2025 Shades of Fall Sale Report
2025 Shades of Fall Sale Report (and other fall thoughts around all things cattle)
It was another absolutely gorgeous Canadian Thanksgiving week-end to hold the 2nd Annual ‘Shades of Fall’ Simmental Sale at Beechinor Land & Livestock on Saturday, October 11th. Sunny skies and unseasonably warm weather led up to sale time, with a winter squall moving in to close the doors during the sale itself. The abrupt change in weather didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of bidders, as 40.5 lots of Fleckvieh and Red Simmental females grossed an impressive $757,500 for a smashing $18,950 average.
It is perhaps fitting to start the sales write up with a bit of an explanation on the 0.5 lot. Lot 3 ‘BLL Echo 410M’ was an intriguing opportunity to acquire 50% interest with no possession of a unique top end female. She was a massively volumed heifer wrapped up in a genetic package that combined performance with the ability to moderate birthweight. The ‘Unbelievable’ cow family behind ‘Echo’ just happened to be one that we had previously sampled twice. In 2013, we selected BEE Vendetta 243Z, a direct Unbelievable x Viper daughter from Equation, who continues to leave a lasting legacy here though her daughters. We tapped this same cow family again in 2023 when we added a maternal brother to Echo in ‘Tombstone’ to our bull battery. With so much ‘Unbelievable’ influence already in our own herd, it was especially fun to notice all the interest and buzz with the opportunity to acquire an interest in ‘Echo’. We talked to a number of interested parties leading up to sale day, all of whom were intrigued by the possibility of partnering with BLL on this amazing female. Some weren’t even Simmental breeders! At the end of the day, it was Circle E Farm from Lucedale, Mississippi who bid a whopping $50,000 for 50% of Echo. Wow! It was great to get to know Genry and Heather Ellison of Circle E over the past couple years as they have toured around Central AB. They have invested heavily in top end genetics while also showcasing their own at the Magnolia Classic in Mississippi each fall. It will be exciting to see them be part of future sales closer to home in AB!
Throughout the afternoon, the sale alternated between each consignor and wove the red heifers into a couple of groups between the Flecks. (Not that I know anything about red cattle, but…) My personal pick of the Red Top string was lot 20 – a really nice Walk the Line daughter that was selected by East Point Cattle Corp for $23,000. The Century string was also impressive, with their lot 32, Century Lulu 339L, leading off their offering. This big broody Magnum daughter was backed by Gudas and Crude from the great Virigina Ranch herd, and will be headed State-side as once again Circle E Farm stepped up with the acquisition of another great female. In all, it was awesome to see our fellow consignors have tremendous days!
All six of our Applecross heifers were very well received, and we couldn’t be happier with the great operations that they will now call home. Starting in the East, Bovey Family Farms, from Elginburg, ON, were successful in acquiring Lot 26 Applecross Diva. We met Kevin and Suzanne Bovey during the World Congress tours last summer, and since then they have been on a bit of a whirlwind. They have become new consignors in the Quebec Simmental Week-end, and have travelled back to Alberta multiple times. It was really nice to see them offer up some pretty impressive cattle in Quebec only a few weeks prior to Shades 2025, and then get to see them again on sale day. DJ Farms selected our Lot 31 heifer, Applecross Lexi, so she also enjoyed a long truck ride to southwestern Ontario to join another progressive purebred herd just north of London. To Manitoba went our high seller – Applecross Tessa – to Blue Zone Livestock; Andre and Danica Mangin at St Alphonse. Tessa has settled in well, and I am confident she will be treated like the queen she thinks she is! Logan of Ruszkowski Farms near Prince Albert has been active buying Fleckvieh heifers across the Country this fall and also added Lot 27, Applecross Dior to his collection. Closer to home, Mark Mryglod from Calmar selected Lot 30, Applecross Cindy, to start his papered Fleckvieh herd – having the next generation of Fleckvieh enthusiasts dive into the industry is always a great sign! And finally, Justin Wagner, Wagner Livestock, added our lot 28, Applecross Flora heifer that perhaps had the most impressive EPDs of our entire group. It was also really neat to see Justin purchase another heifer from us as 4 years ago he also acquired ‘Applecross Carly’ from Equation 2021. New buyers or repeat customers, it is always awesome when they find homes with quality purebred and commercial cattle operations.
In addition to the above noted high-sellers, I thought we would share some additional thoughts on the second edition of Shades of Fall:
- I have heard it said that the 2nd sale year is always the toughest. Year one brings out lots of buyers and interested parties to ‘see what is new’ and to ‘support new ventures’, whereas year two typically needs to stand on its own without the ‘good will’ a new sale may start with. We can certainly give credit to a record setting live cattle market, as the ‘2nd year dip’ certainly didn’t happen. I think a lot of that relates back to the quality cattle brought together by our fellow consignors. Stefon, Ben & Jessie all share my passion for digging deep into pedigrees and having a certain eye about what they like in cattle. It certainly seems to blend together nicely on sale day!
- Not to make the sale group sound like a business book, but our group does bring to mind one of my favourite work maxims: ‘surround yourself with people who make you better’. There are many different version of this ‘quote’ (and who it is attributed to) but all have the same theme. There are tremendous advantages to life when you surround yourself with people that want to lift each other up, see mutual success, have similar ambitions, and provide support when things don’t necessarily go right. We are fortunate to have found that with the sales group!
- A sales group that aligns and pitches in together is a wonderful thing for us smaller breeders. It takes all four consignors in the Shades group to ‘add up the numbers’ to what larger breeders can potentially do on their own. While in some vein, we could be considered ‘competitors’ with each other, all chasing the same buyers dollars, it is my preference to view each other more as friends and colleagues that are all trying to be successful and move the breed forward. Seeing our sale partners be successful only strengthens the industry, and by working together on sale prep and hospitality, it allows us to do more than what we could each do on our own. (This is probably also a topic I should dig into deeper on a future blog post!)
- It has been a wild ride in the cattle market. I am not sure even the biggest optimist would have seen calf and commercial bred heifer prices hit the stratospheric level that they have this fall. With my off-farm job being an ‘Ag Banker’ I can’t help but shift to a bit of a business outlook on where the market is headed. If I have learned one thing over my career, it is that ‘good times’ in Agriculture never last. So there will be a correction coming – and probably sooner than anyone realizes. Whenever I hear people talking about a ‘new normal’ it makes me nervous. Agriculture is a commodity driven business, and the beef market can be shaped by many factors – not just the North American cow herd (hello Argentina bail out!) So I do expect that there will be a market correction at some point. As to when? If I knew that, I wouldn’t be a banker – I’d be investing all my market winnings in more cattle!
- When times are great, everyone has their own priorities, depending on their own individual life stage. Some people look to expand / refresh the herd; others that may be more mature maybe look to downsize or exit the industry while it is at a high. Everyone has their own business to run and life to live (and debt levels to be comfortable with!), but I thought for interest sake, I’d share what our priorities were this year, and a little bit of the ‘why’ behind the decisions:
- Culled at least the bottom 20% of our herd.
- We have been able to achieve this goal for each of the past 5 years. It has meant some tough decisions, and also impacted cash flow by retaining (or buying) more bred heifers to add to the herd in order to keep our numbers stable. The good news is that we are much happier with the herd, and that we have been able to move it in a direction that firmly aligns with our vision. And our vision is to walk a group of 50 amazing cows. Ideally, any of whom who could produce high selling progeny on any given year. I do look forward to a point – hopefully not too far away – when our annual cull rate is a more sustainable and idealistic 10% annually – but there are always reasons (type, feet, udders, fertility among them) that keep getting in the way of us achieving this goal. Cull cows are also at market highs, so it has been a great opportunity to keep the herd young while also keeping numbers stable.
- Feed Buffer
- We are very short moisture. We have lived here now for (almost) 20 years, and It is the driest we have ever seen it. For those that haven’t been to our place, we typically have 30 acres of sloughs across our half section – all of which are now dry. We ended last winters’ feeding cycle with only half a dozen hay bales remaining in our yard. We were fortunate in 2025 that there were enough timely rains through out the growing season that feed was plentiful in Central AB before the rain stopped again in early August. As a result, we did invest in additional feed for the current year, and while our herd numbers have held stable, we acquired an extra 20% over our typical feed stocks. Surplus feed allows me to sleep better in May – and also gives more flexibility in case the 2026 season continues a trend towards drought and grass becomes short. One thing farmers can’t control is when it rains. So feed is at the top of our list when it comes to peace of mind.
- Infrastructure
- One of the challenges in the cow-calf sector is labour. It is incredibly tough to scale – you always need people to calve out cows vs the crop sector where they can typically add more acres without more people – so part of our annual process is to ‘improve’ our working conditions and the infrastructure we need to work cattle. Last year it was the young bull development area – this year it was the heifers that got some love. Re-investing in the physical premises makes work easier while also improving cow-comfort. As my dad would have said “If you aren’t fixing it up, it’s falling down” or “a man can’t work without tools”, and “if you love your work, it’s play”; so every year we prioritize a list of ‘what we can do to make things work better’ and depending on the year (and the budget) we try to complete at least one improvement.
- Upcoming herd bull season.
- Herd bull season should be interesting. It looks (maybe) like the North American cow herd is finally expanding. This means more cows/heifers that should need bulls. Also, with meat prices high, the market for cull bulls is incredibly strong. The flip side is that with 8-weight calves bringing $4k+ this fall, a lot of potential bull calves went straight to feedlots. So it will be very interesting to see what the confluence of supply and demand looks like next spring. If the last few years are any indication – elite bulls will be priced at a premium – so we will need to be prepared to dig extra deep should we find a new herd bull that fits all of our selection criteria.
- Which brings me to a related point. As difficult as it is sometimes on sale day, I can do without ‘one more heifer’ but I can’t do without ‘one more bull’ next spring. We are certainly looking to add females this fall. It just needs to be both something that adds to our herd (while being different in genetic make-up) and fits within our budget. At the end of the day, saving bullets for a potentially very expensive herd bull in 2026 is the priority. (editors note: we did get a really sweet heifer bought at Lone Stone though! And with our legacy of consigning there, always try to ‘have options’ at Equation!)
- Culled at least the bottom 20% of our herd.
- With our sale heifers now all in their new homes, our thoughts have drifted toward calving and bull sale season. Calving 2025 will be dominated by our walking bulls – our new heifer bull, FSMB Millenium 12M (Gold Trigger x Magnum), BLL Tombstone 223K (Great Guns Wyatt x Titanium) and the last calf crop from Virginia Journey 509K (Synergy x Radison). We unfortunately lost Journey just after breeding season, and with no frozen in reserve, it will represent his last set of calves. On the flip side, it is always exciting (if a little nerve-racking) to introduce a new herd bull in Millenium. He travelled well from Quebec, and was put right to work with both heifers and a good cross section of cows. It is always fun to see how the genetic possibilities line up – I just always cross my fingers when introducing a new heifer bull!
- After a three to one bull to heifer calf ratio, I am really happy how our bull pen is coming together. With 30-some bull calves to choose from, we whittled that number down to an even dozen for further development. Calf prices were so high, it simply didn’t make economic sense to keep more – and there still may be one or two that may not make the final cut. As Jeanne keeps reminding me ‘we wanted to be in a position to have to make tough choices’ and have been rewarded with how they have transitioned since weaning. We always select for the pen and then complete the genetic testing (to try and offset at least some of my biases), so it is rather neat to have testing back and some cool dudes shaping up well for early March.
- Our bull group skews towards ‘heifer bulls’ this year, with roughly half the bulls being candidates for use on either heifers or first calvers. We are hopeful that the combination of some calving ease while still very much looking the part of ‘herd bulls’ combine to form the right mix come sale day!
- I always get asked about Jeanne’s favourite in the bull pen. This year it is a rotating cast of favourites, as multiple of her ‘veto heifers’ from over the years, gave us awesome bull calves. So today she’ll go with ‘Bam Bam’. We’ve both been Blue Jay’s fans since the Exhibition Stadium era (yes, we are that old), and one of our early dates was to see the Jays via the 5th deck at Skydome in the early 1990’s. Their run this fall was sure exciting, and to celebrate we thought we should have a ‘Bam Bam’ (named after ‘Barger’) which narrowly won out over naming him ‘Bichette’!
- While a smaller group again this year, I do like my heifers…they are coming along nicely as well, and we hope to potentially have 8-10 to offer at Shades 2026. Journey’s, Battleborn’s and Tombstone’s make up the sire groups and they are already a very uniform bunch with style for miles!
- With that, it brings me back full circle to Shades 2025. We were blessed to have Jeanne’s sister and brother-in-law join us for the sale (and Thanksgiving week-end). My mom was also able to attend. With a lifetime spent developing Dora Lee alongside my dad, it may be a surprise to many, but this is the first time my mom has been able to watch Applecross Cattle sell at auction. So it was a treat to have her join us, and reminisce about some of the early ‘Fleckvieh Forum’ sales in Ontario, that coincidently enough, featured the same auctioneer in Dan Skeels – great fun, and absolutely awesome to have her join us!
I can’t close without saying a few words about Transcon, our Sales Management team. Jay, Cody, Glen and Darren always do a quality, professional job – and spend significant amounts of time on the phone – talking – while walking animals out of their pens to check feet, and allow buyers to select animals with confidence. Sales Management remains a long term gig – if a prospective buyer on order isn’t happy with their purchase they won’t be back. It is foundational to have mutual trust in a Sales Management team, and we have that with Transcon.
It was another great day to present Applecross cattle at auction, and we are honoured by the compliments received on our cattle from all the bidders and buyers that took interest in our program. You never know with a new sale venture, or what each year may bring – so it was very rewarding to have an absolutely smashing day. We look forward to trying to showcase our ongoing efforts to produce high-quality genetics that we can share with the industry.
Until next time,
Dennis
Applecross and the Six: Our 2025 ‘Shades of Fall’ Heifers
We are delighted to present six bred heifers at the 2nd annual Shades of Fall Simmental Female Sale on October 11th at 1pm a the Beechinor Land & Livestock Sale Facility, located near Bentley Alberta. Last years’ first event was a smashing success and we look forward to once again joining together with some of our favourite people in the industry to create an awesome sale line up!
This year we are excited to showcase two new sire groups. As smaller breeders it is rare that we purchase two new walking bulls in the same year, but that is just what happened back in 2023. That spring, we were successful in acquiring both BLL Tombstone 223K and Virginia Journey 509K only a week apart. Both are from highly regarded breeding programs that we know very well, and are backed by pedigrees that we have followed for many years. Multi-generations of strong cow families lead to bulls that produce consistent progeny, and both ‘Unbelievable’ and ‘Willows Jade’ are maternal lines that we have long admired.
As shared in the footnotes, Tombstone is a bull we first saw during a summer pasture tour. Even as a six month old calf, he caught our eye. Early maturity, and a very strong ‘presence’, allowed us to track him from across the pasture. I have always thought that the best purebred cattle have a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ (I don’t know what) about them, that is hard to describe. Stage presence. An “it’ factor. Eye Appeal. However you want to describe it, Tombstone certainly caught our attention, and became a target to acquire from the Beechinor bull sale. Through two calf crops, his calves are easy to pick out and his heifers, showcased by ‘Diva’ and ‘Dior’ also exhibit that incredible eye appeal.
Journey was another easy decision – but one we weren’t sure we’d get done. A year previous we had circled another Synergy x Radison son, ‘Full-Tilt’, in our catalogue, only to finish a few bids shy to the astute duo of MAVV Farms & Brian Miller. So in 2023, it was super cool to find ‘Journey’ who exhibited that same balance of moderate calving with thickness and muscling. The cherry on top was the cow family deeper in the pedigree, which showcased generations of predictable quality. The Synergy-Radison combination has also proven to be incredibly popular as a female maker, and we think you’ll find those same traits in ‘Tessa’, ‘Cindy’ and ‘Lexi’.
Not to be overlooked, is our youngest heifer ‘Flora’ who was also sired by one of our walking bulls in Black Gold Battleborn 44H. Battleborn is now deceased, but was a proven curve-bender for us. We were comfortable using him on heifers (before he got too big), while his calves consistently pushed the scale down at weaning, and have been readily accepted at auction. Our ask of our herd bulls is simple. Move our herd forward. And with Battleborn’s first daughters now weaning off their 2nd set of calves, we are confident that he has done that. Nice tidy udders and some punch would define our Battleborn cows.
Our breeding philosophy continues to focus on strong maternal lines across the group, with deep extended pedigrees to ensure quality and consistency. While we try to acquire at least one outcross female each fall, all six of our heifers this year are backed by dams carrying the APLX tattoo, often multi-generations deep. The heifers have been double vaccinated, and have been pregnancy tested to the dates listed. Individual pages (short-cut links are on the right – or simply enter their names in the search bar to find them), have been created for each of ‘Diva’, ‘Dior’, ‘Flora’, ‘Tessa’, ‘Cindy’ and ‘Lexi’. On the individual pages, we have also pictured their sires, dams and siblings – hopefully, sharing pictures will provide a better glimpse into the extended pedigree.
Please join us for some unique ‘Shades Hospitality’ on Saturday, both before and after the sale, when it will be great to visit and view cattle at the newly renovated BLL Sales Facility near Bentley. Please check out our social media on Facebook and Instagram (@aplxcattle) for more details on each of our sale animals. If you have any questions about our heifers or our program, please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to visiting with you on Canadian Thanksgiving week-end!
The Return of ‘Blue Sky Thinking’
We are nicely home from our annual spring vacation. It is something I touched upon back in 2012’s ‘Blue Sky Thinking‘ and, thirteen years later, thought it was a subject worth revisiting and expanding on. Once a year, we try to do one ‘get away’ vacation that has nothing to do with cattle, banking or dance. For us, the week that seems to fit our schedule best is one in late April – a time when our 12 week sprint of calving and bull sale season is wrapped up, Jeanne’s annual dance exams have been completed, the herd bulls are out, and the cows are in a state where they can hopefully be left alone for most of a week.
