MEDICINE HAT, Alta. — Prices at this year’s Medicine Hat bull sale were on pace with healthy bull sale prices seen in many locations this winter and spring.
The 73 Hereford bulls on offer averaged $9,023.39, and the 45 Angus bulls averaged $7,224.36 at a well-attended sale March 18.
The grand champion Hereford, MW Arrowwood 35A, consigned by Wyatt Farms of Arrowwood, Alta., was also the high seller at $35,000.
It was purchased by Rocking G Land and Cattle Co. of Gull Lake, Sask.
The reserve grand Hereford title was won by Little Poplar Grove Herefords of Forestburg, Alta., with LPG General 48U Lad 11A. That operation also won best three Hereford bulls and the best string award.
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On the Angus side, Watson Cattle Co. of Medicine Hat had the grand champion red bull, Red Watson Avena3103A, which sold to Murray Lake Colony of Seven Persons, Alta., for $10,500.
The high-selling Angus, at $16,000, was consigned by BJ Cattle Co. of Del Bonita, Alta. BJ’s Harvestor 412 was purchased by Black Meadows Angus of Miniota, Man.
Merle Wyatt of Wyatt Farms was pleased with his grand champion bull’s showing and sale price.
“All the cattle prices are excellent. Everything sells good. It’s about time,” he said.
He and his wife, Neeltje, have 125 purebred Hereford and 40 purebred Charolais cows. They have been showing at the Medicine Hat event for about 20 years and sell most of their bulls as two year olds.
“We don’t AI anymore. We used to AI 30 years ago but now we’re grain farming and we don’t have the time for AI. We try and buy the best bull that we can afford, to replace AI,” said Wyatt.
Wade and Jolene Watson were the first breeders to bring Red Angus to the Medicine Hat event. That was three years ago and good results were almost immediate. They won reserve grand champion Angus last year and grand champion this year.
Their next goal is to win best string of bulls, an honour voted upon by other consignors.
Wade Watson said the promise of their grand champion was evident from the start.
“That bull, we had good hopes for him all along. He was the kind of bull that we’d seen right from birth was going to be something really good.”
Watson Cattle Co. runs a breeding program designed to add stretch and length to animals and attain bulls with good foot structure and performance, said Watson.
The operation has 80 head of purebred Red Angus and another 200 head of commercial cows.
“Medicine Hat is always a good bull sale, and it’s very well supported by community pastures and by grazing associations,” Watson said.
“It’s always a very popular bull sale.”
BJ Scheirlinck of BJ Cattle Co., who had the high selling Angus and won the best string title, was pleased with his showing.
“It was fabulous. So far in the show, we had junior champion Angus bull and ended up reserve overall, and his full brother won his class, and those two bulls were champion pair of bulls,” he said.
“I guess to top it off, the most fortunate thing that we did was they have an award for best string of bulls in the barn that’s voted on by all the contributors in the barn and we were fortunate enough to win it as well.”
BJ and Jody Scheirlinck ranch on the Alberta-Montana border with a herd of 70 cows.
“We don’t run a lot of numbers. We use AI and embryo work quite extensively, predominantly purebred Black Angus,” said Scheirlinck.
His father-in-law raised registered horned Herefords, which is how the ranch got into that breed as well.
Contact barb.glen@producer.com
