LLOYDMINSTER, Sask. – Donnie Peacock’s gavel rang with optimism as it punctuated each bull’s appearance in the sales ring in Lloydminster last week.
The Pride of the Prairies 85th annual Lloydminster Bull Sale filled the bleachers with buyers and sellers from across the northern grain belt and parkland regions.
Peacock announced to buyers on the second day of the sale that there were positive price movements on feeder calves in Manitoba and southeastern Saskatchewan.
“Just now we heard dollar-five for grass 500 weights, being paid today (March 9). Folks, it’s getting better out there,” he said.
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“Supply and demand are finally coming together and prices you’re going to be getting will be reflecting it again. You’re going to need these good bulls,” he told the crowd as he worked to push up the bids.
Optimism appeared in the crowd as prices paid for the previous weekend’s show winners exceeded some of the event’s 2003 sales figures, though they fell below previous higher flying years such as 2002.
JoNomn Hereford Ranch of Clyde, Alta., took home its share of $4,700 paid by Waseca, Sask., Bar MC Ranch for the grand champion polled Hereford bull. The price compared favourably to last year’s top selling polled Hereford that had brought $3,800.
The event always has a high Simmental consignment and there were 71 on offer. The high selling bull from C and D Simmentals of Kitscoty, Alta., brought $6,000, down from 2003’s sale high of $7,600.
Ervin Harland of Little Willow Creek Ranch in Frenchman’s Butte, Sask., purchased the bull.
“If it works with your cattle, what you need to keep making your cattle better, you still need the genetics. The border closing doesn’t change that. This (BSE problem) won’t keep on forever,” Harland said.
Like many mid-sized and regional cattle events, Lloydminster has been under long-term pressure from larger events and smaller purebred specialty and on-farm production sales.
Sales in 2002 were more than $1.1 million on 396 head for an average of $2,801.
In 2004, 219 bulls brought $553,750 for a sale average of $2,529.
BSE has been the wild card and was blamed for a large number of bulls being passed at the more prestigious Calgary Bull Sale the week before the Lloydminster event.
Show manager Michael Sidoryk said he was more than a little nervous after seeing so many no-sale bulls in Calgary only days earlier.
“But hey, we’ve had very few and prices have been steady. This is a group of cattle producers that is in it for the long haul and from what we hear, there are more cows out there this year than ever. They’ll need breeding,” he said on the sale’s second day.
Ted Serhienko, a ringman at the sale, concurred.
“This a cow-calf producers’ sale. Despite what’s going on out there, they need good bulls for their cows and they have to keep their breeding programs together until all this other is over.”
Average prices in Lloydminster were Charolais $2,477, Simmental $2,474, Limousin $2,820, Black Angus $2,524, Red Angus $2,691, Maine Anjou $2,475, Hereford $2,587, polled Hereford $2,660 and Shorthorn $1,700.