It continues to be incredibly important for us to get away from the farm for a short time every year. And it is something that I don’t think many farmers/ranchers take seriously enough. For Canadians, our laws dictate that after 1 year of full time employment, all employees are entitled to a minimum of 2 weeks vacation. After 5 years employment, this entitlement increases to 3 weeks. Specifically for those farmers with livestock, I would hazard a guess that it is extraordinarily rare to take a week off, let alone two (or three). Livestock need constant care and attention – and typically there is also a certain pride and dedication in our profession. I’ve had clients incredibly proud of the fact that they milked cows the morning after their wedding! Having chosen to own and operate a farm, many people may have trouble accepting that they still need a break from the life they chose, and thus feel ‘guilty’ for finding vacation coverage, even if it is just for a few days. We all have neighbours and friends that don’t mind being helpful – it just may seem like a big ask when we are all so used to being self sufficient. It is not always easy to arrange, but we have been deliberate in trying to ensure we have an annual vacation.
One of the biggest challenges of being a farmer is that 9 times out of 10 (or 99 times out of 100), farmers literally live, work and sleep at their place of business. Our work is so intertwined with life. And while there are some tremendous advantages (raising a family in the country, living in a rural area surrounded by space and nature), there is always more ‘work’ that can be done. Looking out the window, it is often easy to see peeling paint – lawn that needs cut – kids that could use more one on one time – let alone an endless ‘someday’ list of seasonal farm chores that always need to be done. Even sitting and ‘doing nothing’ can be work for a cattle breeder. Social media can be personal, but its also the forum for marketing cattle. Texts and phone calls can be from friends – but they can also be from customers and potential buyers – or from friends that are also customers! It is very difficult not to respond to a text – and very easy to panic when it is realized a social media platform hasn’t been updated in a month. The instant gratification era of social media only lengthens the days on the farm, and there simply isn’t much of a break.
For us, the solution has been to ensure we can turn off and disconnect for at least one week (ok, 5 days) of the year. Its one of the many cool things about living in Canada – we have so many options across many different price points – and off grid is practically at our doorstep. Unless you are stuck on the 401 in Ontario – or experiencing the fun traffic that is Montreal – anywhere in Canada is a maximum of only 2 hours from wilderness. And there are plenty of small, rural places where it doesn’t have to be expensive to enjoy a getaway. When people are younger, this could also mean camping is an option – but these days my back suggests a comfortable bed is my biggest must have. There are so many options – near and far – inexpensive and more higher end – that provide the ability to get away from the farm and relax, no matter the personal preference!
For us, a vacation isn’t just an opportunity to relax, but also time to communicate without interruption. An opportunity to talk about hopes and dreams as well as the million little things that don’t usually get air time. And the bigger, heavier things that are often avoided. To talk about the farm business itself. In the corporate world, it is a natural, accepted routine to complete annual ‘strategic planning’. The cliché goes, time dedicated to work ‘on the business’ instead of working ‘in the business’. For farmers, typically our closest business partner is also family. When the conversations get serious, being offsite means an absence of the ready made interruptions so common on the farm. I can’t tell you how many farm meetings I’ve been on with clients over the years when one principal shows up late, or another has to leave the meeting early. There are simply always things on the farm that ‘get in the way’ of having great conversation. Vacation is a great place to have ‘complete’ conversations, without interruptions, where feelings and ideas can all be talked through.
What needs to get talked about? I would probably suggest moving in an expanding circle, (and will list in point form in order to keep this blog at least a mildly digestible size), and cover 4 different, yet intertwined, ‘buckets’:
- Mental Health.
- How am I doing? (1 person).
- How are we doing? (ask your partner, they may not share otherwise)
- Physical Health.
- This one is especially important for those in the industry we are in. It is virtually impossible to work/calve/process cattle on one leg (just ask Jeanne about her 2024!).
- Do we enjoy the physical health required to do what needs to be done? (if not, can we afford to hire for it /or does that trigger a potential operational change?)
- What does ‘us’ look like?
- Is our relationship working,
- Should we expand (kids, more kids? / cows, more cows? 🙂 )
- Are the personal sacrifices we are making for the farm sustainable?
- State of the Farm
- Is it working,
- If yes. Is it sustainable?
- If no, what changes can/should we make? (off farm income, diversify, breed horned? lol just checking to see who is still reading)
- Should we expand, if so, how/where/what?
- If we grow, how do we afford it / what are the trade offs?
- Is it too much / do we need to downsize?
I wouldn’t be a banker and not mention finances. A lot of the ‘state of the farm’ conversation relates back to knowing whether the farm is being successful, and having an understanding of profit and losses, which should impact decision making. Actually having and knowing the numbers are essential! (Also a future blog post! Or maybe a book!) During a growth phase, farm success can be incredibly difficult to determine, as cash flow seems so ‘tight’ (which was outlined in ‘summer nights/cow tours‘ blog post from 2018). It is great to have goals and plans, but the math also typically has to work. If it is a goal to give up off-farm employment, then what changes need to be made on the farm? Can the farm continue to grow? Or is it ‘worth it’ to shift from growth mode to more of a maintain strategy if it means that one person doesn’t have to work off and be away from the farm and family for extended periods of time? If the priority is to grow, how does the cashflow work if there is a(nother) large loan payment? How does that impact some of the other considerations (growing family, quality time), or maybe adding off farm income is a solution if it allows a common growth goal to be pursued! There are always lots of questions and considerations that can be different depending on the state of a farm’s life cycle. As the saying goes ‘hope isn’t a strategy’, and while farmers are at the mercy of the markets and the weather, it is much better to have these conversations and form a strategy together vs. simply trying to ‘figure it out’. Two brains are always better than one!
And on that note, it is only fitting to circle back to the mental health part of the conversation, while also getting a little sexist (or at least provide some stereotypical tropes). Most men, and specifically farm men, feel a deep personal obligation to be a provider and protector for their family. As a result, men face tremendous stress to be financially successful and carry that as their burden. And I am guessing everyone out there knows at least one purebred cattle breeding, introverted dude who isn’t a big fan of talking things out! Most farm women are incredibly capable, and balance the traditional ‘pink’ jobs of family responsibility, household chores, meal prep and kids activities, alongside all the day to day activities required on modern farms to make the ranch run successfully. Its not like women CAN’T run the farm – just like dudes usually CAN cook – I just think that for both partners, it is easy to get frustrated. If that frustration causes individuals to turn inward and fixate on completing ‘their’ jobs to support the family, it can also get lonely and lead to a feeling of disconnection. Both parties need to be mindful that they BOTH contribute to the success of the farm and family – and if partners aren’t talking, it can come down to trying to “keep score”; both feeling like they are working incredibly hard within their own silo, while their partner is frittering their time away and not contributing, understanding or supporting. Communication can help share the responsibility, and make a partnership feel more like a team. There can be crushing pressure to carry burdens by yourself. When there are feelings of being overwhelmed, a little help can go a long way. Great conversation and a willingness to communicate struggles or feelings can really assist in creating a better understanding of where each person is at in the relationship and in turn with the farm. And to ensure there is communication, there needs to be time and space – where better than on vacation!
At Applecross, I work off farm full time so Jeanne runs a lot of the day to day farm activities, the household and also owns and operates her own dance studio which runs 3 nights a week and week-ends (just not as many week-ends during calving!) Jeanne is often away from the farm for dance and, when she is gone, I naturally inherit all of her jobs. Can I do that while she is away? Sure! Do I skip the veggie aisle and purchase more protein and junk food as groceries when she is gone? You bet! Would I want to do that on a full time permanent basis? Heck no! (and we don’t even have kids!). So I think part of the mental health aspect is also ‘sustainability’. Absolutely – both partners are more than capable of running all aspects of the farm and household independently – and while things may be ‘doable’ in the short term, what does viable look like? Unfortunately, in real life, the hockey cliché of just ‘digging deep and giving 120% (while playing a full 60)’ really just isn’t a plausible answer. So the solution is to talk. Sometimes its just a matter of acknowledging challenges and completing some of the farm jobs together, and then working together on the household activities. But the key is communication. Discuss what the future looks like, and make decisions accordingly. Being away from the day to day pressures and interruptions of farm life is the perfect place to do so!
To be clear, I am not suggesting that we have it ‘all figured out’ and that taking a break from the farm will solve all of life’s problems, or that a person can plan for all of life’s curve balls. Kids don’t always happen (or not happen) based on a plan. We know! The proverbial farm next door doesn’t always come up for sale at the right time. But sometimes it does. (We know!) But mental health is something that isn’t talked about enough. Communication doesn’t happen like it should and on the farm, we have found that there just never really seems to be an extended break without interruptions. The least we can do is be mindful of the challenges of trying to have great conversation while on the farm, and adapt accordingly. A break ensures there is an opportunity to talk about the important things in life, which only increases the odds that we have thought through our future, and puts ourselves in our best position to succeed.
One additional side note: It is certainly my preference to travel through life with an absolutely amazing partner. I want to also recognize that it is very possible to have a completely fulfilling life while remaining single. I would also suggest that operating solo only underlines the importance of being able to get away. Operating on an individual basis translates to 100% responsibility for 100% of the jobs, so it becomes essential to get away and recharge. Preferably with someone you trust. To talk and to share. To talk about self care. And to provide a reminder that it simply isn’t sustainable to run life at 100% all of the time.
If the above process feels daunting, it gets substantially more complex when working within a bigger family farm operation. The dramatic rise in capital requirements to establish a viable farm continue to grow, and it only ‘makes sense’ to consider staying together as a family unit so that some of those capital costs can be shared. The offset is that larger family farms have more voices at the table and more complexities to work through – and it becomes even tougher to find time to take a vacation together! Multi-gen farm operations are certainly worthy of their own blog post (so there will be a ‘blue sky part 3’ in the future), as there are so many additional things to consider. It is just equally important for the ‘big’ farms to also have time to discuss strategy, logistics and what the future holds. A lot of this can be worked on with professionals – accountant, lawyer, banker. Consultants can be hired. But at the end of the day the wishes of the family need to be determined, pros and cons considered, a direction picked and then professionals engaged to make it happen in as cost effective a manner as possible. Time away together allows for these conversations to happen with everyone present.
My suggestion is simple. Please try to find some time to step away from the farm; have a vacation but, most importantly, time to talk. Time to talk about yourself, your partner and family, and your farm. Time without interruptions, and time to hopefully be reminded of why we do this in the first place. (I would also suggest that for any non-farmers reading this – I have been told there are like 5 of you – getaways are equally important – even without the farm). Reminisce about the past, evaluate the present and make plans for the future. A break from working, but not a break from the farm. We do it because we love it. Lets take the time to remember why, and share our thoughts with the people we love, to make ourselves a better tomorrow.
Until next time,
Dennis
Red Deer County 2025 Bull Sale Report (and other bull sale season thoughts)
Red Deer County 2025 Bull Sale Report (and other bull sale season thoughts)
It was a gorgeous spring day, with unseasonably warm temperatures, that brought a capacity crowd to the Innisfail Auction Market to see a diverse, multi-breed Red Deer County Bull sale on Saturday, March 8th. Now in our 15th year of consigning to this sale, it has steadily evolved and now includes a wide variety of Simmental, Angus, Hereford, and Charolais bulls on offer. The cattle markets continue to be very robust, and it was great to see some really impressive herd sire prospects.
With the multi-breed component now firmly embedded in the Red Deer County Bull Sale, it was the Red Simmentals turn to lead things off. Our good friends at Red Top, Ben & Kassandra Farrant brought a really impressive string to town and their lead bulls started off the day to rousing success. When it was time to present the Flecks, one of our bulls, Lot 68: APLX Payday 20M made sure that everyone was paying attention. This dark red, heavily pigmented, homo polled rascal also happened to be our pen heavyweight – not something you usually see in a heifer bull prospect! Payday’s arrival in the ring led to some very spirited bidding from notable purebred programs from across North America. When the gavel fell, Payday sold for an incredible $38,000 to Jeff Sorenson of Garretson, South Dakota. About a month prior to the sale, Jeff came up to walk through our bull pen and Payday quickly caught his eye. We are pretty excited to have our bull join his elite bull battery south of the border.
For the balance of the APLX string, we had a very solid day, with all of our bulls on offer finding great homes. Emilee Oro / Skylark Cattle Company, Clive (Slash), Valley’s Edge Farm, Eckville (Briggs) and Layden Land & Livestock, Innisfail (Jasper) were all repeat customers of Applecross Genetics, while Rich Simmentals, Calmar (Bono), Moonlite Farm, Fairview (Touchdown) and Keith Pengelly, Caroline (Top Gun) all acquired their first bull from us. It is always a treat to have new customers alongside repeat buyers continue to support our program. In all, it was a great day to watch our bulls sell!
Overall 105 bulls sold for a very impressive $9,533 average – a $1,000,000+ sale! One of the other things we noticed going over the sales report was the that top 5 bulls sold represented 5 different segments of the sale – a Fleck, Charolais, Red Angus, Red Simmental and Hereford were the top five sellers. Talk about a well balanced multi-breed bull sale!
We would be remiss not to recognize Jay Good, Cody Copeland, Darren Paget, Glen Norton and the Transcon team for doing a tremendous job working the phones and managing the sale. I can’t imagine the life those 4 gents (and the auctioneers, and their office team) lead for the crazy two months that is bull sale season – travelling across the prairie provinces with often only a day between sales. Taking calls. Making calls. Offering advice. Dealing with bidders. And buyers. And sellers. It is certainly an occupation built only for some! We really appreciate the work they all put in for us on behalf of Applecross Cattle.
Some additional thoughts on Red Deer 2025 and this years’ bull sale season:
- 2025 was the 2nd time we have ever had the overall high seller at a bull sale. The first was back in 2013 when APLX Axel 5Z was selected by MI Simmentals; Mike Imler for $11,200. Twelve years later, Axel is probably most well know for being the sire of MI Ms Dallas (dam of NAC Battle Cry 4F). With twelve years between topping sales, it is certainly an honour we don’t take lightly!
- We have only ever topped a heifer sale once. That was Fleckvieh Equation 2019 when Applecross Penny 8F was selected by Virginia Ranch for $14,500. Along with the bulk of the Viriginia Ranch cow herd, Penny now walks at Skywest and is fresh off producing a $20,000 bred heifer of her own in ‘Virginia Glamor Gal’ who sold at Western Harvest 2024.
- It is always rather cool, humbling and flattering when a fellow purebred breeder decides to add our genetics to their herd. High sellers are great – but we also love to see all our genetics find awesome new homes.
- For the 4th year in a row, a homozygous polled bull has been our high seller. Similar to when we started selling hetero polled cattle, there is currently a robust demand for homozygous bulls. At the same token, we feel they have to be quality animals to sell well. Customers have options – and there are many traits to be reviewed when selecting a bull – so just because a bull is polled or homozygous, doesn’t mean the sale price is automatically higher.
- I do find it somewhat surprising, but we still hear/see people comment that polled cattle are still somehow ‘deficient’ compared to their horned counterparts.
- My short answer to these comments would be as follows: one of the great things about the purebred cattle business is that every breeder is free to follow their own ideas on breed improvement. If you don’t like polled cattle. Perfectly Fine. Breed horned. Nothing is stopping you.
- My longer answer is that people who suggest such must have a different perspective on where they feel the market for cattle genetics is headed. We see the market for polled cattle continuing to increase, and have been more than adequately compensated for our investment and development of polled cattle. Everyone can’t be the same – and life would be pretty boring if we all were! But I would suggest that the dramatic rise in the number and quality of polled genetics would suggest that the polled trait is here to stay.
- This concept can be extrapolated beyond polled. It doesn’t matter if it is red, black, 100% fleck, full fleck, high percentage fleck, horned, polled, goggled, or traditional painted up Simmental. We have an incredibly diverse breed with quality across every segment! Breed the cattle you enjoy, have a focus and become good at it! The market rewards quality, useful cattle, so follow your own vision (while also ensuring you can make a buck). That is the fun of being a purebred cattle breeder!
- One of the great side effects of all the interest in polled, is that there are more options to choose from! Our own search for genetics led us to Quebec and FSMB Millenium 13M to add as our new walking heifer bull. With a pedigree that reads: Gold Trigger x Magnum x Dirty Harry, his genetics aren’t necessarily new, but pack a certain consistency that should dovetail well in our heifer pen. With pretty cool pigmentation and quiet as a kitten, we look forward to his impact on our program as we move forward.
- One thing I have noticed about people during my off farm career that definitely applies to cattle breeders: Don’t just listen to what people say. See how they act as well. In the context of cattle, this translates into watching what breeders are buying and not just what they are selling. A purebred breeder has to market and promote what they have on hand (and thus that is what they will focus on talking about), but actions on what genetics are being added to a herd tends to reveal more about their longer term direction. It takes a long time to incorporate new genetics into a herd. A bull bought in 2025 will have their first calves on the ground in 2026, with the first sons on offer selling in 2027 – and the first daughters won’t calve until 2028. And that is the earliest new genetics make their way through a program! So it takes time for a new bull to make an impact – and prove themselves. If you admire a program and want to ‘follow’ it, keep a closer eye on their buying decisions vs what they may have on offer.
- Closer to home, we continue to make changes and invest in our operation.
- We spent considerable time and energy making improvements and revamping our bull development facility in 2024 with more tweaks planned for 2025.
- We have talked openly about our struggles with semen testing our yearling bulls in the past, and while our reno’s appear to have helped in that regard, we still had a few younger bulls that didn’t pass their tests in time.
- While we do agree with our vet that we ask a tremendous amount of a yearling Simmental bull – that needs to test and measure up at 12 months of age – we do compare to our peers who seem to have more luck. So there are more changes we can make, and hopefully we can keep increasing the odds of a successful test.
- (If I can get my thoughts together, I hope to do a deeper dive into the world of bull development and semen testing in a future blog post).
- The importance of the bull pen will certainly ring true for 2026, as we have an absolutely massive bull calf crop coming up. We ran 2:1 bulls this year, and we look forward to making some hard decisions at weaning time. Our bull calf crop is dominated by sons of our ‘Journey’ and ‘Tombstone’ walking bulls, so we expect a very consistent bull string for 2026.
- We are also keeping an eye on our bred heifer pen. With ‘Shades of Fall’ being a couple months earlier than December’s Equation, the selection process also starts earlier. We tentatively have 8 heifers that we are considering, but there are some milestones they still need to achieve. Every animal we sell carries our prefix, so we need to be happy with every single one of them!
For fifteen years now, it has been great to be part of the Red Deer County Bull Sale. Public auction is a great forum to get feedback on the program we are building at Applecross. We strive to produce top quality cattle, and every year provides the opportunity for feedback and ideas on what we could do differently. Some years we have the euphoria of a super high seller – other years, we don’t – but not a year goes by that we don’t learn how to do things a little better for next year. It is simply so important to continue to receive tips and advice on how to make improvements to our program.
