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The Peace Country Beef Congress was held this year in High
Prairie. This is a 6 ½ hour drive from
Red Deer. Decent attendance (around 200)
for this 2 day show. We share booth
space with the Peace River Angus club. Hereford
and Simmental were also in attendance. The cattle show numbers were down a bit
(100) but still a good strong showing.
Angus fared well and did their share of winning. 4-H is a big part of this event also. This area of the province is very happy for
our attendance and I feel a strong worthwhile venue. They are definitely starving for attention up
in the north.
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The 15th annual Beef Industry conference was held
again in London, ON. We shared booth
space with Hereford, Simmental, Limousin and Charolais. This makes the cost very effective. A very good conference with over 500
attending the final banquet. Very busy
at the booth, therefore did not attend many sessions. I felt that the contacts I made for our
up-coming annual meeting in June for Rancher Endorsed day will be very
valuable. A good conference to be
visible at. Also Ontario Corn Fed
program was given 2.5 million by their Ont Ag Minister.
·
The National Western Stock Show, held in Denver, Colorado was
very successful in terms of networking with our American co-parts. The sharing of knowledge and expertise came
very much into play at this event. There
were 2 major bull & female shows that are open bull show and female show,
sale bull show, and junior heifer show.
There are also seven black Angus specific sales taking place either at
the National Western grounds or in the nearby vicinity. Huge crowds attended these events, with many
Canadians participating in the both showing and selling. There were some new purchases heading for
Canada. Canadian cattle did also make an
impact at the shows and were strong competition. A major part of Denver is the pen show. Tremendous happening with some excellent sets
of bulls to view and access. I really
enjoy the pen show, as it is my favorite part of Denver.
Denver gives you an insight of what is happening in the big
US. Trends play a big part, and they quite often follow them. The cattle were getting quite small up to
this year, and some said they were following the number game too much. Maybe so, but I think they look at what
Canada was bringing south, and the Herefords and some other breeds right close
by in the same barns, and decided they better change their ways.
To sum up things, I liked a lot of the cattle this year, and
was impressed with the size increase and increased structure improvement in
most of the cattle. Nice to see their
cattle still have some size like ours.
After all, we ultimately still sell by the pound through our Auction
systems. I feel they are just right on
size. We will have to see what fad they
follow next.
·
Meeting with Agri-team who are undergoing a study for the
federal government in regards to traceability and animal movement. They had a number of questions to ask.
·
The Alta Feeders Association group held their annual
convention in Red Deer. Our booth and
Simmental were the only breeds represented.
This convention is all delegates from different areas of the province,
therefore the first day is busy and the second day somewhat scarce. I talked with lots of cow/calf producers and
they were keen on our programs. One
producer had used our tags, but was turned down because he is using Hereford
bulls on his herd of entire black Angus cows.
He would like to get back on but our rules say no. Something to think about.
I would like to see this event shortened up by one day, as
the first day is all we really need.
·
The “Alberta Cattle Feeders” held their AGM in Lacombe this
year. We are an affiliate member in this
organization. Around 50 attended, as a
bus came up from the Southern Alberta to make a good crowd. Their main issue was discussion on the
check-off and if they were going to agree to carry on as is. There were some great speakers regarding AAFC
and barley breeding. We were the only
breed in attendance. It is good to rub
shoulders with the group of mostly feedlot operators.
·
Again in a good month for Canadian Angus.
Posted by Brian Good
Feedback: cdnangus@cdnangus.ca
