REDVERS, Sask. — Sheldon Kyle’s smartphone has become his most important marketing tool.
This year he sold a package of 14 replacement heifers on Twitter to an Ontario buyer. However, that doesn’t mean he’s abandoned sales venues such as Canadian Western Agribition.
This week, the family’s Red Angus operation from southeastern Saskatchewan is one of the tenants in The Yards, a new feature at the annual show now underway in Regina.
Based on a similar venue at the stock show in Denver, the concept offers a marketing platform to livestock producers to use as they see fit, said Marty Seymour, Agribition’s chief executive officer.
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“It’s a 20 by 20 pen and it’s your house,” Seymour said. “You can do whatever you want in that space.”
Some exhibitors will simply run their cattle on straw, while others might offer a lounging area and trade show display. This differs from the purebred barns, where the display rules are more strict.
Seymour said the idea is to drive more traffic to the commercial cattle area, although The Yards will contain both commercial and purebred animals.
Additional lighting and heating in the area known as the Stock Exchange, formerly the commercial cattle barn, should make it more comfortable for exhibitors and visitors.
The idea has proved popular, and there was a waiting list for space.
The area officially opens Nov. 14 and exhibitors must be there the following two days, although some exhibitors may be there earlier.
The Kyle family intends to use their space to showcase five of the 15 heifers they will sell in Kenray Ranch’s first online production sale the week after Agribition.
“It’s like a cow eBay,” Kyle said.
Pictures, video and information about each offering are already online. Agribition visitors can then check out some of the animals, as well as the Kyles, during a visit to The Yards.
Online bidding begins Nov. 20 and closes the evening of Nov. 23.
“The last person with the highest bid is the new owner of the heifers,” Kyle said.
He will also be tweeting regularly during Agribition, as well as updating the ranch’s Facebook page and holding interactive draws at the display. He will host a Tweetup at the stall Nov. 15, in which Twitter users get to meet face to face. Twitter users can check out #cwa13tweetup.
Ray Kyle, Sheldon’s father, said he has full confidence in his son’s ability to use online tools and technology to continue a long cattle tradition. Ray’s great-grandfather, grandfather and a great-uncle all homesteaded in the area in 1902, and those original three quarters remain in the family.
Ray and his father, Ken, established Kenray in 1971 as a partnership. Originally a Simmental operation, the ranch switched to Red Angus in the 1980s. They now run about 200 cows.
Sheldon returned to the family business several years ago after attending university and living and working in Australia and Alberta.
He still works part-time for the Lower Souris Watershed Committee, and his brother, Lyndon, and sister-in-law, Karman, are also involved in the ranch.
Ray said the ranch has moved into bale grazing and will do it on a larger scale this year.
The Kyles sell bulls and females off the ranch year-round and also attend sales.
Agribition has been an important venue for them over the years. They had the reserve grand champion Red Angus bull in 2001 and took the grand championship with Red Lakeford Kapton 7M in 2004.
However, manpower is an issue, and Sheldon said the purebred ring doesn’t fit their operation anymore.
“It’s important, but it’s not marketing what we’re interested in,” he said.
“I need this avenue at Agribition. I’m marketing my genetics in those Yards.”
The Twitter sale earlier this year was an experiment that worked. The heifers were sold to a new buyer within a week of posting the offering. The buyer and seller both followed some of the same people on Twitter, leading to the connection.
Sheldon believes a lot of ranchers are using a combination of tried-and-true show and sales venues and new techniques.
He and his parents agree he can be, well, persuasive.
“It’s not hard to change,” added Donelda Kyle, Sheldon’s mother. “He has contacts all over the world.”
Added Sheldon: “I’m persistent and stubborn.… There’s a fine line between them.”
