year include experts from Nantes Atlantic College of Veterinary Medicine, Lethbridge Research Centre, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, University of Calgary (UCVM), veterinary practitioners and beef industry leaders. The program also allows for plenty of time for networking and interaction with conference presenters and beef industry stakeholders.

Workshop: Body Condition Scoring: How, When and Why?

Body Condition Scoring isn’t just something nutritionist Peter Vitti talks about in his regular Grainews column. Dr. Claire Windeyer, at UCVM and Karin Schmid with Alberta Beef Producers will get into the details about why BCS is an important component of a health management strategy to optimize productivity of your cow-calf herd. This workshop will involve hands-on training on how to perform the scoring, a discussion about when and why it should be conducted, and an interactive demonstration of the impacts of varying condition of cow productivity and profitability.

Livestock Market Association Conference

President Scott Anderson and the board of directors of the Livestock Market Association of Canada are pleased to announce the 2017 annual meeting, convention and auctioneering championships will be held at Lethbridge, Alberta, May 11 to 14.

Not only is it the LMAC annual conference, the event being held for the first time in the Lethbridge area, will also help the well known Perlich Bros. Auction celebrate it’s 50th anniversary in business. The event will also mark the 20th anniversary of the LMAC Auctioneering Championship.

It is an excellent opportunity to meet and network with the auctioneers, market operators and industry partners from across Canada. The Awards Banquet will be held on Saturday evening, at which time the new inductee to the LMAC Hall of Fame will be recognized, and the winners of the various competitions will be announced.

The LMAC convention is a great place to combine business with pleasure. All events are open to LMAC members and industry partners; pre-registration is required. For more information contact LMAC executive secretary Rick Wright at 204-748-7676 or email rickwright.lmac@gmail.com or the LMAC website at lmacmarkets.ca.

Two great conferences in one

Coming up in early December, plan to attend the joint sessions of the Western Canada Conference on Soil Health and the Western Canadian Grazing Conference being held in Edmonton, Dec. 5-7.

Nora Paulovich, manager of North Peace Applied Research Association (NPARA) and conference chair says it has been confirmed that Gabe Brown will be speaking at the newly combined conference. Brown is a soil health practitioner and producer from Bismarck ND. “Gabe is really able to bring soil health and ag production into focus,” says Paulovich. “People like to hear what he knows and what he has done.”

Brown, who is a major proponent of producing forage or pasture blends — not only good for grazing cattle, but for soil health— fits well with the conference theme “Profit Above and Wealth Below.”

Attendees will have the opportunity to attend two great conferences in one being staged at the Radisson Hotel Edmonton South. “Some seats have been added, but interest is high and registrations may go quickly” cautions Paulovich. Registration information, agenda and speakers are being finalized and will be announced in the coming weeks. Current information is available at npara.ca. or contact Tom Fromme by email at: tom@npara.ca or Nora Paulovich at nora@npara.ca or the research association website at: www.npara.ca.

A little decorum

A new priest, born and raised in Texas, comes to serve in a city parish and is nervous about hearing confessions, so he asks the older priest to sit in on his sessions.

The new priest hears a couple of confessions, then the old priest asks him to step out of the confessional for a few suggestions.

The old priest suggests, “Cross your arms over your chest, and rub your chin with one hand and try saying things like ‘yes, I see,’ and ‘yes, go on,’ and ‘I understand.’”

The new priest crosses his arms, rubs his chin with one hand and repeats all the suggested remarks to the old priest.

The old priest says, “Now, don’t you think that’s a little better than slapping your knee and saying, ‘Holy crap, what happened next?’”

There are two big summer shows coming up that will allow you to kick all the machinery tires you can handle, and learn more about crop and livestock production.

Machinery, crops and more

The 40th Canada’s Farm Progress Show will be opening its doors in Regina, Sask. June 21 to 23 at the Regina exhibition grounds.

Farm Progress attracts more than 40,000 visitors from more than 50 countries, as it promotes innovation, education, collaboration and growth in the agriculture industry. The show covers over 1.9 million sq. ft. of space with everything from the latest in equipment and software technology to industry-leading keynote speakers and lifestyle products. For more information visit their website: www.myfarmshow.com/.

And if you want to see how equipment actually works in the field, plan to attend the 3rd annual Ag In Motion farm show July 18 to 20 at Langham, Sask, just north of Saskatoon. Located on 160 acres, Ag in Motion is the first and only agricultural trade show in Western Canada that provides an outdoor venue for progressive farmers that want to see and feel the latest agricultural innovations — all in one place. The event features interactive exhibits and live field and crop plot demonstrations. The Expo was created to empower farmers by providing the knowledge they need to make informed decisions. For more information visit AIM website at: http://aginmotion.ca/.

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They have made the long lists of items necessary to prepare for a successful production sale and they are checking them twice: writing newsletters and personal letters to previous customers containing all of the latest high-calibre genetics included in this year’s offering; generating promotional material for advertisements in livestock magazines, newspapers, and flyers; scheduling groomers, ring men, auctioneers, brand inspectors, helpers to work the cattle through the sale barn, helpers to work the sale records, and helpers to prepare and serve the food and beverages that make all good sales memorable.

But, if you are one of these seed stock producers, don’t let the mountain of clerical preparation cause you to overlook the preparation to the physical facility that will allow you to orchestrate a safe, professional, appealing, and successful production sale.

As with any product or service that we, the buyer, are interested in today, we associate quality of a product or service with the appearance and performance of the presentation of the product or service. The last thing you want as a producer is to lose the rhythm of the sale while you take a break to repair some part of the facility in the back end or sale ring before you can continue the sale. Besides the potential dollars lost while you get everyone back to buying your animals, a breakdown can also pose a safety risk to the help and possibly the buyers and spectators.

