A breeder’s show with a $42,000 prize for the champion moved to Saskatchewan for the first time in its five-year history.
The Breeder’s Classic, held by the Canadian Charolais Association, has been in Red Deer, Alta. since its inception, but the association decided it was time to change.
“We moved it to Saskatoon just to move it around, and spread it out to try and get some more people from Manitoba and Saskatchewan attending,” said Helge By, co-owner of the Charolais Banner and the organizer of the event.
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The show was held at Saskatoon’s Prairieland Exhibition grounds Oct. 27.
But some people weren’t happy with the move. Rimbey, Alta. farmer Derek Tona said the change is a good idea because the Saskatchewan cattle industry is booming, but he said not everyone from Alberta shares his view.
“There’s some animosity there,” he said. “When something starts in your province, you think it’s yours to build up.
“But you go where there’s going to be buyers, and I think that was the idea here, was to get it where there was going to be some potential buyers.”
Ed Williams, cattle producer from Macrorie, Sask., who served as a judge at the event, said the change of venue cut down travel for most competitors, who come from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and North Dakota.
Commercial buyers
Sale prices for the female sale averaged $3,174. “There were also some bulls traded in the stalls,” said By, “and there were quite a few commercial people there.”
A maximum of 70 members compete in the Breeder’s Classic. Each entrant pays $1,000, which allows them to judge and enter bulls. Each of nine finalists receive $1,000 and the champion receives $32,000, plus another $10,000 in prizes.
In addition, every winner gets 10 vials of semen from the champion bull, and no more semen can be sold for one year from that bull. This year’s winner was co-owned by Wynn Man Charolais, of Winnipegosis, Man. and JMB Charolais, of Brookdale, Man.
