RED DEER – July 6 was a hot, muggy day with forest fire haze blocking out the sun in Red Deer while at the Westerner Park, Morsan Farms was holding the hottest dairy sale of the year.
Put together by Morsan owners, Morris and Sandra Thalen of Ponoka, Alta., the Mountain High Event took in more than $1.435 million. The average was $11,129 on 129 lots of high end Holstein females.
The international event had consignors from across Canada, the United States, England, Netherlands and Ireland.
The high seller named Miss Paradise’s Presence sold for $200,000 to a Calgary based investment syndicate called Philco Group headed by Phil Weening. Consigned by Morsan Farms and Stanhope Wedgwood, Philco bought a half interest in this award winning female born December 2002.
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“She’s won every show she has ever attended,” said a beaming Morris Thalen.
“This cow is a franchise,” said sale announcer Norm Nabholz.
Its mother is a world champion and two-time grand champion at the international dairy show in Madison, Wisconsin. So far, Morsan Farms has sold $150,000 in live progeny and $100,000 worth of embryos from this young female.
Another bred cow from the Morsan string, named Tomalynn Leduc Della and born in 2003, went for $90,000. Tom, Andy and Bev Cope of Huddlesford Holsteins in Staffordshire, England, were the buyers.
Until 2000, the Copes purchased show cattle from Canada nearly every year for their 850 acre farm where they milk 200 cows. They hope trade resumes by year end so they can import Della.
The British cattle industry has been hard hit by the BSE and foot-and-mouth epidemics, but Tom Cope sees signs of recovered optimism, especially for elite cattle.
“Top pedigreed cows are selling well,” he said.
Several other top end females sold for high bids but also on offer were reasonably priced cattle to meet the needs of the more than 400 dairy buyers at the sale.
A Quebec cow named Gillette Louie 2nd Opinion from Ferme Gillette of Embrun, Ont., sold for $55,000 and will be moving to Nova Scotia.
A March 2006 calf named Cormdale Goldwyn Lila Z sold for $50,000 to John and Alice DeVries of Bowmanville, Ont. It was a consignment from the Holstein partnership of Cormdale Genetics of Ontario, Todd J. Whittier of Ontario, Comestar Holsteins of Quebec, Mark Falshaw of England and Genervations of Massachusetts.
Another high seller from the Morsan operation was a yearling named Morsan September Doris. She went for $49,000 to Faberdale Dairies of Ponoka.
A heifer offered as a fundraiser for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank was sold midway through the sale with Thalen taking over from auctioneer John Copithorne to sell the calf himself. The first time auctioneer sold the animal four times and collected more than $12,000 for the charity.
