APLX Envoy 2Y SELLS! at the 2011 National Trust.

APLX Envoy 2Y on the big day - shown with ourselves and his new owners - Lonnie & Karen Brown of Lone Stone Farms - photo courtesy Darryl Snider / Simmental Country

What started off as simply a showcase of our ‘bull group’ feature at the National Trust Bull Expo, turned into Envoy strutting his stuff in the sale itself.

It has become a National Trust tradition to have a bull selected from the Expo for National Trust sale, but we didn’t really believe that our bull would ever be chosen.  As breeders that are just getting established in the industry, we were both humbled and honoured to have Envoy selected by Jay Good of Transcon to be this years’ feature bull calf.  As is tradition, the bull selected lead off the sale, with Envoy selling to Lonnie and Karen Brown of Lone Stone Farms, Westlock, AB for $7,500.

Envoy got to come home with us, where we will winter him and deliver him up to Westlock in time for breeding season next spring.   As fellow consignors at the National Trust, we got to know Karen and Lonnie leading up to the event, and we look forward to seeing the impact Envoy makes on their great walking herd in the years to come.   It is always an honour when a fellow purebred breeder selects one of your bulls for use in their own operation.

The National Trust sale itself was a celebration of the best in Simmental genetics, and that was certainly seen in the resulting $6,800+ average across 44 lots.  Some of the sale features included a really awesome polled full fleck heifer ‘Starwest Pol Snowflake’ selling to Prospect Hill for $25,000, and the ‘Romano’ lot from Virginia Ranch – as both the 30 doses of Romano semen and the Romano bred heifer each brought in more than $15,000.  All in all, it was an incredible sales event, with very strong prices and a great showcase of the strength and diversity of Simmentals.  We look forward to the 2012 edition!