Grinning from ear to ear and full of expectations, 12-year-old Cody Rockafellow led his prize 4-H steer into the sales ring.
This year’s 4-H on Parade steer sale was special. Buyers packed the Calgary Stampede agriculture building to support the beef industry after two weeks of despair caused by the economic fallout of a single cow with bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
Calgary Stockyards president Will Irvine kicked off the sale with an industry pep talk: “We’re going to show the world today that we have the best beef in the world.”
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Fast paced bidding for the calf, Diablo, started at $2.70 a pound and finished five minutes later at $4.60.
The Calgary Stampede bought the 1,256 lb. Maine Anjou cross steer and donated it back to the sale with the proceeds going to the Calgary Stampede Youth Foundation. In the second sale, the steer sold for $3 per lb.
“The beef industry wants to show it will support itself, no matter what,” said Cody’s father, Greg.
The younger Rockafellow realized there was plenty of barn talk among potential bidders to drive up steer prices as a show of support for the beef industry and 4-H members.
“I wasn’t too worried about the prices,” he said. “I was concerned they would close down 4-H on Parade.”
His steer earned him more than $5,775, which has been earmarked for college savings or new livestock.
“My old cow is coming pretty close to an end,” he said after the sale.
Diablo was a pure black Maine Anjou cross out of a Simmental-Angus cross cow Cody has owned since he was a baby.
“She’s the ugliest cow in the group, but she has never had a lightweight calf,” Rockafellow’s father said. “She has had good calves every year.”
A member of the Crossfield-Madden 4-H Beef Club for three years, Rockafellow had the grand champion club steer last year.
He had a good feeling about this steer’s chances and already has a new calf from the same mating that could give him another champion season.
The judges told him his steer was named champion because it was well muscled, had plenty of thickness over its top, and possessed smoothness and a good hair coat.
He started training his steer last December and fed it a high-powered diet of barley, corn, beet pulp, flax and molasses. The result was a 3.24 lb. average daily gain.
The reserve grand champion was Jennifer Miller’s Charolais-Simmental entry from the Balzac 4-H Beef Club. It sold to GAMM Investments of Calgary for $2.10 a lb.
The Balzac club also raised a steer that was auctioned off for the Canadian Cancer Society. It was purchased for $5 a lb. and donated back for resale. Canada Safeway purchased it for $3 a lb., bringing the total cancer society donation to $12,696.
Overall, the steer sale averaged $1.62 per lb. on 184 head, comparable to last year’s event.
