RED DEER – With a baby due Jan. 1 and a fresh crop of full French Charolais calves coming at the same time, Roy and Marie Mulkay expect a busy new year.
New to the Charolais business, the St. Paul, Alta., couple bought a bull and four bred females at the annual Full French Charolais sale in Red Deer on Nov. 15.
They came to the business in a roundabout way.
Last summer, parched pastures forced them to send 30 cows from their 200 head commercial herd northeast to Unity, Sask., for grazing.
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This summer, the Saskatchewan producer was forced to send some of his purebred Charolais back to the Mulkays when a tornado wiped out his facilities.
“We can feed them this year,” Roy said.
Their hay crop is plentiful and while they don’t have much snow, this year is far better than last year, when they had to travel 160 kilometres to collect canola greenfeed.
Roy has always fancied the white cattle and he has used Charolais bulls on his commercial cows. After checking out some sales, he and Marie decided to expand their herd in a year when bovine spongiform encephalopathy has many people worried about the future.
“People can’t think short term,” Roy said.
“Cattle always come back,” Marie added.
They have been satisfied with their marketing this year. They recently sold their 2002 calf crop at auction and received $1.10 a pound for 600 lb. calves.
“That’s close to last year and that’s good enough for us,” Roy said.
“We expected worse because of BSE.”
The selection at the annual French sale was smaller than average, but prices held. Full French Charolais trace directly back to imports from France.
The high seller was a mature cow carrying a bull calf from Rudiger Ranch in Calgary, which the Mulkays bought for $5,700.
The high selling bull is going to Manitoba for $5,100. Born this March, it was consigned by Leo and Ines Garcia of Saskatoon.
An Illinois buyer bid successfully on four bred females. Breeders have agreed to care for the cattle in Canada until the embargo is lifted.
Total sale receipts were $75,400, with an overall average on 33 lots of $2,284.
