COCHRANE, Alta. – The folks at Rocky Mountain Holsteins once said they would never part with their prize cow, Irwindale Leduc Macy, because they admired her too much.
But on July 5 the champion cow named All Canadian twice in a row was put up for bids by its three owners, Rocky Mountain of Cochrane, Continental Holsteins of Leduc and R & F Livestock of Ponoka, Alta.
The final bid of $260,000 came from Rocky Mountain and Continental Holsteins buying out their R&F partner.
“We think we got a real bargain at that price,” said David Chalack of Rocky Mountain during the farm’s annual sale near Cochrane. He added if the price was right, they may have considered allowing Macy to go to a new owner, but were glad they were able to keep her at the Cochrane area dairy.
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Rocky Mountain Holsteins is a partnership between Doug Blair, Chalack and Glenn Hockley, who are working on building one of Canada’s genetically elite dairy herds.
The owners plan to show this cow again after taking a year off for calving. As a large, sound cow milking 130 pounds per day, they hope Macy remains competitive for two more years.
The cow is also paying its way, earning the partners $150,000 on progeny with live calves as well as embryo packages.
Two of Macy’s daughters were also offered for sale, with a May 2006 heifer achieving a $32,000 bid from Morsan Farms of Ponoka and a January 2007 calf selling for $22,000 to Rocky Mountain Holsteins.
Temperatures outdoors were soaring higher than 30 C as the sale progressed.
Bidders included local buyers as well as international visitors successfully competing for 122 live lots and 21 embryo packages sold on line simultaneously. Alta Genetics developed an on-line bidding system similar to EBay that ran throughout the sale day.
People on site could also bid through a walkie talkie system while the sale progressed.
Overall, the sale grossed $1,353,600 on 122 live animals and 21 embryo lots. The average price of the animals selling was $10,470 each.
The embryo lots sold for a total of $76,300.
The top embryo lot was from Comestar Lillythalia Titanic by AltaBaxter, purchased by Koepon Farm of Groningen, The Netherlands, for $1,900 per embryo.
In addition, 12 head sold for more than $20,000.
The second high seller consigned by R & F Livestock was the cow RF Cousteau Destiny VG-89, which sold for $60,000 to Futurecrest Holsteins of Aylmer, Ont.
The third high seller was a heifer calf from Comestar Holstein of Quebec which was acquired by Morsan Farms of Ponoka for $53,000.
The live females went to buyers from Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, the Maritimes, Quebec, United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden.
The embryos were widely dispersed with buyers from Saskatchewan, Alberta, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Ontario and British Columbia as well as export buyers from Wisconsin, The Netherlands and Australia.
