REGINA – While no one has said “Go west, young heifer,” that could well apply to some of Canada’s best purebred cattle from the central and eastern provinces.
In any other November, many purebred producers from Ontario and Quebec would be in Louisville, Kentucky, showing their cattle at the North American International Livestock Exposition rather than in Regina at Canadian Western Agribition.
“Instead we’re here. And man, it’s a lot colder than Kentucky, let me tell you,” said Kevin Dempsey of West Brome, Que.
Dempsey brought six animals 3,000 kilometres, with a 16-hour layover in Thunder Bay, in 56 hours.
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“We haven’t been here since 1992, and if we could have gone south we probably would have. So instead we knew Agribition would be a good second choice. It’s further to come to Regina, but it is a great show,” he said.
Dempsey and a large contingent of producers from Eastern Canada decided upon Agribition mainly because their access to the American shows has been cut off because bovine spongiform encephalopathy in Canada has closed the American border.
Dempsey will sell at least one heifer in the Shorthorn sale and hopes to market a couple more before making the trip home.
Leon Brin, Agribition’s general manager, said the number of entries from east of Manitoba is higher than in the past.
“If you need to market your cattle and you can’t go south it makes sense to come West … and once they’ve been to Agribition it might be pretty tempting to come back even when they can return to Louisville.”
Roy Chamberlain of Sidetrack Farm, near London, Ont., has been bringing his Angus cattle to Agribition for 15 years and normally shows in Louisville and at American state fairs throughout the summer.
“It can be tough to show (at Toronto’s Royal Winter Fair) and Louisville and Regina, but we have made it work.
“We get an early release from Toronto and early release from Louisville and then into Regina as fast as we can,” he said.
“We miss not being able to get to the U.S. shows but … we’re able to take a break from it this year. Yeah, a break, that’s one way of thinking about it.
“One thing is, it is making for a great show in Regina this year,” he said.
Ray Maders of Lakehurst, Ont., said he did well in Toronto at the Royal Winter Fair with a win for both his farm’s yearling Salers bull and heifer.
“We’ve got some great animals and wanted to show them off some more this year. We didn’t have a choice to go south with the BSE problem. Agribition is just a better show. We get stiffer competition out west. There are some great cattle out here.”
The -25 C temperature on Nov. 23 in Regina was a shock for these competitors.
Maders said, “They tell you it’s a dry cold. It’s just plain cold. It’s a cold cold, that’s what it is.
“It’ll take the cattle a couple of days to get used to this. I’m not so sure about me.”
Toronto was 13 C the same day.