With the bull sale now in the rear-view mirror, and breeding season underway, the breeding groups have finally been decided for the year as the excitement to incorporate new genetics competes with genetic combinations that have worked so well in the past. We look forward to the challenge of developing more, different and better genetics for future years.
Until Next Time,
Dennis
Ten For the Times: Applecross Cattle Present our 2025 Red Deer Bull Sale String
We are pleased to present ten herd bull prospects at Transcon’s 2025 Red Deer Bull Sale on Saturday, March 8th at 1:00pm at the Innisfail Auction Market, Innisfail, Alberta. This is already our fifteenth year at this event, and we are proud to be included in the strong offering that is always presented by this progressive group of breeders.
After a bumper bull calf crop, our ten bulls on offer will be our most versatile bull string yet – clearly showcasing our breeding philosophy. We firmly believe that the future will bring an increased herd size on the same amount of available labour. This means that with less labour available on a per cow basis, birth weights will come down to improve calving ease, and that gradually more and more horns will be bred off the cattle. We have moved slowly to incorporate the polled gene into our herd, as our goal is to try and accomplish this while maintaining the strong performance and mothering ability the Simmental breed is known for. While EPD’s have their limitations, we have noticed that most Fleckvieh genetics are typically either Top Percentile for calving and bottom percentile for growth, or vice-versa. It has been our goal to move more to the middle and produce bulls who will calve out, that are more than just ‘heifer bulls’, and performance bulls that aren’t ‘hard calvers’. In a word – versatile – bulls that can be utilized in a variety of situations, without representing the extremes of the breed.
Individual pages (short-cut links are located in the right-hand column) have been created for all ten of our bulls on offer, and will provide a deeper look into each individual animal, including multi-generations of the cow families and sires that back them. Maternal lines are very important to us, and we feel that behind every great bull is an outstanding cow family.
This year we are rather excited to debut our first Virginia Journey 509K and BLL Tombstone 223K sons. When we set out to add new walking bulls in 2023, our focus was on ‘something proven’ and ‘something different’ and we were successful in adding both! Under the ‘proven’ category was Journey – a Synergy x Radison son backed by the Willows Jade cow family. The Synergy-Radison combo has been incredibly popular in the industry. We have been very impressed with the curve bending calving ease plus performance of his calves – to the point where with his second calf crop on the ground, we are now confident in using Journey on heifers! Take a close look at both ‘Zorro’ and ‘Jagger’! In our quest for ‘something different’ we selected Tombstone from our good friends at Beechinor Land & Livestock. It was during a summer pasture tour that Tombstone caught my eye – he just strutted his stuff with incredible eye appeal that make him really stand out. A different genetic twist with Great Guns Wyatt, Tombstone is also backed by a cow family we know very well in Eagle Ridge Unbelievable 1U. Tombstone’s first three sons will sell in Innsifail in ‘Top Gun’, ‘Tundra’ and ‘Touchdown’. We are confident that both of these young herd bulls will have a tremendous impact on our herd, and consider this just a taste test – as our 2025 bull calf crop is dominated by these two exciting young sires.
2025 will also represent the last natural born Black Gold Battleborn herd sire prospects. The Battleborn progeny have led our sales strings the past few years, and have done incredibly well for us averaging $11,000+. Two Battleborn sons will be on offer in Innisfail – both with really cool dams. ‘Briggs’ is out of our Skywest Franceca, a really impressive Duramax daughter, and together they made a very impressive pair during our World Congress tours. ‘Bono’ has a little different genetic twist that combines our two most prominent cow families in Lady Western 48R and Spruceburn Pauline. Bono also comes Homozygous polled. Thick made, great hair coats, and a unique balance of performance and moderate birthweights have been a hallmark of Battleborn’s progeny.
In addition to our walking bulls, we also have an intriguing mix of bulls from AI sires that range from classic (Jahari – ‘Jasper’), to proven (Elevation – ‘Slash’) and calving ease (Pilot – ‘Payday’). We continue to try and diversify our genetic base and incorporate some of our favourite horned sires into what is now our predominantly polled cow herd. We also continue to leverage AI extensively on heifers with ‘Payday’ offering a highly intriguing blend of calving ease and high end maternal genetics all wrapped up in a homozygous polled package!
We want to ensure our bulls will work for many years, so feet, legs and temperament are very important traits for us. The bulls are housed in a 5 acre paddock to ensure lots of exercise, and have been developed on a ration of free-choice quality first cut hay, combined with a forage based pellet by Country Junction. All ten bulls are quiet and used to being around people. We like working and walking through docile cattle, and feel the herd bull should be no exception.
We also think it is worth mentioning that in order to provide exclusivity to the new owners, we do not retain a semen interest in our bulls. We think there is value maintaining exclusivity – and use the same approach when we do our own bull shopping. We want the buyer to have the advantage in every way to succeed with a new bull purchase.
The 2025 Red Deer Bull Sale promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great day on March 8th at the Innisfail Auction Mart!
A (very) Little Prayer
It was a miserable, blustery, late November day – the kind of day that makes you feel in your bones that winter was right around the corner. Our corral cleaners were finally finishing up in the yard – getting the manure spread on our pastures to support another growing season. Despite all of the planning that we do, there always seems to be a frantic rush to get the fall work done while we could, and prepare our winter ‘calving quarters’ for another year. The cows had already been moved ‘home’ – not quite to the corrals that were now freshly cleaned, but close enough that we could see them from the house (and close enough that feeding the cows hay wasn’t too much travel). With calving just over a month away, we liked having our ‘cattle circle’ get tighter, leading to a little closer attention, with daily walkthroughs to see who is progressing to schedule. In most cases, we just wanted to re-establish a base line for what ‘normal’ looked like so that we could hopefully tell when something didn’t look ‘right’.
It was that morning, November 21st, when Jeanne came in after her walkthrough, to share the news: “Paprika is looking off – I think she is aborting”. Paprika was one of our first calf heifers and was a star-headed, big volume beauty that we retained to add to our herd. From our living room window, Paprika’s unique colour pattern allowed us to keep an eye on her. As the day progressed, all the (literal) tell ‘tail’ signs starting showing – she was restless – her tail would go up – and she separated herself from the rest of the herd. Jeanne walked through again at noon and confirmed – Paprika was in the process of aborting. Early afternoon, her pattern changed. She was standing still; licking something on the ground. Figuring that she had passed her fetus, we thought we’d give her some time to ‘grieve’ before getting too involved.
It was about 4pm when Jeanne went out for a closer inspection. The calf was all clean and Paprika was standing over it protectively. Then the calf moved! Much to our surprise. The calf was alive.
So what do you do with a tiny little calf born 6 weeks early? We do what we think all farmers/ranchers do. We do the best we can to the extent of our abilities.
We were fortunate in one sense. This wasn’t our first experience working with a very premature calf. The first time it happened, we were successful with a little girl named ‘Hope’ that had the fight and willpower to survive. And those experiences with Hope made us a little bit ‘hope’-ful, that as things worked out before, maybe they would again! The other side was that, calves born so prematurely tend to be aborted for a reason – so what if we weren’t going to be so lucky with this one?
With thoughts swirling in our heads, we knew we were ‘on the clock’ and needed to get started. The first priority was to get the calf inside to ensure it was warm enough, which would also allow us to have a closer look to determine next steps. Our challenge was, of course, that our corrals were completely ripped apart so they could be cleaned. Virtually our entire yard site at Applecross is modular by design. The thought process is, that there is simply so much more versatility gained by utilizing portable panels that can be moved, reconfigured and expanded over the years – not to mention be moved right out of the way when it’s clean out time! New ideas (and more cows!) meant we had a tremendous amount of flexibility. The downside was, that when ‘stuff’ happens while we have the place apart, it isn’t very conducive to managing a baby calf! We did have gates that we could close to eliminate road access for the cows, so we decided to get the calf, and hopefully mom would follow.
With the two of us, we headed back out to the field to get down to work. Her momma wasn’t really sure what was up, but knew that the little brown bundle was ‘hers’ and something she should be protecting. And if there is one thing I have learned over the years, it was to always be careful around a cow with a newborn. It can change cows. And for a first calf heifer, Paprika was all mama. It took a little back and forth – and both of us – but we managed to get the calf onto the calving sled, and then transfer the sled to the back of the gator. With the calf secured, we decided to head for the barn and get the calf warm – mom could wait until we had the calf stabilized and comfortable.
After finding some straw to make the little calf a nest under a couple of heat lamps, we could finally take a temperature. It was a little low, but not near as cold as we feared. We took a few minutes to assess overall health. Certainly not much hair, the hooves were still soft, and we weren’t sure that eyesight was fully functional (yet). We were happy to determine it was a heifer though. For whatever reason, we have found heifer calves born of trauma tend to have more ‘fight’ in them (and are typically at the other end of the spectrum of ‘big dumb bulls’)…so seeing that she was lively and a heifer did give us a little more hope. We have always been told that getting some milk in the calf was also vital. We weren’t stocked for calving yet, but a frantic call to a neighbour found some colostrum close at hand (thanks Stacey!). With the calf so small, we only made up a partial dose, as we knew she’d only have a tiny tummy.
With the calf stable and warm, inside and out, next step was re-uniting her with mom. Paprika was still looking for her calf, but was really uncertain about heading towards the barn. Thankfully, we have a few cows that we utilize as ‘Judas cows’ (traitors), that know what a grain bucket means and don’t mind following people if they know they’ll get a ‘treat’ at the end of the journey. Once we got Paprika partnered up with a Judas cow and separated from the rest of the herd, our traitor knew to follow the gator, which meant Paprika also tagged along. It (again) took a little bit of back and forth, but eventually we got both mom and our Judas cow to the barn.
The next step was getting Paprika – as a first calf heifer – IN the barn, a place she hadn’t been since she herself was a newborn calf. In a normal scenario, prior to their due date, we train our first calf heifers to come in the barn a few times so they get comfortable being in over night (bribed with a little treat for their time). This process typically reduces stress at calving, as they are ‘more’ used to being in the barn and can focus on their new baby (which is a big enough change!) So again, with the Judas cow (knowing there was a treat involved), eventually we were able to coax the new mom into the barn to be re-united with her baby. We did ensure they had a fair bit of space. We didn’t want mom panicking and stepping on her calf – alone in a barn she had barely been in, that didn’t even ‘smell’ like cows yet this season. But we wanted them close enough together that they could start bonding. Certainly a tricky balance! And with that step complete, we took a break for a couple of hours (but could still check on them from the house via our cameras).
We went back out to the barn just before bed to see if we could make more progress. While store-bought ‘powdered’ colostrum works for emergencies, it has always been our preference to use ‘mama’s milk’ whenever we could. Sensing (if we were successful) that Paprika would need to get used to us working with her, we thought it was time to get her in the maternity pen headgate so we could strip some colostrum. With a foot secured with a rope, mom safely, (but unhappily) allowed us to hand milk her. Equipped with a small milk bottle meant for sheep, that we had kept on hand since our previous experience with ‘Hope’, Paprika’s baby already had quite the suck reflex. The milk from the smaller sheep bottle disappeared very quickly. Sensing progress, tired and exhausted, we went to bed for the night – content that we had done what we could – and hopeful that the next day would bring continued milestones.
This maternity pen routine carried on for the next few days. Jeanne and I worked together to get Paprika back in the headgate each morning; ensuring we also got enough milk for a lunch time feeding while I was at work. Evenings after Jeanne’s dance classes wrapped up, led to another trip to the headgate for Paprika and an evening snack before bed. While the little girl really enjoyed her bottle, we’ve always tried to get calves sucking from their dam as soon as possible, so our next ‘big step’ was to try and get the little one standing so she could start to do more on her own. After giving her a snack, we would work with her to get her legs going. Starting at the back end, we assisted her to tri-pod her back legs to put weight on them. She gradually got steadier and then, with a hand under her chest we helped her stand on all four legs. It certainly was a project, with lots of falls, and not always linear progress, but on the evening of day 3 she was able to stand on her own.
With mom safely back in the maternity pen headgate, our next step was getting her to drink fresh milk from mama. Some continued persistence and with help from both of us, she quickly found the natural spigots – and was very happy there were 4 of them! The next morning brought another trip to the maternity pen headgate for Paprika, and another small drink for her calf. She seemed a little more steady on her front feet, and had more energy. So we started thinking bigger picture. As we had a similar experience (with Hope) a few years ago, we looked back over our notes to see what all we did ‘last time’. We weighed her and she came in at only 40lbs! We also treated with Dex (which helps to lubricate the lungs which when born premature can be an issue), and gave the calf a broad-based antibiotic, as we knew that her immune system wouldn’t have been developed. We also consulted our vet (and some trusted cattle friends) for anything we may have missed, but were cautiously optimistic as the calf continued to make progress. At lunch time, she only needed one of us to help her get a drink, and then 24 hours later she was able to stand and nurse on her own – and could balance herself right underneath her mom! Milestones and progress certainly brought smiles!
With the baby calf gradually improving, our next step was figuring out a name. We had been calling her ‘Two-point-oh’ for the first week (as in Hope 2.0), as we consciously made the decision not to name her for a week because we were trying not to get any more attached than we already were. We always named our calves at birth, and while our numbers have increased over the years, it is a process we still find both manageable and fun. For heifer calves we typically follow the name of the dam, and in this case, Paprika was the legacy of our popular (and prolific) ‘P’ cow family that started all the way back in 2010 when we acquired Spruceburn Pauline as a bred heifer. Pauline gave us ‘Poppy’ who gave us ‘Piper’, who gave us ‘Pepper’ who provided us with “Paprika’, so the new calf would be the 6th generation of this cow family to walk here. After a fair bit of consideration, there was one name that seemed to fit for our premature little baby: ‘Prayer’. Certainly a lot of thoughts were sent skyward during the formative hours of Prayer’s young life, so the name stuck.
With little Prayer now drinking on her own, we were able to settle into more of a routine. We set up the rest of the barn , and gradually shifted from 3x a day nursing in the maternity pen, to finally having her do things on her own. In reality, Prayer figured things out very quickly, but those first few days were very intense and time consuming. In all, it took just over a week before she was able to nurse on her own in the ‘big pen’ of our calving barn – with only a bribe for mom, and the odd bit of assistance. Paprika never really warmed to the barn – and didn’t appreciate all the extra attention – although she still enjoyed the pellets, she just never seemed content…so after about a week in the barn, mom went outside for most of the day, while young Prayer stayed inside in the warmth.
When the next two calves arrived on Christmas day, we decided we might as well weigh all three. Prayer was 90lbs! So she certainly had progressed a long way – more than doubling her body weight in just over a month. With other calves around to socialize with, and us knowing that our peak calving window was right in front of us, we also started letting Prayer spend some time outside. Her hair had grown in, and while we were still concerned about an underdeveloped immune system, we knew that fresh air would be good for her. So she became used to leaving the barn in the morning, and then sneaking back inside at night time when the temperature dropped. Even in February, we would bring her back in the barn when nights dropped below -20. It was important for her to meet and bond with other calves, but we wanted to continue to give her, her best chance at success.
As winter turned to spring, and spring to summer, Prayer continued to progress. Despite her early birthdate, she was never one of the ‘big girls’, and we also suspect that her early arrival (and small tummy) impacted the amount of milk her dam produced. Come summer though, as the pictures will attest, she certainly stood with her group. She has grown A LOT of hair to make up for her early start, and continues to look like she has her genetic potential. She still has a few hurdles to pass – breeding in the spring – calving out in 2026 – but we remain cautiously optimistic. She even won the genetic lottery and tested homozygous polled. So certainly a great combination of determination, perseverance and luck! We look forward to continuing to work with her and hopefully those milestones will continue to be passed!
Ranching is not an easy occupation. We lose calves. Sometimes for reasons we aren’t sure of. An aborted calf can be simply another aborted calf. And then other times, we have our ‘Hope’ and we have our ‘Prayer’. Time that we invest. Willingly. As caretakers of our herd. It doesn’t always work out, but when it does we wanted to share the story. There can be so much negative in our chosen profession, and it is a profession that is often undertaken alone, so hopefully sharing our experience can help. Sometimes, Prayers are answered, and our efforts are rewarded, with a determined little girl that will always be our Prayer.
Until next time,
Dennis
2024 Shades of Fall Sale Report (and a few other thoughts)
It was an absolutely gorgeous Canadian Thanksgiving week-end to hold the inaugural ‘Shades of Fall’ Simmental Sale at Beechinor Land & Livestock on Saturday October 12th. Sunny skies and unseasonably warm weather lead to a busy debut for the new sale, with lots of traffic and a palpable buzz in the air. Our new group of consignors joined together to bring 34 lots of Fleckvieh and Red Simmental females to the party to the tune of a $551,000 gross for a really cool $16,206 average.
It was very fitting to start the sale with Lot 1, the BLL Couture 663D Flush. Couture is, of course, the dam of the $355,000 sensation BLL Rumble, as well as the World Sale standout BLL Crimson Tide. The opportunity to flush this elite female to the bull of the buyers choice led to a rousing start to the day. In the end, it was Mark Land & Cattle from Irma, AB who invested $33,000 to flush Couture next February . The Couture flush was backed by the opportunity to acquire her daughter – Lot 2 – BLL Elegance 317L a little later in the sale. This deep and broody powerhouse bred heifer had a tremendous number of admirers, and was selected by Circle E Farm, Genry & Heather Ellison, Lucedale Mississippi, for $27,500. What a way to kick off to the sale – it will be very interesting to see the Couture influence flourish across the continent!
Our very own lot 24, ‘Applecross Rachel 60K,’ had the honour of being the third lot sold. ‘Rachel’ has long been a favourite of ours and she was difficult for us to sell, but at the same time, we knew she would be the perfect representative to showcase our program. With the World Congress in Calgary this summer, we started to get used to the idea that maybe we should market her – and when we decided to join in a new sales group, Rachel became a natural fit to showcase exactly the progress we’ve made with polled Fleckvieh cattle. She was certainly the most talked about female that we have ever produced, so it was truly rewarding to see her sell to the BBBG Group in Quebec for $32,000. We are stunned by the result and look forward to seeing what she does (and how she’ll be bred), in la belle province.
