The reception area at Saskatoon Livestock Sales is usually dotted with young men looking for advice from Michael Fleury about getting into the cattle business.
This snowy fall morning, only a middle-aged couple arrives to pick up a jacket they won at a recent cattle sale.
Despite the downturn in traffic at these yards between Saskatoon and Asquith, Sask., because of the BSE crisis, the manager-auctioneer of one of Saskatchewan’s largest stockyards remains optimistic.
Fleury viewed the recent American election as a turning point, with the border likely to reopen shortly after that.
Read Also
U.S. farm group supports supply management
U.S. grassroots farm advocacy group pushing new agriculture legislation that would move towards supply management like Canada has for dairy industry
“It will straighten itself out,” he said.
Upbeat about the future of cattle and agriculture, he praised the reputation and high quality of Canadian beef in the international marketplace.
“We have the best product in the world,” he said.
An off-white Stetson hat covers his dark hair as he talks in his small office at the yards, but Fleury wears many hats when it comes to cattle.
Fleury, who is married with two children, was raised on a farm near Saskatoon, is a project leader in a 4-H beef club and now manages a commercial herd on his farm near Aberdeen, Sask.
He has worked as an auctioneer since he was 14 when his father, also an auctioneer, bought him his first licence.
“I sell them all day and go home and look at them,” he said of his life in livestock.
“It’s not only my work but my hobby, too.”
Fleury said BSE hit producers hard, taking them from marketing at all-time highs to not having any markets.
“If you depend on a guy for 80 percent of your sales and that relationship stops, you’re in trouble,” he said, noting the crisis has forced the industry to explore market options and increased slaughter facilities and contemplate its reliance on the United States.
In the post-BSE world, reduced handlings led to layoffs at the yards and many other cattle-related industries. Marketers and producers scrambled to figure out how much cattle were worth.
Throughout the last year and a half, he has shared the latest news with anxious producers from his side of the desk as a manager and as a board member with the Livestock Markets Association of Canada.
Fleury admitted it’s difficult to predict what will come next, noting even the most seasoned cattle producers have never experienced anything like BSE.
“This is not a market fluctuation, but a crisis,” he said.
“We’ve got our thumb on the pulse but the pulse has no direction.”
On the rebound
This fall looks a little brighter, with sales picking up again.
Spring and fall are the busiest times for livestock markets, with Fleury and another auctioneer leading sales three times a week and doing farm visits to offer marketing advice.
The stockyards handle about 100,000 head a year.
Fleury believes the auction system is the best way to sell an animal.
“There is no fairer way of marketing cattle for the seller and buyer,” he said. “Whatever the value of that animal, an auction will bring it.”
A self-taught auctioneer, Fleury has received numerous accolades. The most recent came with a first place prize at the Man-Sask Livestock Auctioneering competition in Virden, Man., this May and a top 10 finish in LMAC competitions in Waterloo, Ont.
He continued with auctioneering part-time for six years while working for the Saskatoon Prairieland Exhibition, serving as agriculture manager and helping develop programs such as Gardenscape, Crop Production Show and Canadian Dairy Expo.
But it was his lifelong love of auctioneering and cattle that drew him to his current job a decade ago.
He recalled sleeping in the barn as a teenager at the Calgary Stampede, picking up work getting animals ready for the show ring.
Fleury smiled as he remembered falling asleep to audiotapes of auctions during Agribition week.
He spent hours studying the techniques of a good auctioneer, including rhythm and chant, speed, clarity, professionalism and bid spotting.
That also includes maintaining eye contact with professional buyers in the front row at commercial sales and keeping a crowd of farmers entertained at purebred auction sales.
Fleury said an auctioneer has to know the animal he is selling and often has only a split second to size it up in the ring before announcing the starting bid.
“These are the skills you have to master. If you don’t have that, it’s difficult to make a career at this.”
