He was born Ted Serhienko, but most in the business call him T Bar. Widely recognized and warmly greeted by newcomers and veterans alike in the cattle industry, he’s been a fixture at show rings, cattle sales and barns for more than 40 years.
Serhienko, who runs the T Bar C Cattle Co. near Saskatoon, can be found at show rings and sale arenas across Canada.
The nickname T Bar stuck after an auctioneer in Oklahoma couldn’t pronounce Serhienko.
The middle of three boys, Serhienko grew up on a small mixed farm near Blaine Lake, Sask., where money was hard to come by.
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July was a cooler than average month right across the Prairies, with most places coming in just slightly below average.
“Everybody had to learn how to work,” he said.
It was only after he turned his back on formal schooling that Serhienko’s hands-on learning really began.
“My only education has been the school of hard knocks,” he said.
Serhienko said late cattle producer Joe Lewis of Alfalfa Lawn Farm in Larned, Kansas, was also instrumental in furthering his knowledge of working with show cattle.
“He was legendary and judged virtually every show in North America of any consequence.”
He also honed his skills with Bob Gordon at Kinnaber Stock Farm in Souris, Man.
Serhienko began fitting cattle in 1967, helping to pioneer and profit from a new technique called custom fitting.
“Back in those days, cattle fitting was a little different in the fact that they didn’t have blowers. You used brushes, clippers were sheep shears and the cattle were belt buckle cattle,” he said.
“I think I was one of the earliest people who used adhesives to hold hair up. Back in those days we tried everything.”
The custom fitting business steadily grew as he also exhibited his own cattle. He was busy for 10 years doing shows like the newly founded Western Canadian Agribition, which started in 1971.
During this time, Serhienko helped young people in their burgeoning cattle careers and hired them as fitters.
“Many of them have gone on to be very successful,” he said.
In 1979, Serhienko began marketing purebred cattle and managing the sales.
“Got into what I call the pimping business,” he said.
He starting managing Polled Hereford sales and later diversified into sales for the Charolais, Angus, Simmental, Speckled Park, Gelbvieh and Limousin breeds.
Success at production and dispersion sales steadily grew and with it a business motto: “You’re only as good as your last sale.”
Averaging 40 to 50 sales per year and 250 days on the road, Serhienko estimates he’s done 1,000 sales, many with repeat customers.
“We’ve been fortunate. There’s some sales we’ve been running for two decades annually.”
He maintains some words of advice for producers wanting to sell.
“The biggest thing about hiring a sale manager and having a successful sale … if the sale manager has any quality to him, he’s going to bring some experience, he’s going to take the work load off of you because paperwork to most farmers is a pain in the ass,” he said.
“Managing a sale is teamwork between the owner and the sales staff. It’s like a football team. If everybody carries their own weight, you’ll have a lot of success….
“There’s also one small thing and that’s the quality of cattle. If the quality of cattle is suspect, sometimes the greatest sales manager in the world cannot save or solve it.”
His straight-talking shoot from the hip approach has sometimes backfired.
“I’ve been fired several times because of my opinions,” he said.
“Not all cattle are great. Not all programs are great. Some people take constructive criticism. Some people despise criticism, they take it personally.”
Serhienko also sources cattle for exporters and deals in purebred seed stock.
“We do not mess in the commercial industry and we hope they don’t mess in ours. It seems to be an unwritten rule,” he said.
About 10 years ago, Serhienko and wife and business partner Mina saw an opportunity to complement their marketing business with magazine quality publishing.
Their first magazine focused on the Hereford breed, titled Herefords Today. Success from that venture soon led to publishing Today’s Angus Advantage and producing Simmental Country and Limousin Voice for the associations.
The issues featured Serhienko editorials written under the titles The View Through My Windshield, You Ought to Know and The Final Word.
Advertising is a key component for all the magazines, and everything is done in house except printing.
They also print 80 to 100 sale catalogues per year.
He said the downside of publishing for producers is trying to adjust to producers’ farm schedules while running a printing business with strict deadlines.
“Probably the biggest problem we have is we deal with farmers. So the weather dictates how punctual they are with information. If it’s good combining weather, you can’t get hold of a guy to send you a pedigree or a picture. And then the first rainy day, you don’t have enough people to answer the phones.”
Serhienko said he’s begun to slow down in the day-to-day business and is swinging his golf clubs more. Part of shifting into a lower gear has meant hiring young people. For example, auctioneer Chris Poley is gradually taking over the sales and marketing business.
“He’s a very good young man who grew up as a fitter through 4-H, bred some cattle, owned an auction mart and is a very good auctioneer.”
Having an agricultural background is often a necessary condition for Serhienko when hiring staff.
“Virtually all the people we want to hire in here have to have some farm background to have any kind of success. Our mandate has been to hire past 4-H members or past juniors,” he said.
“I’m letting another generation carry it on.”
As agriculture continues booming, Serhienko sees a bright road ahead for the purebred beef industry, particularly in Saskatchewan.
“When I look into the future, I predict Saskatchewan will be the cow-calf capital of Canada, mainly because we have so much arable land. I think Saskatchewan is the last frontier.”
However, he has also seen a steady decrease in support for organizations like 4-H and the junior beef shows, which prompted him to start the T Bar Invitational golf tournament.
The event has raised more than $191,000 since it began five years ago. This past summer’s tournament was the most successful, raising more than $42,000 for youth in the beef industry. Eight national junior breed associations, representing 2,041members, will benefit. A portion of the proceeds was also donated to the Canadian Western Agribition Junior Beef Extreme.
Serhienko was at Agribition again this fall as a ring man at several sales.Most years he’s in the show ring for the Royal Bank of Canada Supreme Beef Challenge; something he’s done since Agribition began.
This year he performed the Burning of the Brand, an honour that recognized him for his years of service to the industry.
“My biggest thrill is when some young 4-Her comes up and says, ‘hi T Bar or hi Mr. Serhienko.’ That makes my day.”