Throughout the afternoon, the sale alternated between each consignor and wove the red heifers into a couple of groups between the Flecks. These were the first Red Top breds to sell at auction, and they were a very consistent group from top to bottom. (Not that I know anything about red cattle, but…) My personal pick of the Red Top string was lot 20 – a really nice Bootlegger daughter that was selected by Crossroads Farms for $21,000. The Century string was also impressive, with their lot 36, Century Liz 333L leading off their string. This big broody female with a little different pedigree dropped the gavel at $22,000 and is headed north to Polar Farms in the Peace Country. It is cool to see Polar Farms join the consignors at the early December, Western Harvest Sale in Innisfail, so maybe we will see Liz’s progeny there in the future!
All six of our Applecross heifers were very well received, and we couldn’t be happier with the great operations that they will now call home. Lot 24 Applecross Dana will be staying at our place through calving until March before heading for embryo collection to be exported to Jeff Knox, Knox Farms, NSW Australia. Jeff also selected Dana’s maternal sister Deirdre from our 2023 Equation string (as well as lot 11 BLL Linnea 343L from Shades), and has been active in a couple other sales this fall, so it is rather neat to see the pen of donors he is assembling. Jonny Kline of JEM Simmentals at Barrhead was the successful bidder on our lot 26 ‘Viola’ heifer, and we look forward to seeing what he does with that big volume female. Our Lot 27, ‘Sonya’ heifer also got to take a long truck ride – as she headed to Norwood Family Farm in Westport, Ontario. Charlie Norwood has known my parents for quite a number of years, and we have enjoyed the chance to visit on a few occasions here in Alberta, so it was wonderful to have him select ‘Sonya’! ‘Charlene’ and ‘Danica’ headed in opposite directions, with Charlene heading north to Vanderhoof in the BC interior, after being selected by Brock Young/Red Iron Simmentals, and Danica heading to Stavely in Southern Alberta to join the Browns at MCG Simmentals. MCG has joined the Southern Round-Up Group, so we look forward to seeing their cattle in mid December at that long running sale. In all, a great day for new homes for Applecross Cattle!
In addition to the above noted high-sellers, I thought we would share some additional thoughts on the first edition of Shades of Fall:
- I can’t say enough about our hosts, Stefon & Rebecca Beechinor. It takes some ‘gumption’ to follow your dreams, and step out and start your own sale. I can only imagine that first conversation with Transcon….’you want to do what?? With who?? And how many head??’. And from top to bottom it was a really cool day, with everything coming together fabulously well. The results certainly speak for themselves!
- Shades did line up very well with Black Gold and Anchor D / Pasture Treasure Sales immediately preceding our new event. Following September Simmental Week-ends in both Quebec and Ontario, we had the first of several ‘Alberta Simmental week-ends’ of the fall, and I think travellers from out of province really appreciated having the opportunity for sales back to back in the same geographic proximity.
- We are also super thankful to have Dan Skeels as our auctioneer; specifically since it was only the day after his own sale – so we really appreciate him taking the time to work with us. Having known Dan since the early 1990’s when he auctioned the ‘Fleckvieh Forum’ sale in Ontario for my parents, it was a treat to have him auction his first Applecross females almost 30 years later.
- This was our first ‘video’ sale, and it is something I would highly recommend. There was a little more cost involved for professional videos, but the benefit of having 1) a quality video available in advance, and 2) the animals not being stressed by having to walk through the ring, more than offset any perceived ‘loss of bids’ from those in attendance who may have otherwise ‘acted on impulse’ with a live animal in front of them. Not that it was a material issue (with only 34 lots), but it also meant a much ‘shorter’ sale, so we could get back to visiting!
- We are clearly incredibly happy with how our first ‘Shades’ sale went. But we will miss (parts) of Fleckvieh Equation. We don’t make change lightly, and Equation was a very good sale for us over the years – a lot of ‘what to do’ and ‘when to do it’ regarding sale prep and presentation we learned from that sale. Jay / Transcon’s continued focus on having an avenue where ‘new breeders’ (or at least new to the sales barn), can get their start is a testament to his vision of helping breeders of all shapes and sizes get a lift, while creating networking and bonding opportunities to connect to others that may also just be starting out. It is a great sale concept, and I am sure they will have another bang up year in 2024
- We won’t miss the wash racks or the late December concerns of heavy in calf breds on a truck to their new homes though!
- It is a bit of a weird feeling to have our heifers sold, with (most) of our buying options still in front of us. I have shared previously that we always try to ‘add’ each fall and re-invest in building our cow herd. There are a number of criteria (the six/seven P’s from a previous blog post still explain them well). But the condensed version is that we are interested in adding females that we feel have the potential to improve our herd, while also representing outcross genetics. With a smaller herd, every female matters – so they need to bring something to the table. It is very nice having our own sold so I am not just ‘guessing’ at a budget (says the banker). I look forward to the hunt for better and different!
- In the lead up to sales, we often get asked ‘what do you think they’ll sell for?’. And the short answer to that question is that I have no idea. I have a personal opinion of our cattle, and readily acknowledge we are both ‘barn blind’ and often REALLY like our cattle on offer. Other than knowing how much interest we have, and potentially giving some guidance on what our bulls or heifers have averaged in past years crossed against the current commercial cattle market, we can’t really provide much guidance.
- And that is the fun (and challenge) of selling all our cattle via auction. It always takes at least two potential buyers to move the price higher. We have had years where we have sold animals for less than what we had hoped for. We have had years where we have bought animals for less than what our budget was. And still other years where we may have missed on our ‘favourites’ from the season. The common thread is that you have to be ready/willing to bid. And you need to know your limit (and stay within it – mostly!). Because you just never know. Its an auction.
- With our sale heifers now all in their new homes, our thoughts have drifted toward calving and bull sale season. Calving 2025 will be dominated by our two, two-year old walking bulls – Virginia Journey 509K (Synergy x Radison) and BLL Tombstone 223K (Great Guns Wyatt x Titanium). Both had very successful first calf crops, and due to the unfortunate (and unplanned) early departure of Black Gold Battleborn, they bred the bulk of our herd. Each has its own positives (we felt comfortable using Journey on some heifers; Tombstone offers a little different pedigree than most), so it will be fun to see how the genetic possibilities line up.
- It is also the first time ever that I think I like our bull calf group better than our heifer calf group in development. As Jeanne said at weaning ‘you wanted this!’, so while it meant some tough decisions, we whittled 25 bull calves down to 11 really cool individuals, and have been super happy with how they have transitioned since weaning. With genetic testing freshly in hand, I can only smile. I think early March in Red Deer could be fun!
- I can already share that Jeanne’s favourite is ‘Payday’. And yes, he’ll do. The footnotes will also just write themselves ‘make every day. Payday.’ hey-o!
- Our summer project was to revamp our bull development area and add more wind breaks. We didn’t want to take away from exercise space, as it is important for young bulls to move and keep their feet under them, so we added a number of portable panels while still allowing them space to roam. Our winters can be brutal, so hopefully a little more protection will certainly be of value come semen test day!
- I don’t want to imply that I don’t like my heifers…they are coming along nicely as well, and we hope to potentially have 8-10 to offer at Shades 2025. There just may not be a ‘Rachel’ in the group. I don’t think it is realistic to have a ‘Rachel’ every year. But it is both a lot of fun trying, and a lot of fun when it happens!
- With that, it brings me back full circle to Shades 2024. Not only were Stefon & Becca great hosts, it was really cool to work with Ben & Kassandra and Jesse & Kirsten. Everybody pitched in to help out before/during/after the sale, and us four couples all have a similar ‘vibe’. We look forward to next year and many more years of the same!
- We were also blessed to have Jeanne’s two sisters and their husbands join us for the sale (and Thanksgiving week-end). Many hands make light work, and they meshed seamlessly with our sales crew – Jackie, Julie, Larry & Andrew were all a great help that we really appreciated! Andrew’s pictures will form great memories of the day!
I can’t close without saying a few words about Transcon, our Sales Management team. Jay, Darren, Glen and Cody always do a quality, professional job – and spend significant amounts of time on the phone – talking – while walking animals out of their pens to check feet, and allow buyers to select animals with confidence. Sales Management remains a long term gig – if a prospective buyer on order isn’t happy with their purchase they won’t be back. It is foundational to have mutual trust in a Sales Management team, and we have that with Transcon.
It was another great day to present Applecross cattle at auction, and we are honoured by the compliments received on our cattle from all the bidders and buyers that took interest in our program. You never know with a new sale venture, or what each year may bring – so it was very rewarding to have an absolutely smashing day. We look forward to trying to showcase our ongoing efforts to produce high-quality genetics that we can share with the industry.
Until next time,
Dennis
Applecross Cattle Presents: Our 2024 ‘Shades of Fall’ Heifers
We are delighted to present six bred heifers at the inaugural Shades of Fall Simmental Female Sale on October 12th at 1pm a the Beechinor Land & Livestock Sale Facility, located near Bentley, Alberta. We were very excited to be asked to join this prestigious event, and we are proud to be teaming up with these three fellow breeders!
When thinking about our selections this year, they could simply be summed up in one word: progress. It has been a long road weaving the polled gene into Fleckvieh cattle, and we can say without a doubt that these ladies on offer are our strongest, deepest line up yet. This is the result of more than 25 years of slowly incorporating polled genetics and striving for quality, predictable matrons that are the type a herd can be built around. From Lot 24 (Rachel) to Lot 29 (Danica), we are excited to see what these ladies are capable of – and what better place to showcase it then at a new sale!
Our breeding philosophy continues to focus on strong maternal lines across the group, with deep extended pedigrees to ensure quality and consistency. The heifers have been double vaccinated, and have been pregnancy tested to the dates listed. 2024 was another year of drought in Central Alberta, and what little rain there was always seemed to split and go around Applecross. Our pastures were materially weaker, but we feel our Fleckviehs continue to showcase that easy doing ability the breed is known for. Our sale heifers have certainly needed only a little TLC to prep for sale day.
Individual pages (short-cut links are on the right), have been created for each of ‘Rachel’, ‘Dana’, ‘Viola’, ‘Sonya’, ‘Charlene’ and ‘Danica’. On the individual pages, we have also pictured their sires, dams and siblings – hopefully, sharing pictures will provide a better glimpse into the extended pedigree.
Please join us for some unique ‘Shades Hospitality’ on Saturday, both before and after the sale, when it will be great to visit and view cattle at the newly renovated BLL Sales Facility near Bentley. Please check out our social media on Facebook and Instagram (@aplxcattle) for more details on each of our sale animals, as well as videos that will follow over the next few days. If you have any questions about our heifers or our program, please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to visiting with you on Canadian Thanksgiving week-end!
Our Red Deer County 2024 Sale Report (and a Few Other Thoughts)
It was a gorgeous early spring day, with mild temperatures, lots of sunshine, and an absolute capacity crowd on hand to watch 119 lots of pure beef bulls roll through the Innisfail Auction Mart for Transcon’s Red Deer County Bull Sale. The multi-breed concept expanded again this year, so there was a broad selection of bulls on offer, representing Simmental, Angus, Hereford and Charolais genetics with an impressive amount of diversity within each breed – horned or polled; red, black or fullblood – there were simply lots of options to choose from!
The lead bulls rotated back to Simmental this year, and the sale started off with some palpable excitement as the first BEE Alpha sons were set to lead off the Red Deer 2024. We were at Beechinor’s the day that Ben & Kassandra Farrant selected BEE Alpha 915J, and if we recall correctly they paid $120,000 for the privilege. You wouldn’t think it possible to ever fly under the radar with a $120,000 bull purchase, but with the record setting ‘Rumble’ also selling that day, the ‘Alpha’ acquisition was maybe a little overlooked. The whole pen of Alpha sons were incredibly impressive; with none more so than Lot 10, Red Top Mr 108L. After some very spirited bidding, the gavel slammed home at $80,000, with Labatte Simmentals and Circle 7, from Shaunavon, SK emerging as the successful bidders! An amazing way to kick off the day, and rather cool to have the lead bull selected to work the legendary pastures at Labatte’s! We have gotten to know Ben & Kassandra over the years as we have been part of the same bull and heifers sales, and it is absolutely incredible to see their passion for elite purebred cattle shine though and be rewarded in the sales ring. It can be tremendously stressful to step out and invest heavily in purebred genetics, and it takes years to develop a program and weave different genetic lines together, so it was so awesome to see their success!
It was also a record day for Applecross Cattle. In the lead up to the sale, we received a lot of interest in this years’ bull string, specifically in our two homozygous polled bulls. We were really happy in the condition all our sale bulls were in and thought they were a pretty neat group that each had their own merits (and personalities!). The challenge with auctions is that you always need at least two bidders to be interested in the same bull for the price to move higher, and we certainly did more than alright in that regard in 2024! APLX Conway 23L, our lot 103 bull, was selected by Forden Fairview Farm / Lyle & Leanne Forden of Punnichy SK for $30,000, and has already made the trip to Saskatchewan, where he got off the truck and went straight to work! Meanwhile, lot 98, APLX Bastion 17L was selected for $23,000 by Jensen Simmentals in Osawatomie, Kansas, and will be leaving this week for his new home in the sunny south. Steve Jensen also selected a bred heifer (Applecross Abigail) from us at Equation 2023, so we certainly appreciate all his interest and support over the past few months! Lot 104, APLX Convoy 12L, also gets a lengthy truck-ride as he’ll be headed for Big Hills Simmentals, Sandy Lake, MB, while lot 99 APLX Biggio 30L, gets to stay close to home after being acquired by Ryan Layden / Layden Land & Livestock Ltd, from Red Deer County. Ryan was a repeat buyer for us, after selecting ‘Dillon’ from us back in 2021. It is always special to see customers return for more bulls. We were incredibly happy with our sales results, and its rather cool that three of our bulls will be working for fellow purebred breeders!
Overall, the sale averaged a very impressive $9,710, with 55 Simmentals averaging $10,486. 8 Charolais averaged $9,938, with 8 Black Angus averaging $10,688, 17 Herefords averaging $6,882 and 6 Red Angus averaging 9,000. It was great to have success throughout the auction across so many of the consignors!
Once again we need to recognize the team at Transcon for doing a tremendous job working the phones and managing the sale. The Red Deer County Bull Sale is part of an extremely busy stretch of events, and we appreciate the time and energy Jay Good, Glen Norton, Darren Paget, and Cody Coupland invest to ensure we have a successful sale. We are confident in referring inquiries we receive to the Transcon Team, for an unbiased and independent opinion of our cattle. They were constantly on the phone and in our pens, taking pictures of feet, watching the bulls walk out and passing their findings back to prospective buyers. With our three lead bulls all being selected by ‘Transcon on Order’ they were certainly busy! Every year has different bulls and different buyers (looking for different things), and their efforts may not always be as tangible as they were this year, but we always appreciate all of their hard work! We look forward to working with them again later in the year at Fleckvieh Equation!
A few additional thoughts on Red Deer 2024:
- A common theme on our two high sellers were certainly the homo-polled heads, but I also think that the non-dilutor status also made a difference in their sale price. We have tested for the dilutor gene for a number of years now, and it is another trait on our list that we check for. We have walked several dilutor carrier bulls over the years, so it isn’t a ‘deal breaker’, but we wouldn’t be doing our job of we weren’t noticing traits our customers also select for.
- We had another tough year on the semen testing front, with 5 of our 10 bulls making it to sale day. While the reasons did vary a bit, we have certainly done a lot of reflecting on our program and how we can improve things going forward. (It is said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results). We are looking to our wintering area as a spot that may need an upgrade.
- One of the downsides of wintering our sale bulls in a 5 acre paddock is that they don’t always have protection from the elements when it is -50 or when there is a -20 degree windchill…so maybe we can create a balance – where they have access to a larger space (to exercise and travel to keep their feet under them), but then also have the ability to confine them to a smaller, protected area once ‘hard winter’ hits. Things to think about; changes to make; as it simply doesn’t make economic sense to raise bulls that just end up in the meat ring. We can never be perfect, (and certainly we can’t expect every bull to always pass their semen test), but we can certainly learn and get better!
- One of the largest changes for Red Deer 2024 was the size of the sale. With the addition of several new consignors and different breeds, there were a total of 130 bulls catalogued, which was almost double the 68 bulls that sold in this sale only two years ago in 2022. There are a number of good things – the capacity crowd on hand meant Innisfail Auction Mart had as many people in attendance as I had ever seen, and more bulls translates into lower costs for consignors. But there are also some downsides – with some awesome BBQ on site, despite cutting steaks in half, we still ran out of food (and water) for all our guests. And, with such a large crowd, we know some people that left early (hopefully to go home to watch/bid online!).
- I also wonder if the Fullblood Simmentals ‘got lost’ a bit within the sale. With so many breeds on offer, and a lengthy sale, there wasn’t a separate ‘fullblood’ carve out – with 3-5 selling in one spot, 5 in another, and then a couple here and there throughout the day. Part of that is on us – if our entire bull string had passed semen testing, the fullblood numbers would have been a fair bit higher, but I do think that bidders and buyers interested in Fullblood bulls, had to be very diligent throughout the afternoon, not to ‘miss’ bulls. We have attended several large dispersals over the years, and found that often the best opportunities for upside were found later in the day, so there are always pro’s and con’s to larger events – perspective that also depends on whether a person is buying or selling!
- In regards to our own breeding program in 2024, we will be staying fairly ‘status quo’ after splurging last year on two new herd sires. Both BLL Tombstone 223K and Virginia Journey 509K now have their first calf crops on the ground, and we are pretty pumped about each bull’s potential based on the early returns from their respective calf crops. Black Gold Battleborn 44H is now the ‘proven seasoned veteran’ of the group and, while he has outgrown the heifer pen, he has proven himself to be very versatile, allowing us to have three fairly even breeding groups.
Over the past fourteen years, it has been great to be part of the Red Deer Bull Sale and 2024 was certainly no exception. Public auction is a great forum to get feedback on the program we are building at Applecross Cattle, and we were both humbled and honored with the number of compliments our pen of bulls received throughout the week-end, from both peers in the purebred industry and commercial cattlemen alike. We strive to produce top quality cattle, and can at times be our own worst critics, so it is wonderful to hear all the kind words. Not a year goes by that we don’t learn how to do things a little better for next year, and it is equally important to continue to receive tips and advice on how to make improvements to our program. With the bull sale now in the rear-view mirror, and breeding season underway, we look forward to the challenge of developing more and different genetics for future years.