A few years back I attended a bull sale near Columbus, Montana and midway through the sale a bull broke out of the ring, climbed into the stands, and ended up going through the lunch room before exiting the building through an open door and leaving the premises. Fortunately no one was seriously injured and the ring was repaired within a few minutes, but many of us buying bulls that afternoon bought good bulls for less than they were worth while the auctioneers attempted to get everyone back into the frame of mind to bid on bulls.

Proper facilities matter

Jim Skinner, owner of Skinner Angus Ranch, is a recently retired second-generation Angus seedstock producer. His family has raised and sold purebred Angus cattle near Salmon, Idaho for more than half a century.

“I believe a production sale needs to be as safe and comfortable for the buyers and livestock as possible,” says Skinner. “Safety needs to be your first concern. You have created an environment where you have combined cattle that have never been exposed to so much pressure from their surroundings and all the extra people in a confined space. So you need to make every effort to keep the people and the cattle safe from preventable accidents.”

Skinner says it is important to go over the pens, gates, alleyways, chutes, and other areas that will be used before and on sale day, checking for damage and weakness.

“You’d be surprised how easy it is to forget to make sure the alleys and chute are in good order before the groomers or the soundness-test guys arrive,” he says. “Something as simple as a malfunction in the chute or alley can really throw a kink in your program and cost you time and money.”

Regardless of what pens, alleys, and gates are constructed of, cattle are hard on facilities. Walk through the facility and make sure they are secure. Check hinges, latches, pulleys, and pull ropes on slide gates. Don’t overlook the doors or gates leading into and out of the sale barn and the ring.

“Walk through the system the way the cattle will go on sale day — into the ring and back outside,” says Skinner. ”Make sure there is no mud or manure piled against a gate or door that could be frozen on sale day.”

Look over the sale ring containment structure, permanent or temporary panels, and make sure that there is no chance that a cow or bull can break through into the audience.

Take time to check the physical structure of the sale barn for damage. Make sure the walls and roofing are secure. Missing siding or roofing can make sale day very uncomfortable on a rainy/windy day. If your sale barn has a heating system, check to make sure it is operational.

“I liked to touch up the paint on the sale barn from time to time to prevent damage from weather, and this gave us a chance to look the building over pretty good,” says Skinner. “Plus I feel a nicely painted sale barn adds a professional touch to the operation.”

Many production sales take place during variable spring weather. Reasonable effort should be taken to ensure pens are bedded with dry material and walkways in viewing areas are cleared of snow and mud. Gravel and wood shavings work to provide a dry surface for the buyers and spectators while viewing cattle in the pens.

“Most years it was wet and muddy at the time of my sale in March,” says Skinner. “Wood shavings spread through the pens and walkways keeps the mud down. It’s safer for everybody, and people are much more comfortable when they are not trooping through ankle deep mud. Also, it is important to spread wood chips or shavings in the sale ring to give the cattle a little bit better traction Also keep a fresh supply on hand to freshen the ring after the cattle run the chips or shavings off a little. It’s hard on the cattle when they come in and fall down, and no one wants to see that.”

Focus on buyer comfort

Skinner says in sale day preparation, second only to safety, comes the comfort of the buyer. He believes it is important to keep a clean set of pens, alleyways, and sale barn free of unnecessary objects that detract from the event and can create safety hazards. Walkways in the sale barn should be open with good footing. Seats should be dry, free of dirt and dust. Serving tables should be in an accessible area with enough room for buyers and spectators to move about freely.

“My sale barn served as a machine shop during the off season,” says Skinner. “So it took a bit of effort to clean out everything that was in the way of the sale. And, with the bay doors open a lot while we were moving machinery in and out, a fair amount of dirt and dust blew in onto the seats in the stands. We wiped them down ahead of the sale. Most folks don’t want to sit in all that dirt.”

Another purebred Angus seedstock producer, Steve Herbst, owner and manager of Nelson Angus Ranch, located near Salmon, Idaho, says he puts effort into producing good cattle, so they should be presented and marketed accordingly.

“As seedstock producers, many of us spend a great deal of time breeding these animals to perform for the buyer, and take pride in that effort,” says Herbst. “It is important that we make every effort to display this in every aspect of our operation… right down to the quality and presentation of sale day.”

So in final preparations for your production sale, don’t forget the importance of reviewing all of the physical facilities, including the sale barn, associated with the sale. Don’t be afraid to let a little of the pride in all the hours of hard work that goes into breeding good cattle shine through. If you have taken the time to make your sale safe and comfortable, we, the buyers, are much more likely to recognize your hard work breeding a quality bull or cow that will provide that special trait we are looking for to improve our own herd.

The post Getting ready for sale day appeared first on Grainews.

While the full story would be told over the next couple of days, once the auctions actually started, the 25 Hereford and Angus bull consignors were feeling pretty good that prices would hold this year as commercial cow-calf producers look to improve or expand their herd numbers.

If nothing else the access and parking was way better at Balzac than trying to negotiate trucks and trailers into the always busy and congested parking lot of the long-standing show barns at the Calgary Stampede Grounds.

While billed as horned cattle sale, there were several polled Herefords in the stalls tended by about 20 consignors, as well as a few head of black animals from four Angus breed consignors.

And if you needed to improve mobility around the farm, there were also about a dozen prime-looking well-groomed, and fully trained ranch horses from different ranching operations across Alberta as well as Avonlea and Wilkie, Sask.

I’ll try and get sale results for the next issue of Grainews, but here are a few faces of those participating in the 2016 show and sale.

The post PHOTOS: Lots of bull, but people too at Calgary Bull Sale appeared first on Grainews.