REGINA – Where’s the beef? Cattle producers who support the world’s largest indoor cattle show have been questioning the focus of the show as diversified livestock expands.
For nearly 30 years Canadian Western Agribition has been one of the major livestock expositions in the world. It occurs at the end of the purebred cattle show season and has long been the viewed as one of the best places for breeders to showcase their genetics.
But in recent years the prairie livestock industry has expanded into exotic and alternative species.
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“Agribition has changed along with the livestock industry,” said Wayne Gamble, the show’s manager. “We expanded into bison and elk. Sheep and goats, too, have been up. And for a while cattle prices were down and fewer people were getting into the industry. Cattle are back and so is the focus of the show.”
The return to recognizing beef as the backbone of the show was part of a one-year effort by a committee of 12 cattle industry experts.
“Cattlemen were saying they felt Agribition was not recognizing their importance to the show as attention shifted to the exotics,” said Helge By, of the Charolais Banner.
Gamble said the board of directors could see the importance of the purebred cattle shows by the paid attendance figures throughout the week.
“When we changed the show schedule over the past two years, moving the horses and exotics to the front of the week, we found out that the attendance moved with the cattle. The next step was to try to improve our recognition of the importance of beef to the show,” said Gamble.
Cattle producers said the excitement formerly associated with the show was waning and a new event was needed to draw out the naturally competitive nature of the industry.
The Royal Bank Beef Supreme Challenge was born of those meetings. An $80,000, all-breed event drew the grand champions from the show season’s elite expositions.
“We needed some spark in the industry,” said Herb McLane of the Canadian Beef Breeds Council. “We are feeling the effects of adding collateral value to the cattle. Some of the sizzle has gone as we move to more consistency in production. The show needed to return to its roots and give us back some excitement.”
In addition, the International Business Centre was moved to a central area above some of the show rings. The group began focusing resources and facilities on cattle and approved a professional bull riding event for May 2000.
“Cattlemen should be happy with the results,” said Bill Aulie, Agribition president, about the crowd that he felt mainly came to see the 2,300 purebred cattle entered.
“We drew over 150,000 people this year, up from last year by a few thousand. And we had better than 600 international visitors from 53 countries. That’s up 150 over last year.”
Weather played a role this year with record warm temperatures for the late November show.
Top bulls in some breeds sold for healthy but not outstanding prices around the $10,000 mark. The commercial cattle show drew record crowds to the new 34,000 sq. foot Stockman’s Arena and despite lower entries into the show and sale, the value of the animals rose considerably over last year. The 769 entries brought a total of $902,000.
A winning select ranch horse brought $11,600.
Bison and elk sales were both down this year as breeding stock demand shrunk from 1998.
The effect on the show reduced total sales at Agribition to $3 million as bison came up short of last year by $300,000 and elk by $100,000.
“Cattle are at the heart of this show,” said Levi Jackson of Sedley, Sask. “Cattle created Agribition. Cattle supported Agribition and cattle will always be what Agribition is about. I think we have made the point that if a buyer is going to chose attending just one show in the season, then they will make it Agribition and that is exciting.”