Until next time,
Dennis
Applecross @ Transcon’s Red Deer Bull Sale 2024 – Our Most Consistent String Yet
We are pleased to present ten herd bull prospects at Transcon’s 2024 Red Deer County Bull Sale on Saturday, March 9th at 1:00pm at the Innisfail Auction Market, Innisfail, Alberta. This is our fourteenth year at this event, and while the sale numbers always seem to fluctuate we continue to be joined by a diverse group of breeders that always join together to bring a strong offering to what is now a multi-breed event. Our 2024 offering is our most consistent yet, and the ten bulls on offer all continue to showcase our philosophy of highlighting the maternal strengths of the Fleckvieh Simmental breed. We firmly believe that the future will bring an increased herd size on the same amount of available labour. This means that with less labour available on a per cow basis, birth weights will come down to improve calving ease, and that gradually more and more horns will be bred off the cattle. We have moved slowly to incorporate the polled gene into our herd, as our goal is to try and accomplish this while maintaining the strong performance and mothering ability the Simmental breed is known for. In a market that suggests continued strong demand for beef, we think our bulls on offer all provide the maternal characteristics that will produce tremendous replacement females.
Dominating this years’ offering are progeny from two of our walking bulls in Black Gold Battleborn 44H and Double Bar D Confidence 179D. While AI is still a very important tool for us (specifically on heifers and in incorporating outcross genetics), we continue to invest in walking bulls from some of the top breeders in Canada. This mix allows us more flexibility during breeding season, increased consistency in their respective calf crops, and a chance to tap what otherwise could be fairly exclusive genetics. From FGAF WowEffect 016A, to NUG Delmonte 81D, Confidence, Battleborn, and last years’ acquisitions of BLL Tombstone 223K and Virginia Journey 509K, we feel we’ve been able to combine ‘something proven’ with ‘something different’ to form a unique APLX blend of highly maternal, moderate birthweight genetics.
The Battleborn progeny get the chance to lead the way this year. With three calf crops on the ground, and his first daughters now in production, Battleborn has developed into a very impressive individual, walking on extremely good feet, with his daughters now showcasing nice tight, square udders. With an eye-popping EPD profile, it is somewhat ironic that his weakest numbers are for calving; as he is a bull we have comfortably used in the heifer pen for the past 3 years. Of his four sons on offer, ‘Bastion’ represents a really intriguing homo-polled rascal (and is Jeanne’s favourite), while both ‘Brando’ and ‘Blizzard’ showcase exactly the type of progeny he produces out of first calf heifers. The final bull in ‘Biggio’ represents the last calf from one of our cornerstone cows, Applecross Poppy. It is no surprise that three of these sons all come from our foundation ‘Spruceburn Pauline’ cow family who left a tremendous legacy for us at Applecross. All four of these Battleborn sons are consistent in type, and offer the opportunity to step into genetics that combine a high maternal focus with explosive growth.
Not to be overlooked, there are also four sons of Double Bar D Confidence 179D on offer in Red Deer. Confidence is a bull that really moved our program forward, producing very balanced offspring on both sides of the ledger. The daughters from his first calf group are now high productive 2nd calvers that have tidy, even udders. His sons include APLX Coach 37J who highlighted our 2022 Bull Sale, and now has progeny across North America. Confidence also provided us with a highly attractive homo-polled son in ‘Conway’, while also giving us the powerhouse of this years’ offering in ‘Convoy’ (and he is a ‘great big convoy’; he’s a beautiful sight!). ‘Compass’ and ‘Country’ round out this highly impressive group of four – all of whom are very stylish and have nicely shaped polled heads. These Confidence sons are all very consistent (check out their birthweights!), and can suit a variety of needs.
As mentioned above, in addition to our walking bulls, we always try to breed our heifers, and at least a few early cows, AI in order to incorporate some outcross calving ease and top end genetics to our core herd. One of the benefits of living in Central Alberta, is the proximity to a number of great programs. After noticing the Black Gold Elevation progeny consistently stand out in the Beechinor sale strings, we were successful in acquiring a semen pack a couple of years ago. ‘Encore’ certainly shows that Elevation stamp, and may just be the most eye-appealing bull in our 2024 string. ‘Cabot’ is also a really cool dude, being sired by Rugged R Cavill; a bull we have successfully used on heifers for several years. From our experience, Cavill appears pretty much bullet proof as a heifer bull, so we expect to continue to utilize him to AI our heifers. ‘Cabot’ has a fair bit of size and growth to him so while he could be a potential for the heifer pen, he shouldn’t be just a one trick pony. We are always looking to offer something a little different, while adding a little extra style and maternal, and this year that means ‘Encore’ and ‘Cabot’!
We want to ensure our bulls will work for many years, so feet, legs and temperament are very important traits for us. The bulls are housed in a 5 acre paddock to ensure lots of exercise, and have been developed on a ration of free-choice quality first cut hay, combined with a forage based pellet by Country Junction. We pail feed our bulls twice a day, to ensure the bulls are quiet and used to being around people. We like working and walking through docile cattle, and feel the herd bull should be no exception. Please also note that we obtained Yearling weights in early January; prior to the bulk of the bulls being a year of age, which has resulted in Adjusted weights being higher than actual – specifically on our three bulls from first calf dams. We hope our bulls work for many, many breeding seasons, and feel our development program evolving over the years allows them to do just that.
Individual pages (short-cut links are on the right), have been created for each of the bulls. (For those reading this on phones, the bulls name or lot number can also be entered into the search bar, to locate their individual page). On each of the pages, we have also pictured their sires, dams and siblings – hopefully, sharing pictures will provide a better glimpse into the extended pedigree. It is also not unusual for us to have walked 4 or 5 generations of each respective cow family. We also plan to have videos of each of our sale bulls available approx. 2 weeks prior to sale day. Please check our Applecross Cattle Facebook page for up to date info on our sales offering.
Transcon’s 2024 Red Deer County Bull Sale promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great day on March 9th at the Innisfail Auction Market!
‘Super Saturday’ / 2023 Fleckvieh Equation Sale Report & Other Year End Thoughts
A gorgeous mid-December day with mild temperatures and sunny skies created ideal weather for Transcon’s ‘Super Saturday’ on Saturday, December 16th. This ‘Three in One’ Female Event featured our traditional Red & Black and Fleckvieh Equation portions and was joined by ‘White Gold Charolais’ to round out the day. All told, there were an impressive 90 lots to sell, which averaged a robust $8,745.
In what seemingly has become a (well deserved) tradition, Beechinor Land & Livestock (Stefon & Rebecca Beechinor) once again led off the sale. Their lot 59 BLL Gabri 201J heifer was a true standout, combining impressive muscling and capacity with a highly regarded pedigree. She created a massive amount of interest. When the gavel fell, it was Johnson Ranching of Amisk, AB who got to take her home for an impressive $37,000! Certainly, one of the highlights of the fall sale season! Following ‘Gabri’ into the ring was a pair of outstanding breds from the Keato Meadows program. As mentioned in our bull sale report, Jonathon & Ebony Kittlitz of Keato Meadows have developed a clear vision of what they are building their program around – and they just might have presented the most consistent string of the day. Their two lead lots, Lot 76 ‘Sunniva’ and Lot 75 ‘Kitty Wells’, both represented dark red, polled packages that were outcross to most polled programs. Both received very enthusiastic attention and included ‘Sunniva’ selling to JEM Simmentals at Barrhead for $21,000. What a terrific way to kick off the sale.
Our own Lot 67, Applecross Deirdre, was the fourth animal in the ring. After some spirited bidding, she was selected by Jeff Knox of Knox Farms, Australia, for $15,000! As live animals are not exported to Australia, Deirdre will be calved out here at Applecross before entering a flush program. Her Homozygous polled status will lead to some intriguing mating opportunities, as Jeff looks to add some diverse Canadian genetics to his cow herd. As a related note, back in 2013 – exactly 10 years ago – Jeff also selected a heifer from Dora Lee (my parent’s operation), so it was great to visit with Jeff a few times in the lead up to the sale, as we certainly knew some genetics in common. We look forward to seeing Applecross genetics work on another continent, and maybe (someday) we will get to visit ‘Oz’ and see some descendants in action!
Overall, our nine heifers on offer all found great homes. Deidre’s genetics were not the only ones who get to travel some distance! Our lead open heifer, lot 64 ‘Applecross Veronica’, is headed to (Sweet Home) Alabama, after being selected by Old Magnolia Farm / Brad Ballew. Lot 69, ‘Applecross Abigail’, has also headed Stateside after being selected by Jensen Simmentals / Steve Jensen of Osawatomie, Kansas. Safe travels ladies! Our remaining six heifers are all staying here in Alberta. Lot 65, ‘Applecross Delaney’, was selected by Rolling JN Farms / Jack & Shirley Nielson, of Alix; Lot 66, ‘Applecross Bonita’, will make her home with Lone Stone / Lonnie & Karen Brown at Westlock; Lot 68, ‘Applecross Dolly’, found her way south to MAVV Farms / Mike Imler at Okotoks; Lot 70, ‘Applecross Della’, was acquired by Richlan Farms / Karrie & Richard Jones at Breton; Lot 71, ‘Applecross Cassidy’ found a great place at Skylark Cattle Company / Emilee Oro at Clive, where she will continue to get lots of scratches. And finally, our lot 73 heifer, ‘Applecross Serena’, was selected by 777 Cattle Ltd / Tyler Steward at Stettler! Wow, what a list; what a day!
Overall, the Fleckvieh Equation heifers were incredibly consistent, considering the number of programs represented in the consignment sale. The cattle were all in very similar condition, and presented well, which was reflected in sale averages in each program! Of the six larger strings that made up the bulk of the Fleckvieh cattle on offer, all six had at least one animal sell for at least $10,000+. Impressive! It was great to see so much success and so many smiles after the sale!
In addition to the above noted high-sellers, I thought we would share some additional thoughts on the 2023 Edition of Super Saturday:
- The biggest change to the sale format was the addition of Charolais heifers to the traditional blend of Flecks and Reds/Blacks. While the new ‘colour’ sure stood out (and frankly I will stick to washing Flecks vs the full white of Chars – which must be a lot of fun!), it was great to have both a ‘full barn’ and ‘full stands’ at sale time! Several Simmental breeders have recently diversified into including Charolais in their programs, so they were also a natural complement to our Simmental offerings.
- The other material change was the move to a Saturday sale, from it’s traditional Sunday. I mentioned in last year’s sale’s report that I thought the Sunday sale made for a very long weekend, specifically for those involved in FNL. It is just such a tough time of year to spend extended periods away from the farm, so I think the Saturday sale made the weekend flow a lot smoother. From our end it was also great to have Sunday to ‘recover’ prior to starting the workweek on Monday!
- The only downside to the Saturday sale was the elimination of the opportunity for ‘night before’ hospitality. With most people in Olds for FNL, the barn was certainly quiet in Red Deer on Friday night. While both pre-sale and post-sale hospitality are great; it just doesn’t ‘feel’ the same as the night before. Sale day typically has more stressors: trying to prep and market cattle pre-sale, followed by trying to get organized with where the cattle are going post-sale. The ability to just relax and ‘visit’; hear opinions; discuss genetics; life and family is missing. But at the end of the day, there isn’t a rule that states that the sales barn is where those discussions need to take place; maybe we just need to organize more social opportunities of our own. We are fortunate here in Central Alberta to be surrounded by plenty of great Simmental Breeders. Maybe it is as simple as leveraging more of those ordinary everyday occurrences (like birthdays!) as a great excuse to get together and talk cattle!
- One of the great things about Jay Good and the Transcon team, is their willingness to spend time with younger/newer breeders and invite them to join auctions such as Equation. As a consignment sale made up of a number of smaller breeders, it seems to be the perfect place to showcase newer programs, or even as an entry point for those that have never marketed females before. It can be intense and nerve-wracking to bring your first ever females to town, so (what is hopefully perceived as) the welcoming environment of Equation is an opportunity to bring your best and learn from others! It was 10 years ago that we made our Equation debut, and we have certainly learned a lot from our fellow consignors – everything from pre-sale prep, to tidying the stalls, signage and an area for ‘hospitality’ are all things that may now seem second nature but were things we learned along the way (and we’re still learning). It is simply great to see new breeders join in the sale!
- On that note – there were quite a number of successful first appearances at Equation. All four of Century Simmentals, Richlan Farms, Wagner’s Cattle Co and Mountain Ash Simmentals had (in our opinion) smashing debuts! It was great to see their enthusiasm in the barn!
- I also thought the sales order set people up for success as well. The sale was broken down into multiple sections and alternated between Flecks-Purebreds-Charolais, and breds and opens. For us larger consignors, that meant we had animals sprinkled throughout the sale, giving everyone the chance to have animals at the start and animals near the end. It seemed like a great way to have everyone share in the success of the sale and, with animal condition being so consistent across the barn, allowed groups to flow together seamlessly.
- The continued importance of ‘online’ was also underscored. With Covid several years in the past, and cooperative weather and a full house in Red Deer, I was somewhat surprised that a total of $102,000 (and two of our nine) were sold online. I had thought that people might return to in person (or traditional phone) bidding, but instead maybe Covid simply accelerated a trend. Bidding online utilizing Transcon Online (or DLMS) has truly become a core part of sale day, as the ability to connect with more bidders is clearly essential to maximizing the success of our sales.
- In reflecting on our own sale string, this was the second year in a row we brought open heifers in addition to our usual bred heifers. We were certainly more than happy with our results again in 2023, but did note the overall decrease in open heifers on offer this year. I think the challenge with open heifers remains two-fold. First, for those of us with smaller herds, even marketing two or three opens leave a sizeable hole in next years bred heifer string. Second, I also think calves have the risk of being ‘off’ on sale day – whether showing heat or going through a recent ‘growth spurt’ that means they just aren’t looking at the top of their game – challenges you just don’t have with bred heifers, who are heavy in calf and looking just about ready to pop! Those bred heifers simply must drink, whereas an open heifer can choose not to enjoy city water for three days! There are also some great reasons for bringing opens as well – open heifers can match up with a variety of calving programs; and, from a geographic perspective, there is certainly less risk in having an open heifer get on a truck for an extended journey vs a bred heifer who is due to calve in three weeks! So, as we weigh pros and cons, I think a large part of it will come down to this year’s calf crop – lots of heifers will probably mean more heifer calves at Equation 2024, while a run of bulls may make us pause for next year at least!
- As I have mentioned before, we always try to budget to add at least one outcross female to our herd each fall. This year, we managed to snag the lead lot at MAVV Farms on Thursday, while taking a break from the wash rack in Red Deer. Lot 1 ‘MAVV Jaci 205J’ represents a little different pedigree for us and is backed by a very strong cow family. Mike Imler has been investing in quality fleck genetics for several decades now, so we were happy to be able to add his prefix to our walking herd. We feel Jaci has a great future in front of her, and we look forward to a mid-January calf!
We would be remiss not to recognize the team at Transcon for doing a tremendous job working the phones and managing the sale – they are always a quality, professional sales management team. Jay, Darren, Glen and Cody spent the weekend inspecting the cattle while consistently talking on their phones, making evaluations for prospective buyers. In addition to the $102,000 in Transcon Online sales, an additional $94,500 was sold on order, which totaled 25% of the sale gross! Thank-you Team Transcon, for another awesome Equation!
It was another great day to present Applecross cattle at auction, and we are honoured by the compliments we received on our cattle from all the bidders and buyers that took interest in our program. With the first calves of the new calving season on the ground (and the first progeny from our two exciting new walking bulls on the way!), we look forward to the balance of calving season, and another step in that ongoing effort to produce high-quality genetics that we can share with the industry.
Equation 2023 Sales Preview: A Perfect ’10’
We are proud to present ten heifers (three opens and seven breds), at Transcon’s Fleckvieh Equation on Saturday December 16th at 1pm at the Westerner Grounds in Red Deer, Alberta. All ten heifers are polled, and include three homozygous polled bred heifers. While the title says ‘perfect’, we want to be clear: we are not suggesting that our heifers on offer are perfect (we would humbly suggest that no animal is ‘perfect’). But we are super proud of this group – as they perfectly represent what our Applecross program is all about, and the direction we are headed. Highly maternal focus. Polled heads without sacrificing the key traits fullblood Fleckvieh are known for. Deep pedigrees with consistency built in.
Leading off this year is the progeny of Black Gold Battleborn 44H. After just two calf crops, Battleborn is a bull that has significantly moved our program forward. Selecting him from the Noble Family back in 2021 represented a pretty big swing for us, and at the time, our largest ever investment in genetics. He has developed into a true curve bender; as we are comfortable using him on heifers, while his calves have also been the heaviest sire group the past two falls. We feel his influence is only beginning, and will be on full display with this years group. The neatest opportunity is the ability to compare two genetic full sisters a year apart in age – the open heifer Delaney, and Deirdre her bred counterpart. I talked extensively in this space last year of our desire to add ‘Anchor T Impact’ as a female maker to our cow herd, and ‘Deirdre’ and ‘Delaney’ are the perfect examples to showcase why. Of the two, Deirdre is a bred heifer in full bloom that will simply need to be seen for her natural, easy keeping volume to be appreciated – truly a matron female in the making! Not to be outdone, Delaney is the example of ‘what could be’ a year younger, but already setting the table with softness and capacity. They both have eye-popping numbers and matching friendly temperaments!
Our other Battleborn offspring – Veronica, Dolly and Bonita – are all worth a long look. ‘Veronica’ is the first female descendant from our ‘Vendetta’ matron, who we acquired from our good friends the Beechinors a decade ago at Equation 2013. ‘Dolly’ just goes about her business, packing that ideal Fleckvieh build onto a modest frame. As an added bonus, she also represents what a Wedge daughter can produce on her first try! Our offering at Equation also wouldn’t be complete without a DLD 48R grand-daughter, so we dug deep and are offering a dark cherry red, soft made stunner in ‘Bonita’ – an animal I think a herd could be built around. We are super excited with the potential of these Battleborn daughters, and look forward to calving the first of our own out in just a few months!
