SASKATOON – At the start of the recent commercial cattle show at Mexabition in Saskatoon, judge Peggy Checkel told the audience she was looking for uniform heifers with depth and quality. And then she said she wasn’t going to say anything else, until the championship classes.
“My uncle Louis Latimer told me a long time ago that judges say too much,” said Checkel.
But after pacing from one pen to another during one of the last classes in the pens of three bred heifer competition, the order buyer from Lacombe, Alta., shook her head and walked to the mike.
Read Also
University of Saskatchewan experts helping ‘herders’ in Mongolia
The Canadian government and the University of Saskatchewan are part of a $10 million project trying to help Mongolian farmers modernize their practices.
“These are a tremendous, just a powerful set of heifers,” Checkel said, explaining the time she spent on judging. None of the heifers would have been out of place in the purebred rather than the commercial competition, she told the crowd.
Checkel said she resorted to “splitting hairs” in a few classes because placings were so close.
She chose a pen of Charolais/Hereford cross yearling heifers, bred Red Angus as the grand champion pen of three. The heifers were exhibited by Dennis Fugelrud of Broderick, Sask., and sold for $1,125 per head to Diamond A Farms of Davidson, Sask.
Reserve champion
Reserve grand champion honors went to Jason Evashenko of Kenaston, Sask., for a pen of Charolais-cross heifers also bred Red Angus. These sold to Bill Wagner of Harris for $925 per head.
Perennial winner Duane McCaffrey, of Edam, Sask., lost out in the bred heifer competition this year but his pen of three Red Angus/Simmental heifers bred to Hereford bulls won the People’s Choice award and sold right after the champions for $1,125 per head.
McCaffrey made up for the bred heifer loss by winning the pen of five open heifers, with buckskin Charolais/Simmental/Hereford cross animals. They sold for $775 per head to Sparrow Farms of Vanscoy, Sask.
Reserve champion pen of open heifers went to Delaney Boon of Lucky Lake, Sask., for his pen of Limousin heifers that sold for $720 per head to Darren Walsh of Saskatoon.
Sunny Valley Simmental of Hanley, Sask. won grand champion with a pen of three Simmental bulls, while reserve champion in the bull class went to a pen of Limousin bulls exhibited by Anchor B Limousin of Hanley, Sask.
Sales on 35 head of open heifers grossed $21,175 for an average of $605 per head. Sales on 117 head of yearling bred heifers grossed $106,785 for an average per head of $912.69.
High-selling pen was exhibited by Gerald Britton of Aylsham, Sask., with Simmental-cross heifers, bred Red Angus, for $1,200.
Other pens that sold for $1,000 or better per head included:
- Glenn Sutherland of Borden, Sask., for a pen of Simmental/Shorthorn cross heifers bred Saler, for $1,190.
- Bill Verishine of Langham, Sask., for Red Angus/Simmental cross heifers bred Red Angus, for $1,130 per head.
- Bill and Virginia Peters of Perdue, Sask., for a pen of Hereford/Simmental cross heifers bred Hereford, for $1,130 per head.
- Donald H. Voss of Spiritwood, Sask., for a pen of Simmental-cross heifers bred Red Angus, for $1,100.
- John and Miriam Buswell of Borden, Sask., for a pen of black baldie heifers bred Angus, for $1,090 per head.
- Gerald Britton of Aylsham for another pen of Red Angus/Simmental cross heifers bred Red Angus, for $1,000 per head.
