DENVER, Colo. — If the National Western Stock Show is the Super Bowl of livestock exhibitions, then Shane Kaufmann was glad to make the playoffs.
He and his family consisting of his parents, Keith and Linda, and his wife, Alexis, and their four children own Southview Ranch at Ceylon, Sask., where they have one of Canada’s largest registered Angus herds. A decision to enter the stock show held in Denver from Jan. 6-21 paid off when the family won reserve champion spring bull calf with a youngster named Red SVR Continental 112E. They also had class winners in the highly competitive Red Angus show held Jan. 8.
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The family last showed at Denver in 2003, when they entered three bulls. Then BSE was discovered in Canada and the American border was closed to Canadian cattle.
Shane and Alexis are raising a young family immersed in hockey and other activities, so they did not show cattle for years.
Then in 2015, the kids wanted to show again so the Kaufmanns entered the Canadian Western Agribition in Regina and won junior bull calf champion.
They also travelled to Denver as spectators for the last three years to see what was happening.
“We knew we would fit in,” said Shane.
“We had a pretty good string at Agribition and thought we might as well give it a try,” he said.
“We felt competitive as soon as we rolled in the barn. As soon as I saw the other cattle in the barn I knew we were going to be competitive,” he said.
Showing well at events like the Denver Stock Show and Agribition raises the ranch profile.
He was the only Canadian in the Denver championship drive and the contacts the family makes and potential sales after the show open up a new file of potential customers beyond those who attend the ranch’s annual bull sale.
Shane started the purebred herd with his parents. He was 13 and wanted a purebred animal for 4-H.
“My dad said if you are buying purebred it can only be Angus,” he said.
They started buying packages of cattle and this spring they expect to calve out about 700 purebred Red and Black Angus cows. In 2009, they were named Saskatchewan Angus breeders of the year.
The family is also involved in the community, where Keith Kaufmann is a municipal reeve and Shane coaches atom division hockey. The children between eight and 15 all play hockey and take part in other activities.
Sometimes the activities got in the way of running the ranch, including calving season.
“We used to be February (calving season) until we didn’t have time for calving anymore because we were too busy playing hockey so we had to move it up a bit to March. It made everything easier,” Shane said.