In the “something different” category, we present ‘Abigail’ and ‘Della’. Abigail represents the first of our ‘Confidence’ daughters to ever sell at auction, as I have a tendency to hoard them all. Her dam is ‘Keet’s Princess Grace’ who we selected back at Equation 2020, and has produced three straight daughters. We like to ‘clip a coupon’ so to speak on our sale purchases, and we feel Abigail represents a pretty cool genetic cross with a homo-polled head and a little different genetic twist. And then there is Della. We have been super happy with the calving ability of Cavill – and based on Della, he is more than ‘just’ a heifer bull. Della is highly stylish, has length for days and represents pure maternal. A bull calf could simply pay for the cow in one shot! We have noticed that the polled gene pool has gotten pretty narrow, so these two certainly tick a number of different boxes!
I have talked extensively in our past bull sale previews about really liking the Delmonte cross on our WowEffect cows, so when we had the opportunity to retain (the WowEffect son) Wedge, we thought it only natural to cross back the other way on some of our top young Delmonte females. These three, three-quarter sisters are all similar in nature, but still showcase the depth of their respective cow families behind them. ‘Cassidy’ is a tank in a moderate frame package. ‘Serena’ represents the slow burn of our Dora Lee Jewel cow family, that tends to be a little later maturing, while ‘Felicity’ has the most frame of the three, and is backed by some of my favourite older genetics. All three heifers will be very heavy in calf on sale day, and represent multiple generations of our breeding program.
(For those that are still reading,) Individual pages have been created for each of our ten sale heifers. Short-cut links are on the right – or simply enter their names in the search bar at the top of our home page – and their page will pop up. On the individual pages, we have also pictured their sires, dams and siblings. We try to take a camera with us on pasture tours – and while not always ‘professional quality’, hopefully sharing pictures provides a better glimpse into the extended pedigree behind each of our animals on offer.
The heifers all have quiet temperaments and are used to being around people. We like quiet cattle – but should also note that Equation represents the first ever ‘truck ride’ for our heifers, as we pasture all of our cattle at home – so how they come off the trailer post sale, may not be a great example of their real temperament! We preg-checked in mid-October and the vet feels that all seven breds are safe to their AI dates. Also, due to the late sale date of Equation, we expect all of our bred heifers to be very heavy in calf – specifically as Cavill appears to have a little shorter gestation. For any out of province buyers, we are willing to take the heifers home and calve them out. While ‘stuff’ can happen, we would much prefer that ‘stuff’ to happen at our place, instead of having a disaster occur during the stress of a truck ride. Please reach out as we are more than happy to discuss options!
The Heifers are also vaccinated with Vira Shield 6 and Tasvax 8. They will be treated with pour-on and the breds will have their first shot of Scourguard prior to sale day.
The 2023 Fleckvieh Equation promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great day on December 16th at Westerner Park
The Essential 12: The Twelve Week Period that Shapes our Program
With all due respect to the other nine months of the year, our purebred operation has twelve magical, stressful, exhausting and faith affirming weeks that are essential to the success of our program. Twelve weeks of heavy lifting. Twelve weeks which are an intricate dance to try and balance all of the things that are required to get done. It starts with calving in January; ends with our herd sires being turned out in late March. And in the interim, bulls are marketed. New genetics acquired. And a twelve week cycle closes for another year.
As long as I can remember, Jan 1 has always signaled the start of the calving season for purebred beef producers. If I recall correctly, the date may have originally aligned with cattle shows and class age groups. Now, I think there are also economic reasons, as Fleckvieh bulls can be mature enough and ready to work at 13 months, so from a cost perspective it makes sense to get bulls marketed as quickly as possible. As purebred bull sales seem to creep earlier in the year, it does seem like calving has also shifted a bit earlier – and for the last few years, ‘age advantage’ bulls, whether fall or summer born, did appear to be very popular with buyers. Nevertheless, January 1st remains a key date for the bulk of purebred breeders to start their calving season.
Our own situation has fluctuated a little bit over the years. When we were first building Applecross Cattle, both of us worked off farm. We decided to move calving into late December to align with Jeanne’s Christmas break from teaching school – there is just simply so much less stress when one of us can be around and available to monitor calving. The last couple of years, Jeanne has (willingly) returned to the farm full time, which allows us more flexibility and a return to scheduling Jan 1 as the start of calving (if only the cows would co-operate!) Unsurprisingly, one advantage of the Covid pandemic was that I was home a fair bit for the past couple years – but with a job that has returned to being primarily office based, I utilize some vacation days to allow us both to be home during (what we think is going to be) peak calving. Weather conditions can certainly dictate calving hours, but having the ability to ‘trade off’ night checks with a partner is certainly an energy saver! And that is the primary conundrum with calving cows. Sure tech (cameras) and modern facilities (barns) can help, but the manual labour required to check and be available for those ‘what if’s’ simply cannot be replaced by increased automation.
We have also had to overcome an initial goal of being perfect. Part of the decision for Jeanne to stop teaching school and be at the farm full time was the thought that having her here would allow us to ‘save’ more calves; both right at calving and during their vulnerable first six weeks of life. And, more purebred calves would potentially translate into substantially more revenue; at least partly offsetting the loss of her teacher salary. Nature happens during calving; and could be as simple as having a calf born with a sack over its head, or malpresentation that requires intervention. The challenge becomes the difference between being available to assist vs. the ability to successfully resolve all of nature’s challenges. Anyone who knows Jeanne would know she is a perfectionist (how that translates into choosing me is still a real mystery). So her goal is 100% success during every calving season. And, frankly, while I am sure that is the goal of all producers, the reality of calving and calf-rearing is that nature is complex, and sometimes ‘stuff’ just happens. What made it more difficult for us was that, for that first year, Jeanne did it! We enjoyed 100% calving success. The next year, when our vet was visiting due to an uncertain diagnosis on a young calf, he just laughed and suggested that 100% would probably never ever happen again in our career. And it hasn’t. And I think that has been really tough on Jeanne (and on all ranchers that lose calves). We always second guess. There are always things we could have done differently. What has helped is some sharing and making an effort to ensure we talk to fellow producers. Realizing that calving isn’t always the sunshine and rainbows and positive vibes that may be showcased on social media. We love being positive and sharing those ‘miracle’ stories. But being reminded that we all have similar struggles, we all lose calves, can also be reaffirming. We aren’t terrible at what we do – and that others face challenges too. We can’t be perfect. We can only do our best and keep learning; and that has to be enough.
One of the other things we have learned over the years, is that a good start for each calf is essential. It isn’t just that we need to invest time with the cows that are calving; but also ensuring that the newborn calves continue to tick along, and not take a step backwards. So while we are walking the cows looking for signs of early stage labour, we also try to ensure the calves are looking as they should as well. We may not see a calf nurse for 3 days…and then see that same calf nursing 3 times in the next 12 hours. How can you determine ‘normal’ if there isn’t a regular reference point for comparison? Jeanne and I also observe different things (Jeanne is typically more detail oriented). We both have favourites we look for – and they are different favourites! But one thing we have really learned is that early treatment is much easier than late treatment (and that preventative treatment may be the best of all!) Jeanne is also a meticulous record keeper – which is also important during the ‘fog’ of calving. “What day did we treat that calf?” is a lot easier to answer when it is written down! The other advantage of having a great record keeper in the house is that it creates data. Data that can be analyzed! (and from the guy that already has 11 tabs on his ‘cattle’ spreadsheet, why not an even dozen!) We have really started to be curious if there is a correlation/causation between a calf that may need to be treated early on in life and whether there is impact on scrotal size or a semen test. It would be a neat project – and I am not sure if our smaller numbers allow us sufficient sample size to definitively prove anything – but it seems like an interesting theory to test – just not during the essential 12 weeks! In any event, we have certainly found that it is more than just calving cows that is important; those slow walks through the pen checking to see if the calves are acting as they should, repay that extra time investment in spades.
It always seems that just as we hit peak calving (and peak calving stress), we need to be clipping and then picturing bulls for our early March bull sale. Every year it feels like there are more bulls for sale in Central Alberta and fewer commercial cows to breed them to. Even narrowing it down to our piece of the Simmental Breed (Fleckvieh), we are aware that more than 200 bulls sell within just a 60km radius and a two week sale window. Our customers have choices! So we need to ensure our bulls are ‘ready’. They need to look the part, be clipped and presented, and then pictured approximately two months before the sale; just to ensure the catalog is ready to be mailed in time. The Red Deer County Bull Sale is a consignment sale, and we have been fortunate to work with most of the same group for quite a number of years – so we know how the bulls need to show up on sale day, in order to ‘fit in’ with the rest of the sale. We also spend a significant amount of time trying to get pictures that showcase what we see in each bull – which is not an easy task! (we know one couple that refers to bull picture taking day as D-I-V-O-R-C-E). To reduce this stress, we have been fortunate enough to convince Stefon Beechinor and McKenzie Stout to picture bulls for us the last few years. By bringing in trusted help that we know are as meticulous as we are, it certainly makes the work load easier, and allows us to keep our focus on the calving barn. We also spend a fair bit of time deciding catalog order, as well as which bulls should get a little more space. Jeanne and I readily debate the merits of a ‘feature’ (she thinks all the bulls are good, and that buyers will decide who the best bulls are), while I am detail oriented (anal) enough, to know which bull I want catalogued on the top of the right hand side of page 10. It also leads to an interesting conversation on ‘best’ vs. ‘most marketable’ which is probably worth a blog post on another day. All of this ‘bull sale prep’ is essential to the success (and cash flow) of our operation. It just happens to fall on top of what is already a very hectic calving schedule!
Probably the most important, and stressful, day for us, is the day we semen test the sale bulls. We feel/hope we do everything correctly, from birth through weaning and development to maximize each animals’ potential. But a pass/no pass or a bull that doesn’t measure up, can move a high profile bull to the meat ring in a hurry. And to be honest, we (as a breed) are pretty demanding with our bulls. At only 12-14 months of age, we are expecting them to be considered mature enough to breed cows. That early maturing standard, specifically when it comes to scrotal size, has evolved over the years, where bigger is typically better, regardless of breed averages. But success (or failure) on semen test day, can add another dimension of stress on top of calving, and constant re-evaluation of both our management program and our genetic selection. We always do our initial test early enough that there is room for a ‘just in time’ re-test two weeks later, just before sale day, but there is always a sense of relief when bulls have passed that hurdle (and hopefully measured up!). We just wonder WHY it somehow always has to be -35 on semen test day. I am sure our vet does too!
While we are wrapping up calving and getting ready for our own bull sale, we are also knee deep in genetic selection. What we are looking for every year is a bit different; but after missing out on any bulls last year, we knew that adding a new walking bull in 2023 was a priority. The advantage of having a smaller program is that we really only have the numbers to focus on a few things. We want to be known for moderate calving, polled cattle. We also believe we have a 100% Fleckvieh herd; so it makes sense to stick to those genetics if at all possible, as that 100% status does matter to the international community. So bulls that meet those requirements, and are at least somewhat outcross to our herd base, make it to the ‘shortlist’ of bulls that require further investigation. We are also more comfortable, when making a sizeable investment, seeing the bulls in person. And this can be a challenge when we are both calving our own cows and prepping our own bulls! We have bought animals sight unseen in the past; but walking a bull, and ‘liking them’ in person, regardless of their picture or pedigree certainly provides more ‘comfort’, when making such a large investment. So it may not be a surprise that we ended up acquiring two bulls within that aforementioned 60km radius. I knew the bulls. I knew the cow families. And they both add what we think is both ‘better’ and ‘different’ to our walking bull line up. Adding new walking bulls is always stressful but fun – finding them and getting them bought are always two different things – but having a successful acquisition year like we did in 2023, certainly has us dreaming of some rather neat future genetic combinations.
With our small herd, we are also fortunate to be able to continue to leverage AI within our program, which allows us to add both outcross and highly regarded genetics to our herd. Every year, we sync both a group of cows and the bulk of our yearling heifers in late March. We like to AI our ‘sale heifers’, as we feel we have more proven calving options with AI than with our own bulls. It is important to us that our sale heifers calve out for their new owners, so a proven calving ease bull will increase the odds that an animal that may have been trucked a distance and is now in unfamiliar surroundings, at least (hopefully) calves out. It also allows us to add some different genetics and dabble in a new bloodline without making the same financial commitment as in a walking bull. Establishing different genetic lines to weave into a program is probably more art than science; but even with three walking bulls that we are pretty excited about, we still wanted to add a few more twists to our 2024 calf crop.
The final piece in genetic selection during these crazy twelve weeks is the cowherd itself. Jeanne takes a lot of notes (it is almost as if she’s a teacher!), specifically around how the cow calves, how quickly the calf is up, and whether it drinks on its own. Certainly the sire choice can have an impact in all of these areas, but the cow is the other half of the equation. There is nothing better than a heifer that has a calf unassisted, who then gets up and drinks without any sort of assistance at -40. It is also important to be reminded if a cow is over protective and won’t let you go in a pen. Or if the teat or udder shape means that the calf has problems and intervention is needed. We need to multiply great traits in our cattle; and attitude and udders are two things we have really focused on now that we have our numbers where we want them. As my dad would say, “there is no cow in the world worth getting hurt over”, so no matter how ‘great’ that cow looks (or produces), she can’t stay long. Which leads to the creation of a fourth ‘breeding’ group; our ‘open’ pen. Cows that we know will be going in the fall. Cows held open for a reason while the rationale is still fresh in our minds. So I can’t change it when I see how great that calf looks at weaning, and suggest ‘that cow couldn’t have been that bad – let’s try her one more year’. Those maternal traits are important. And important to get right during that window of up close attention.
The twelve week cycle I have just gone through is pretty similar, I think, for most purebred operations. In our case though, it extends to 14 weeks when we include our late December female sale at Fleckvieh Equation. The sale has its own set of prep work involved but, knowing the journey we have in front of us, we are cognizant to at least take a couple of days after Equation for ‘downtime’, so that we can relax and unwind, prior to gearing right back up again for an extended twelve week sprint. From a budgeting perspective, having one of the last heifer sales of the season as well as having one of the later bull sale dates, typically inverts our planning, as we are typically looking to acquire genetics before knowing what our own are going to sell for. So to solve that problem, we typically budget ‘backwards’, and leverage the results of our heifer sales to make our bull buying budget, and our bull sales shape our investment in a high end heifer or two the following fall. Cash flow in the cow calf sector is very cyclical, and liquidity to handle bumps is so important, that being able to act on the opportunity to add genetics when they come available does take a little forward planning. There is enough stress in those twelve weeks, that making sure that we have our budget in place for bull buying means one less thing to worry about.
So those are the 12 (or fourteen) weeks. Heifer Sale. Calving. Bull Sale. Breeding Season. Slammed together back to back to back to back; from late December to the end of March. This is the reason we are all so exhausted once the bulls are turned out and the calendar flips to April (Also why we plan an April off farm vacation every spring just to recharge and relax). But also the reason we do this. Our twelve weeks certainly aren’t all negative. There are moments of tremendous satisfaction – a successful intervention when outlooks were uncertain – or simply a pause of quiet awe when the 2am check is so still, and a cow is calving just as nature intended. It is also our opportunity to put ideas into action and to solve genetic puzzles. Sometime we may make mistakes, but we do learn from them. We can move our genetics forward, and then watch plans develop for the next nine months until we can do it again. It is the dance we choose. And we wouldn’t do any other.
Until Next Time,
Dennis
Red Deer County 2023 Bull Sale Report (and other bull sale season thoughts)
Red Deer County 2023 Bull Sale Report (and other bull sale season thoughts)
It was a gorgeous winter day, with decent temperatures, some sunshine, and not much wind that brought people to the Innisfail Auction Mart to see a diverse, multi-breed bull sale on Saturday, March 11th. Now in our 3rd year at the Innisfail Auction Market (and 3rd as a multi-breed sale), there was a full house on hand to watch Angus, Polled Hereford, Charolais and Simmental bulls sell. The cattle markets continue to be very robust, and it was great to see some really impressive bulls, combined with a sense the optimism within the broader agricultural community.
With a multi-breed component now firmly embedded in the Red Deer County Bull Sale, it was the Simmentals turn to wait as the other breeds worked through their sales offerings. When it was time to present the Simmentals, a feature bull from Keato Meadows made sure that everyone was paying attention. A dark red, thick, and large capacity bull, Lot 76 – Keato Pld Poetry in Motion 33K was just that, as his arrival lead to some very spirited bidding from notable purebred programs, both in attendance and on the phones. When the gavel fell, Lot 76 sold for an incredible $37,000 to KSL Simmentals of Beaverlodge, AB – congratulations to Jonathan & Ebony Kittlitz on producing this tremendous high seller!
From an APLX perspective, our five bulls that we brought to Innisfail all found great homes. Unicom Holdings of Crossfield (Blaze), Eagle-Ridge Simmentals of Olds (Casino) and Oh-Kay Farms of Red Deer (Cannon) were all repeat customers of Applecross Genetics, while Ken Bluck of Mountainview, AB (Courage) and Christian Doelger of Beausejour MB (Chevy) both acquired their first bull from us. It is always a treat to have new customers alongside repeat buyers continue to support our program. A great day to watch our bulls sell!
Overall the sale grossed just over $536,000 on 65 lots, for an average of $6,797. We would also be remiss not to recognize Jay Good and the Transcon team for doing a tremendous job working the phones and managing the sale.
Some other thoughts on Red Deer 2023 and this years’ bull sale season:
- I can’t say enough about how impressive the Keato Meadow string of bulls were. They were penned right beside our bulls, and the amount of consistency in type through-out their string was remarkable. Jonathan & Ebony Kittlitz have been fellow consignors with us in both the Red Deer and Fleckvieh Equation Sales for many years now. Jonathan has a clear vision of the direction he has taken their program, and it is simply awesome to see them be so successful. Dark Red, hairy and loaded with performance, while containing different genetics is certainly in demand, and the Keato Meadow program certainly showcased this in 2023!
- It is always a great feeling when all of our bulls on offer find a great new home. While two of our bulls failed semen tests and didn’t make the sale, our remaining five bulls sold; four locally and one to Manitoba. There are simply so many Simmental bulls for sale each spring in Central AB, so we are cognizant that cattle operations have a significant amount of choice. As it seems more and more breeders are expanding their numbers in the area, we do think this trend will continue. As a result, we will need to continue to focus on our quality level, while searching for ‘different genetics’ to incorporate into our herd. Maybe it isn’t a bad thing that our calf crop in 2023 also skewed heavily to heifers!
