CANDIAC, Sask. – A Canadian Finals Rodeo poster displayed in the Candiac Auction Barn featured a rider atop Push Play, a bull raised by Barry and Sherry Quam of Montmartre, Sask.
Across the hall, the Quams’ 35 year bull breeding program was in the sales ring.
The dams and descendants of champions from top Canadian rodeos were among the lots, some with calves and some exposed to bulls and carrying the promise of continuing bloodlines.
“You just hope they go to a good home,” Barry Quam said of the feisty cows after the Nov. 13 sale, which marks the couple’s decision to downsize.
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Many of their animals sold to McGuire Cattle Co. of Alvin, Texas.
Clint McGuire and his father, Paul, got into the business about four years ago after buying Don Carlyle’s Rafter C herd in Alberta.
He said the approximately 35 animals they bought would travel to Canadian Buckers in Mayerthorpe, Alta.
The cows will stay there and calves that are “worth the trip” will go to Texas next spring.
The McGuires spent about $45,000 in Candiac, an amount they said is atypical for them.
“This program has such history,” McGuire said of the Quam herd.
“They’ve got a lot of great bulls. I like the size of their bulls, the athleticism.”
The McGuires aren’t farmers or ranchers – Clint is a lawyer and his father works for BNSF railway. They do, however, sell weanling and yearling bulls that could participate in American Bucking Bull Inc. (ABBI) futurity and classic events.
There is big money at stake in these events. In October, the bull Troubadour won the ABBI Classic final and took home $250,000.
“That’s what’s really driving these things south of the border,” McGuire said.
He bought two bull calves in Candiac that could participate in the ABBI events.
“It’s long odds,” McGuire said. “That’s why we believe in this program and Carlyle’s.”
Buying a significant portion of the Quam cow herd assures him some great bulls, he added, noting Quam-raised bulls have earned many championships.
The Quams used to stage rodeos but sold that part of the operation in 1994. They kept their cows and the best bull, Jungle James, and used bulls from other contractors to maintain lines of quality stock.
In the sale ring, the cows are wary and some more inclined to show it than others.
“We’ve been 35 years making them that way,” Quam said proudly.
Rodeo stock must be tough to withstand the action and the miles of trucking from one event to another.
Quam chose to hold his auction near the family’s Montmartre home because he knew the facility could accommodate that toughness.
Auctioneer Brad Stenberg, who is also a rodeo announcer, said he was thrilled at the opportunity.
“This was the chance of a lifetime to sell somebody like Quam’s stock,” he said.
The Quams are so well known that their animals sold almost before they hit the ground, he said, and they never saw a sales ring.
Prices were strong, averaging $1,847. Stenberg said he knew some would sell for more than $3,000 but he didn’t know the entire sale would go so well.
“It’s a small market but a big industry,” said Quam, who was pleased with the prices.
“It kind of helps when it’s been that many years doing it, to get a good price.”
Although sad to see the cows go, the Quams have retained their bucking mares.
Quam will also keep his hand in rodeo as a pick-up man, and will be at Regina’s Canadian Western Agribition.
