EDMONTON — Maureen Mappin-Smith had the sale of her career when her 10-month-old Simmental heifer sold for $21,500 in an all breeds sale at Farmfair in Edmonton.
“We got lucky. All the stars lined up. This is the most money we ever got for an animal,” she said.
“I really didn’t do much work with her. Harvest was late and I had to run the combine, but it worked out OK.”
Mappins Easy To Love 115Y was also junior heifer calf champion at the national Simmental show Nov. 10 and interest was building by the time the Headliner show and sale started Nov. 11.
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This event invites exhibitors to enter their youthful cattle for a jackpot of up to $5,000. The buyer receives an equal payout.
Heifers from seven breeds paraded before five judges, who independently scored each one. Every animal that showed was then sold with a resulting average of $5,917 on 24 head.
Mappin-Smith’s solid red heifer placed in the top five at the show and drew keen bidding from the crowd and over the phone.
Swan Lake Simmentals of Stoughton, Sask., was the buyer and later sold a partnership to Ashworth Simmentals of Oungre, Sask.
This heifer received the attention it did because it has an outcross pedigree. It was an embryo transplant, but the transfer was done because they had leftover eggs and decided to use them up, Mappin-Smith said.
The dam was a nine-year-old cow and the sire had been used for quite a few years on Mappin-Smith’s farm at Byemoor, Alta.
A former banker and now a full-time cattle producer, she is a fourth generation farmer who is willing to try new things. The flushing program started only four years ago.
Mappin-Smith is also president of the Alberta Simmental Association and is keenly watching the genetic research the breed is conducting to study carcass quality and other valuable traits using DNA samples.
Mappin-Smith and her husband, Eric Smith, farm full time with her parents, Albert and Jean Mappin. He works off the farm but helps on the grain side. While she is willing to run the seeder or the combine when needed, the cattle are her enterprise.
The youngest of two sisters and a brother, she was the one who wanted to ranch.
“I’ve got an agriculture degree and it was always my plan to come back to the farm,” she said.
As a banker, she handled farm loans in small town Alberta and has consulted on farm succession planning. She considers herself fortunate to be involved in a smooth passage from one generation to the next.
“I’m just lucky my mom and dad wanted that and we were able to work together. We all have the same vision,” she said.
The family has used Simmental bulls since the 1970s and bought their first full blood in 1993. They have 220 purebred red and black cows, run an annual bull sale in March and exhibit at shows.
The Farmfair sale has generated some buzz.
“We have had more traffic in our bull pen and we have been getting (more) calls for heifers than we have ever had,” she said.
Mappin-Smith speculates producers are replacing older stock and looking to rebuild the shrinking Canadian beef supply.
“There’s a future in the business and in the past things were a little sketchy, but hang in there because things are going to get better,” she said. “It is a good time to be in agriculture because we have to feed the world.”
Other Farmfair winners
•The grand champion female came from Rob and Gail Hamilton of Cochrane, Alta. It sold for $16,500. A second Hamilton female earned $13,000, making them the second and third high sellers.
•Randy and Ronda Mader of Carstairs, Alta., took reserve champion and received $2,500 in prize money and earned another $6,100 in the sale.