- Ensuring our program offers ‘different’, was one of the reasons that BLL Tombstone 223K piqued our interest. As a rare Great Guns Wyatt son, we were successful in adding him to our bull battery this spring. Bred by our good friends Stefon & Becca @ Beechinor Land & Livestock, I was fortunate to see Tombstone on pasture last August. Not only did he have a little different pedigree, but he also had a lot of eye appeal, strutting his stuff as just a young bull calf on pasture. We think he’ll add a little different dimension to our bull battery, but also believe his ‘eye appeal’ is a hard trait to quantify. Everyone’s eye for cattle is different – but Tombstone is definitely a bull that grabbed our attention. I just like cattle that the eye seems to follow, and then comes back to after viewing the rest of the pasture group – a fairly rare trait that we think we have added with Tombstone!
- It was also a bit of a surprise that we added Virginia Journey 509K to our bull battery this year. With limited numbers, we do try to spread out our herd bull purchases over several years, but coming off a very successful December female sale put us in a position where we could re-invest should the opportunities present themselves. We always go into herd bull shopping season with several options circled, and I have joked in the past that I typically have plans A through E, for what approach we will take with our breeding groups. This year just happened to be the year that we were able to bring home both the top two bulls on our list! The adage of ‘always being ready to bid’ (and buy) when desirable herd building genetics are up for auction, certainly came true for us in 2023!
- Journey is a really neat bull with lots of potential. Harry & Michelle Satchwell have a well deserved reputation as having one of the top programs in Canada, and as they also sell in Innisfail, it is rather convenient to stop in for an extensive peek at their bull string. I spent a fair bit of time Sunday afternoon prior to the Monday sale walking Journey around his pen. Moderate frame with a lot of mass. Top and Thickness. Moderate birth weight. I have shared in the past that part of our breeding philosophy is the conviction that birth weights will continue to moderate (and more horns will come off) the overall cattle population. The offset to this, is that the breed still needs to retain the performance, growth and maternal mothering ability within the Simmental population. So a bull with the ‘curve bending’ potential of Journey sure fit the bill!
- The other neat thing (by design) is that we know the cow families behind both of our new walking bulls extremely well. Tombstone is backed by the Eagle Ridge Unbelievable cow family; of which we walked a daughter (BEE Vendetta) for quite a number of years (with 3 daughters working here). Over the years, we have also paid close attention to the Willow’s Jade cow family behind Journey, which included Virginia’s Ms Zillow, who we acquired at Cow-A-Rama 2013! We do like to stack genetics, and with cow families being so important to our own program, it is not a surprise that we follow those who keep popping up among our fellow breeders! Consistency, longevity, mothering ability and udder shape – great traits that are carried through the generations!
- With two new walking bulls, and Battleborn just entering his prime, Double Bar D Confidence will be the ‘odd man out’ in our bull battery this year. In APLX Coach (his standout son from last year), and his first daughters already in production, Confidence will leave a tremendous legacy here. We are tentatively set to part with his first daughters at Equation this fall, and it certainly looks like he’ll have a few more sons in next years bull pen. But for now, he’s busy reminding us that he is available on ‘standby’ if any of our other walking bulls need a hand.
For thirteen years now, it has been great to be part of the Red Deer County Bull Sale. Public auction is a great forum to get feedback on the program we are building at Applecross. We strive to produce top quality cattle, and every year provides the opportunity for feedback and ideas on what we could do differently. Not a year goes by that we don’t learn how to do things a little better for next year, and it is equally important to continue to receive tips and advice on how to make improvements to our program.
With the bull sale now in the rear-view mirror, and breeding season underway, the breeding groups have finally been decided for the year as the excitement to incorporate new genetics competes with genetic combinations that have worked so well in the past. We look forward to the challenge of developing more, different and better genetics for future years.
Until next time,
Dennis
Red Deer County Bull Sale 2023: Cow Families Shine Through
We are pleased to present seven herd bull prospects at Transcon’s 2023 Red Deer County Bull Sale on Saturday, March 11th at 1:00pm at the Innisfail Auction Mart, Innisfail, Alberta. This is our thirteenth year at this event, and we are proud to be included in the strong offering that is always presented by this progressive group of breeders. Our 2023 offering continues to showcase our philosophy of highlighting the maternal strengths of the Fleckvieh Simmental breed. We firmly believe that the future will bring an increased herd size on the same amount of available labour. This means that with less labour available on a per cow basis, birth weights will come down to improve calving ease, and that gradually more and more horns will be bred off the cattle. We have moved slowly to incorporate the polled gene into our herd, as our goal is to try and accomplish this while maintaining the strong performance and mothering ability the Simmental breed is known for. In a market that suggests continued strong demand for beef, we think our bulls on offer all provide the maternal characteristics that will produce tremendous replacement females.
The common theme behind each of our bulls on offer in 2023, is the multi-generations we have worked with the dam and cow family behind each bull. While we do like to try and add an outcross female each fall, six of our seven bulls are direct descendants of three of our ‘founding four’ cow families that we brought with us from Dora Lee. DLD Lady Western 48R (Edison, Casino, Courage), Dora Lee Evangaline FF2P (Elton, Blaze) and Dora Lee Christina 28S (Cannon) all have great legacies at Applecross! The remaining cow family, HEMR Tasha 3T, (Chevy) was selected out of the Heimstra dispersal back in 2009, and immediately produced ‘APLX Axel 5Z’ who topped this very sale back a decade ago. Time sure flies, but we believe it is a testament to the strength of these respective cow families that they have formed the backbone to our herd.
Maybe the most intriguing bull we have on offer this year is ‘Blaze’. A homo-polled, dilutor free Black Gold Battleborn son, this mid-January calf is a real head turner. This will be the first (and only) Battleborn son to sell this year, after his daughters made their debut at Equation 2022 this past December and averaged $12,750. Between Battleborn/Rambo/WowEffect and Starfire down the dam side of the pedigree, we have walked four generations of the bulls behind Blaze here at Applecross, which showcases considerable consistency in a bull that represents the 5th generation of an Applecross prefix. With a moderate birth weight, heavy pigmentation, and a guaranteed horn remover, Blaze should tick a lot of boxes for a lot of different programs.
After an impressive debut with APLX Coach 37J in last years sale, Double Bar D Confidence 179D sired 4 more bulls in our offering this year. With Confidences’ daughters now in production, we are very pleased with the udder development, mothering ability and consistency we have seen with his progeny. ‘Casino’, ‘Cannon’, ‘Courage’ and ‘Chevy’ all carry their sires influence through great length of spine and sizable hips, while shaped more by their dams in their respective BW and calving numbers. These four bulls all so some stretch and performance, and with ages ranging from late January to late February, represent the youngest bulls in our 2023 offering.
In addition to our walking bulls, we always try to breed at least a few early cows AI in order to incorporate some outcross, top end genetics to our core herd. After noticing the FGAF Electric Avenue progeny stand out on pasture tours, we were successful in acquiring a semen pack a couple of years ago. He has two sons represented in Red Deer 2023 (and two daughters that have been ‘vetoed’ from seeing a sales ring and are thus staying home). Elton comes from our ‘E-Line’ and a dam that always moderates birth weight, while Edison will be the heavy weight on sale day, and may just be our most complete bull. As our lone ‘horned’ prospect, he has to be really good for us to consider marketing him in a program known for our focus on polled! Electric Avenue has developed a pretty impressive resume, so we look forward to presenting two sons in Red Deer.
We want to ensure our bulls will work for many years, so feet, legs and temperament are very important traits for us. The bulls are housed in a 5 acre paddock to ensure lots of exercise, and have been developed on a ration of free-choice quality first cut hay, combined with a forage based pellet by Country Junction. We pail feed our bulls twice a day, to ensure the bulls are quiet and used to being around people. We like working and walking through docile cattle, and feel the herd bull should be no exception.
Individual pages (short-cut links are on the right), have been created for each of the bulls. (For those reading this on phones, the bulls name or lot number can also be entered into the search bar, to locate their individual page). On each of the pages, we have also pictured their sires, dams and siblings – hopefully, sharing pictures will provide a better glimpse into the extended pedigree. It is also not unusual for us to have walked 4 or 5 generations of each respective cow family. We also plan to have videos of each of our sale bulls available approx. 2 weeks prior to sale day. Please check our Applecross Cattle Facebook page for up to date info on our sales offering.
Transcon’s 2023 Red Deer County Bull Sale promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great day on March 11th at the Innisfail Auction Mart!
Our Fleckvieh Equation 2022 Sale Report
It was a blustery winter week-end in Central Alberta as Transcon hosted the finale of “Alberta’s Simmental Week-end.” Their two-in-one bonanza of Fleckvieh Equation and Ultimate Red & Black were held at Westerner Park in Red Deer. With challenging road conditions, it was nice to be back inside the extensive Westerner facilities, where people could view cattle and visit in comfort. Despite Mother Nature not being overly cooperative, there was a steady stream of traffic throughout the barns all weekend, and a healthy crowd on hand Sunday, to watch 33 Fleckvieh lots pass through the ring to average a very impressive $10,152.
One of the ‘calling cards’ of Equation has been a bit of a focus on polled genetics. Between ourselves and several of the other consignors who have focused on developing polled cattle over the past number of years, this sale may be gaining a bit of a reputation! After only bringing open heifers for the past couple years, Beechinor Land & Livestock were back with an exceptional string of bred heifers. Stefon & Rebecca Beechinor have quickly risen to prominence for producing some of the best full Fleckvieh genetics in the world, so it was no surprise to see their lot 116 heifer, BLL Sugar Rush lead off the sale. This big volume polled Sugar Ray daughter was a unique blend of power and femininity, and created a palpable buzz in the audience, as she ended up selling to Mason Faulkner of Faulkner Farms from Centre Ridge, Arkansas, for $40,000. We had the pleasure of visiting with Mason when he was in Alberta touring cattle operations this fall, and are quite impressed with the foundation females he has selected to build his herd. After the BLL offering were a pair of outstanding heifers from the Keato Meadow string, followed by two powerful heifers from Keet Simmentals. Both being long term consignors, their heifers also had a robust following, with highlights including lot 102 ‘Keato Pld Ivy 24J’ being selected by West Gold Farms Ltd for $15,000 and lot 121 ‘Keet’s Harlequin 51H’ selected by Pheasantdale Cattle Company for $18,000. As Equation represented probably the largest selection of polled full Fleckvieh cattle available all fall, it was great to see the enthusiasm and success of our fellow consignors!
Our very own Lot 114 (Applecross Ivy) and Lot 113 (Applecross Pixie) were next up. These two NUG Delmonte 81D daughters had been head turners all week-end, so we were rather excited to see how they would perform. When the gavel fell, Applecross Ivy had been selected by Robb Farms for $17,000. Robb Farms is part of a truly elite bull sale in SK, (Robb/Hoegl/Greenwood) in late February each year, so we will be looking for Ivy’s progeny to hopefully be future features!. Applecross Pixie ($10,000) got to enjoy an extended truck ride, as she is headed all the way to Quebec, to Kelvin and Ory Egan of Egan Home Farms. I had talked to Kelvin a few times over the years regarding our bred heifers, but there was always a fair bit of uncertainty with our late sale date and early calving dates on the heifers. Pixie fit the bill, being a cycle later gives her more time to adapt to her new environment. With Ory also spending the summer in Alberta working for Anchor D Ranch, he appears to have firmly caught the ‘purebred cattle bug’ and was the driving force behind acquiring Pixie. It is always great to see another generation be encouraged enough to invest in the industry!
For Equation 2022, we tried something ‘different’ and brought a pair of open heifers to town. I am old enough to remember the Fleckvieh sales of the 1990’s predominantly featuring open heifers but, gradually over time, the sales mix across the industry has shifted towards bred heifers. The combination of a late in the season sale combined with early calving dates, meant we did have some out of province buyers express concern about a heavy in calf bred heifer travelling an extended distance, so offering a few select open heifers was certainly something we had thought about in the past. With 2022 representing a 2:1 heifer to bull calf ratio, and an exciting new herd sire to showcase, we felt it only made sense to ‘test the waters’ with a couple open of heifers at Equation 2022. We were not disappointed with our decision! Our two heifers led off the Fleckvieh heifer calf division, with Lot 110 ‘Applecross Giselle 2K’ receiving the honour of being the lead heifer. When the gavel fell, she was selected by Robb Farms for $15,500, and will get to head to the same home as Ivy! A few minutes later, Black Gold Simmentals selected lot 111 ‘Applecross Dixie 20K’ for $10,000. Randy and Vanessa Noble were in Red Deer after a hectic (and very successful!) few days at the Friday Night Lights event, so it was awesome to see them pick out Dixie to walk their pastures! Bringing open heifers to Equation 2022 was certainly a smashing success for us, so that option will certain need to be considered again for Equation 2023!
Overall, the open heifers sold extremely well, with 5 lots topping that $10,000 threshold. The Skywest heifers were stabled right beside us, so we were able to take a long look at their two exceptional heifers that did very well, with lot 129 ‘Skywest Kamala’ selling to Corley Land & Cattle from Charleston, Tennessee for $13,000, and Lot 130 ‘Skywest Kamilia’ landing at Brock Ranches for $11,000. Sierra Ebbeson is another ‘next generation’ breeder at Brock Ranches, so super exciting to see that ‘purebred cattle bug’ spread!
A little later on in the sale, our Lot 112 heifer ‘Applecross Dotti 53H’ and lot 115 ‘Applecross Lydia 13J’ also got to share the sales ring. ‘Dotti’ was up first and she was selected by Jonathan Kittlitz of Keato Meadows for $12,000. We recall bidding against each other back when we acquired our Anchor T Impact semen at the same sale quite a number of years ago, so perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise when he was the successful bidder on a direct daughter! ‘Lydia’ also found a great home with the legendary Maxwell Simmental program. We have got to know Glen Maxwell over the past few years, specifically since acquiring our NUG Delmonte bull from them back in 2017. Delmonte sure shaped our program, so it was pretty cool to have Lydia heading to Maxwell’s. In all, our six heifers found homes across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and into Quebec. All five buyers acquired the APLX prefix for the first time, so we look forward to seeing how their progeny develops for their new owners.
In addition to the above noted high sellers, I thought it also worthwhile to share a few additional thoughts:
- One of the neat things about being part of a consignment sale is seeing everyone have success. A quick scroll through the Equation high seller lists represents practically all of our fellow breeders, each of whom have been long term consignors to the sale. Certainly lots of smiling faces after the sale!
- I also want to suggest that despite the number of programs in the barn, the Fleckvieh cattle all lined up in very similar condition. This is an incredibly difficult feat when there are many different operations coming together to showcase their programs. We have always found it a challenge to get the correct balance. We don’t want our cattle ‘green’ nor do we want them ‘fat’ – especially bred heifers that are three weeks from calving – so it was neat to see the consistency across Equation.
- I do wonder if the combination of the Covid pandemic and increased quality of the Internet experience may be leading to a permanent change in attendance at sales. On a week-end where weather was uncertain, and at a time so close to Christmas, I did notice people tour through the barns that were then content to watch the sale virtually, and either bid online or via phone. With sales results being posted online within a couple of days (if not sooner), it also improves ‘access to information’ available without needing to be there in person.
- The improvements and acceptance of technology and social media during the pandemic certainly has its pro’s and con’s. The efficiency gains of immediate access to information and ‘time savers’ can be offset by a seemingly decreased amount of person to person contact. Which is a change not always for the good! I may be getting to the stage of ‘old man shaking fist and suggesting things were better in an earlier time’, but sometimes a great conversation can provide nuance and shape opinion – while the internet (or even texting) simply doesn’t provide the forum for deep discussion. I may not always seem like the most social person, but simply being part of conversations, and listening to great advice have really helped improve our operation over the years. I do worry that the opportunity is being lost for new to the industry breeders aiming to find their own voice and direction, if there isn’t at least some focus on the ‘in person’ part of the purebred cattle business.
- I also wonder if there is opportunity for further evolution of Simmental Week-end itself. With the highly successful Friday Night Lights, followed by a Saturday sale and then National Trust Saturday night, prior to Equation / Red & Black on Sunday, it is an extremely long (and incredibly busy) week-end, specifically for those of us consigning cattle to any of the events. For those consigning to FNL – Moving in Wednesday, prepping cattle and then sticking around until Sunday can be an extensive time commitment; with most of us having work pile up back at the farm. So maybe with increase in online presence, it might make sense to move to a more condensed weekend schedule in the future.
- For the first time in a number of years, we weren’t successful in adding a new heifer from Equation. We always like to ‘save a bullet’ to use to support our fellow breeders at our own sale, but weren’t successful in getting one bought this year. We did get some shopping done both earlier in the season (Starwest Pol Harmony) and in adding a new AI option via the New Year’s Resolution Sale. We are always looking to add something different that we think will be an ‘improver’ to our herd, so were happy to achieve this goal again in 2022.
- Finally, as we look towards 2023, we will need to dig pretty deep and scour a lot of options in our search for another herd bull. If 2022 has taught us anything, it is that quality polled genetics (specifically those that are ‘outcross’ to our existing genetic base) command a premium. It can be somewhat intimidating trying to find options that make economic sense for our smaller cow base, but at the same time, the search is part of the fun! (And a super successful heifer sale certainly puts us in a position to re-invest in our future!)
I can’t close without saying a few words about Transcon, our Sales Management team. Jay, Darren, Glen and Cody always do a quality, professional job – and spend significant amounts of time on the phone – talking – while walking animals out of their pens to check feet, and allow buyers to select animals with confidence. Sales Management is a long term gig – if a prospective buyer on order isn’t happy with their purchase they won’t be back. It is foundational to have mutual trust in a Sales Management team, and we have that with Transcon. Another really neat part of the Transcon team, is Jay’s willingness to offer a spot to people ‘new to the breed’. It might be more recently showcased within Red and Black, but as I mentioned earlier, it is super cool to see new people enter the purebred business. And everyone needs to get their start at their ‘first sale’; Jay has been tremendous in offering people that opportunity (which he also offered to us back when we first started!)
Overall it was another great year to present Applecross Cattle at auction. We were honoured by the compliments received, and the amount of interest in our program is rewarding. With calving nicely underway (the heifers are leading 7-1, so maybe we will have more opens to offer at Equation 2023!), we look forward to the excitement that 2023 will bring, and another step forward in our ongoing efforts to produce high-quality genetics that we can share with the industry.
Equation 2022 Sales Preview: Legacies That Live On
We are absolutely delighted to present four bred and two open heifers for consideration at Transcon’s Fleckvieh Equation 2022, on December 18th at 1pm at Westerner Park, Red Deer , Alberta. Thanks to a return of some long term consignors, and the continued evolution of the breed, Equation ’22 will showcase the broadest selection of polled Fleckviehs for sale in Canada this fall. We look forward to the return of the Saturday social at National Trust, and just the chance to visit, catch-up and talk all things cattle in a great facility while inspecting the awesome diversity of the Simmental breed. It should be a great week-end!
Our theme this year immediately jumps off the page: DLD Lady Western 48R. When we established Applecross back in 2006, we wanted to start our herd with some of our favourite cow families from Ontario. Mom & Dad (Dora Lee), graciously granted us the choice of any four females on the farm. My first pick was ‘Lady’, a direct King Arthur daughter from SRN 2Y, who played her own starring role in establishing the Dora Lee Fleckvieh program in the early 1990’s. Dad often shared that letting ‘Lady’ go west was the most difficult cow he ever had to part with. (And when asked why he did let her go, he simply stated ‘because I was his son’). Through her long career at Applecross, Lady is probably most distinctly recognized for being the dam of APLX Envoy 2Y, who went on to leave his mark at Lone Stone after being selected out of the 2011 National Trust sale as a bull calf. We also retained every single one of her daughters. When we acquired Lady, we also managed to convince Dad to breed her Antonius (!!) before sending her out – which promptly turned into Applecross Diva and what is now an extensive ‘D’ – cow family, as evidenced by both ‘Dixie’ and ‘Dotti’ in this years offering. A couple of years later she gave us ‘Bella,’ who still walks here as the matriarch of our ‘B – cow family’ (and as a sneak peak will have a super neat grandson show up at Red Deer County 2023 Bull Sale), followed by ‘Lady Grace’, ‘Isabelle’ and ‘Frauline’, who are represented by ‘Giselle’, ‘Ivy’ and ‘Lydia’ respectively at Equation 2022 (we already had a F-cow family when Frauline came along, so Frauline’s daughters get L’s). While we are clearly pretty biased towards the 48R progeny, there is a consistency in volume and udder development across her daughters, who also showcase longevity, pigment and length of spine. Excluding our sale heifers, EIGHTEEN Lady decendants will calve at Applecross next spring. (I haven’t even mentioned that 48R also shows up in the extended pedigree of our exciting young herd sire, Black Gold Battleborn 44H – so this number will only move higher!) I think Dad would have been pretty tickled by the legacy of DLD Lady Western 48R.
The sixth of our sale heifers is the ironically named ‘Pixie’ (who is anything but tiny), who is from our 2nd most prominent cow family. Spruceburn Pauline was our choice of Bill & Donna McMurty’s bred heifer pen back in 2009. She founded our ‘P-line’ and gave us two stand out daughters that still walk here in (poundmaking) ‘Poppy’ and (pretty) ‘Paula’. Poppy cruises our pastures at an even 2,000 lbs and has produced high selling progeny on both sides of the ledger, while Paula is Jeanne’s favourite (and ironically weighed 5lbs more than big sister this year). Jeanne keeps vetoing Paula’s daughters, (and I have a tendency to do the same to Poppy’s), so while not quite to Lady’s threshold, we do have seven P’s calving out in 2023. I am bad at math, but on our fifty cow herd, it appears an even 50% of the calves born in 2023 will trace back to either Pauline or 48R. What can we say – we like our cow families!
Individual pages have been created for each of ‘Giselle’, ‘Dixie’, ‘Dotti’, ‘Pixie’, ‘Ivy’ and ‘Lydia’. Short-cut links are on the right – or simply enter their names in the search bar at the top of our home page – and their page will pop up. On the individual pages, we have also pictured their sires, dams and siblings. We try to take a camera with us on pasture tours – and while not always ‘professional quality’, hopefully sharing pictures provides a better glimpse into the extended pedigree.
The heifers all have quiet temperaments and are used to being around people. We like quiet cattle. We preg-checked in mid-October and the vet feels that three are safe to their AI dates, with the fourth bred potentially a cycle later. Also, due to the late sales date of Equation, we expect all of our bred heifers to be very heavy in calf – specifically as Cavill appears to have a little shorter gestation. For any out of province buyers, we are willing to take the heifers home and calve them out. While ‘stuff’ can happen, we would much prefer that ‘stuff’ to happen at our place, instead of having a disaster occur during the stress of a truck ride.
The Heifers are also vaccinated with ViraShield and Covexin Plus. They will be treated with Dectomax and the breds will have their first shot of Scourguard prior to sale day.
The 2022 Fleckvieh Equation promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great day on December 18th at Westerner Park.
Ross Small
We are saddened to share the passing of my dad, Ross Small, on Thursday, April 21st. Dad and my mom (Betty) founded Dora Lee in June of 1973, with the first Simmentals arriving in the spring of 1974. Mom and Dad had a mixed farm that consisted of purebred Duroc and Landrace hogs alongside the Simmentals, but it was the cattle that were truly Dad’s passion. With the purchase of ‘the farm next door’ in December 1992, the cow herd expanded, the pigs wound down, and Dad was able to focus on his goal of building his Fleckvieh herd.
Dad was always focused on the future, and would regularly ask the question ‘where do you see yourself in 5 years?’ He always believed that true cattle breeders focused on where they thought the breed needed to go, instead of chasing what happened to be popular at the present time. Genetic improvement is so slow in cattle, the five year window ensured that steps taken now would align with those longer term goals. Dad’s own focus for Dora Lee was on three things: He was dedicated to the idea of 100% Fleckvieh, and spent hours going back through pedigrees to ensure they all originated in Germany or Austria. He was confident that polled cattle were the future, and began incorporating the gene into his program shortly after the first polled Fleckvieh import bulls arrived in Canada in the late 1990’s. He was also a believer in ‘keeping on top of change’, and utilized DNA technology to measure for feed efficiency / RFI. He was convinced that this would be the next, long term evolution to the cattle industry, and as always wanted to be there when the time came to have already genetically selected for the future demands of the market. While the priority of Feed Efficiency may still be in the future, the sales results from this past spring would certainly suggest that his early ideas regarding polled was right on the money. Those five year plans may take more than five years, but they give focus and shape to the direction of an operation; allowing it to move forward.
Mom and Dad enjoyed the opportunity to travel for cattle, and meet new people along the way. For many years, Dad really enjoyed ‘Fleckvieh Week-end’ in Alberta – but it was always the Friday night social (prior to Fleckvieh Fest the next day) that was his favourite part of the week-end. The opportunity to visit, socialize and break bread with his fellow breeders was something not to be missed! He enjoyed his visits to the United States, Scotland, and the World Simmental Congresses in Germany, Australia and Calgary. As much as those trips revolved around cattle, it was always the people they met that made the lasting impressions. Dad enjoyed a good joke, but also really enjoyed getting to know people, especially those just starting out with Fleckvieh. Even as they stuck much closer to home over the past few years, he continued to study catalogs, making ‘his pick’ of every female sale, and always noticing when ‘Dora Lee’ would appear in a pedigree. He was quite tickled to see our high selling bull from this spring be a ‘Dora Lee’ grandson, and reminded me several times, (both before and after the sale) that it was also ‘his pick’. It only took a pedigree or a prefix to trigger a conversation on the people behind the cattle with whom he built lasting relationships.
One of the cool things about cattle is that the prefix’s in quality cattle stand the test of time. While we will miss my dad, a consistent reminder of his passion and legacy will live on in the name ‘Dora Lee’.
Thank-you.
Dennis
2022 Red Deer County Bull Sale Report
March 12th was another great day to hold the Red Deer County Bull Sale at the Innisfail Auction Mart, Innisfail, Alberta. Unseasonably mild temperatures created beautiful travelling weather to see a great group of bulls sell. Customers had the opportunity to have a hot lunch and inspect a high quality, diverse group of bulls presented by a number of great consignors, before watching them strut their stuff in the sales ring.
In all, eight bulls ended up topping the $10,000 threshold at this years’ event which included bulls from each of the Fleckvieh, Purebred Simmental, Black Angus and Hereford divisions – truly a strong multi-breed sale! The overall high seller was a polled Fleckvieh bull from Keato Meadows – Lot 49 – that sold for 21,000 to Lakeview Simmentals of Meacham, SK. This is the second consecutive year that Jonathan & Ebony Kittlitz of Keato Meadows have brought the high seller to town. As we have worked beside their program in both the Fleckvieh Equation and Red Deer Bull Sales for quite a number of years, it is awesome to witness their continued success! Overall 68 lots sold for an average of $6,899, with the fullblood bulls averaging almost $8,500.
While our own string suffered some setbacks during semen testing, the highlight of the day for us was our Lot 42 bull – APLX Coach 37J. We think very highly of the potential of this homo-polled, herd builder, and were excited to have him sell to the deep south of the United States! ‘Coach’ was acquired for $15,000 by a partnership of Red Oak Farm / Josh & Hilarie Gardner of Greenville, Alabama and Little Creek Cattle / Jason & Nikki Gress of Starkville, Mississippi! It is always a great feeling to have your genetics selected for international use, and we look forward to seeing how ‘Coach’ performs for his new owners.
Coach wasn’t the only bull who got enjoy a lengthy truck ride, as our lot 41 bull ‘Impulse’ is New Brunswick bound after being selected by Mike Groom / Kenridge Farm, Leverville, NB. Our other two bulls both stayed close to home. John and Terry Matheson of Red Deer County selected our lot 47 bull ‘Wrigley, and Dallas Phillips acquired our Lot 40 bull in ‘Intrigue’. Dallas was a repeat buyer for us, after selecting ‘Dundee’ from us back in 2019. It is always special to see customers return for more bulls!
Once again we need to recognize the team at Transcon for doing a tremendous job working the phones and managing the sale. The Red Deer County Bull Sale is part of an extremely busy stretch of events, and we appreciate the time and energy Jay Good and his team invest to ensure we have a successful sale. We look forward to working with them again later in the year at Fleckvieh Equation!
With both the bull sale and calving now behind us, our thoughts move directly to breeding season. While we haven’t been successful in adding a new walking bull this year, we do have a couple of new options for AI so that we can continue to diversify our offering. It is an exciting time for Applecross Cattle to continue in our quest to provide new, better, and different genetics to share with the industry.
Red Deer County 2022: Our Deepest and Most Diverse Bull String Ever
We are pleased to present nine herd bull prospects at Transcon’s 2022 Red Deer County Bull Sale on Saturday, March 12th at 1:00pm at the Innisfail Auction Mart, Innisfail, Alberta. This is our twelfth year at this event, and we are proud to be included in the strong offering that is always presented by this progressive group of breeders.
Our 2022 offering will be our deepest and most diverse bull string yet – clearly showcasing our breeding philosophy. We firmly believe that the future will bring an increased herd size, on the same amount of available labour. This means, that with less labour available on a per cow basis, birth weights will come down to improve calving ease, and that gradually more and more horns will be bred off the cattle. We continue to slowly incorporate the polled gene into our herd, as our goal is to add this genetic trait while maintaining the strong performance and mothering ability the Simmental breed is known for. In a sector that continues to operate with compressed margins, we think our bulls offer low maintenance, highly maternal characteristics that will produce both tremendous replacement females and heavy steers.
Maybe the most intriguing bull we have on offer this year is ‘Coach’. A homo-polled, dilutor free Double Bar D Confidence son, this mid-February calf is a real head turner. His dam manages to combine two of our founding cow families, that we have enjoyed the privilege of working with since the early 1990’s. The proven maternal of Antonius and King Arthur combine with the outcross of Rangemore Carrousel to create a truly unique individual that is loaded with potential. With endless ways he can be utilized, Coach is definitely worthy of consideration as a program changing breeder bull.
Rare for us, is also a pair of Anchor T Impact embryo herd sire prospects. One of the early lessons my father taught me, was that while ET could be a valuable tool, it should only be used incredibly selectively – it was his opinion that it was utilized too often to simply multiply genetics, when instead we should focus our efforts on breed improvement. We have tried to take this lesson to heart, but simply couldn’t resist a long-term goal of incorporating Anchor T Impact into our polled program. The dam, Applecross Diana is one of the young ‘stars’ of our herd, and we are confident you will hear a lot more from this moderate framed female in the future. These two Impact sons offer stacked maternal pedigrees backed by multiple generations of calving ease, all with a unique genetic twist!
The largest sire group is that of our home raised, homo-polled head turner, APLX Wedge 6F. With his first daughters now in production here, we have been very happy with his progeny to date. These five sons all showcase their sires incredible volume and shape, but are also very much defined by their dams. ‘Warner’ and “Wildcard’ were both born a little heavier, and pack a little more punch; while ‘Whiskey’ and ‘Wrigley’ both stack highly maternal Spruceburn Starfire dams to provide a little more balanced profile. Finally there is ‘Wheeler’, a true curve bender. His moderate birthweight, combines with a strong top and massive hip, this beauty of a buckskin is projected to be our ‘heavyweight’ on sale day. Together, we expect these five ‘W’s’ to create a really neat feature pen in Innisfail.
The five Wedge sons on offer are joined by Wedge’s maternal brother in ‘Duke’. We are incredibly high on Applecross Piper, but with so many relatives around it is incredibly difficult to figure out which way to breed her. For this years’ model we reached deep into our AI inventory to an old school Fleckvieh in JB Doctor Duke, to create our own ‘Duke’, and offer a little different polled twist with this classic line.
Individual pages have been created for all nine of our bulls on offer. Short-cut links are located in the right-hand column; alternatively, mobile users can also simply put the bull’s name in the search bar. On the individual pages, we have also pictured the sires, dams and often multiple generations of the genetics behind the bulls. Maternal lines are very important to us, and we feel that behind every great bull is an outstanding cow family – and we have been working with some of these cow families since the early 1990’s! Links to the CSA database and current EPD’s have also been profiled, and we would be more than happy to provide any additional supplemental information.
We want to ensure our bulls will work for many years, so feet, legs and temperament are very important traits for us. The bulls are housed in a 5 acre paddock to ensure lots of exercise, and have been developed on a ration of free-choice quality first cut hay, combined with a forage-based pellet by Country Junction. All nine bulls are quiet and used to being around people. We like working and walking through docile cattle, and feel the herd bull should be no exception.
The 2022 Red Deer County Bull Sale promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great day on March 12th at the Innisfail Auction Mart.
Our 2021 Fleckvieh Equation Sales Report
December 19th was another great day to wrap up 2021’s ‘Alberta Simmental Week-end’ with Transcon’s Fleckvieh Equation and Red and Black, 2 in 1 Sale Extravaganza at the Innisfail Auction Mart. Despite the onset of ‘full winter’ impacting travel earlier in the week, temperatures moderated for sale day to allow for steady traffic through the legendary Innisfail Auction Mart cattle facility. In what was the last ‘live’ Simmental sale in Alberta of 2021, astute cattlemen had the opportunity to have a hot lunch, visit with consignors, and inspect a high quality group of open and bred females, and a few herd sire prospects, before watching them pose for viewers in the sales ring.
In what is sure to become a sale tradition, consignors Skywest Farms led off the sale with Lot 103, one of several impressive Kuntz Duramax daughters that they had on offer. ‘Skywest Hope’ sold for $22,500 to Lockhart Valley Simmentals / Lee & Tina Robson of Rimbey, AB. A few lots later, the sales order turned to open heifers and. after some spirited bidding, Lot 119, BLL Lady Jane 53H ended up the top open heifer at $15,000 as Gail Gerein of Unity SK was the successful new owner. On the purebred side, the high seller was Lot 4, ‘City View Hawaii 37H’ a really impressive SVS Tycoon Daughter, who was selected by Circle 7 Simmentals of Shaunavon, Sk.
It was a really awesome day for Applecross Cattle, as we were really happy with the condition and shape our heifers were in sale day. We had a tremendous number of inquiries leading up to the sale, and were humbled by the number of compliments we received on our program. Our lead two polled heifers were selected to be the 3rd and 4th heifers in the ring, and both went to first time customers. After being selected by Mike McCart / Alliance Simmentals, for $6,400, Lot 117 ‘Applecross Liesel’ is Ontario bound. Lot 116 ‘Applecross Paris’ is staying right close to home here in Central AB, after being acquired by OH Kay Farms / the Lougheed’s of Red Deer for $5,000. And finally, a little later in the sale, Lot 114 ‘Applecross Olivia’ was selected by Jayme Hunter of Caroline, AB. and lot 115 ‘Applecross Carly’ by Justin Wagner of Leslieville, AB. It was great to see four new customers acquire Applecross genetics, and we are excited to see what our females can do for their new owners.
We were also successful in making two acquisitions during the sale. Our eyes were certainly drawn to Lot 118 ‘BLL Hocus 51H’, and with both ‘Sibelle Sugar Ray 25F’ and ‘Brinks Bullet Proof’ being outcross to our herd, we jumped at the opportunity to add this promising female to round out our open heifer group. We were also able to add Lot 105 ‘Skywest Harmony’. We have been very impressed with the Duramax progeny, and were quite interested in the Twenty X bull when he sold at Anchor D back in 2011, so it was pretty cool to add this larger framed female to our walking herd. We are always on the look out for new or different genetics that can add different dimensions to our herd, and we believe we have been able to accomplish that goal again in 2021!
Once again we need to recognize the team at Transcon for doing a tremendous job working the phones and managing the sale. Jay Good and his team are always a quality sales management group – constantly on the phone while inspecting cattle for prospective buyers. Since interest and bids don’t always result in a purchase, you can’t always see their work – but that certainly wasn’t the case for Equation 2021. Between the onset of winter weather and the continued impact of Covid, fewer people are able to attend the sale. Having a professional, reputable sales team inspect animals and provide advice on behalf of potential bidders and buyers is simply irreplaceable .
With the heifers sale a now behind us, we are full into calving. With some new AI options and the first Black Gold Battleborn 44H calves set to arrive, it is an incredibly exciting time of year. Being a purebred cattle breeder is always a journey – and there are so many ways that we can still work to improve both our herd and sale offerings. Yes, our trend of offering more polled genetics will continue, but we certainly won’t be successful if we single-trait select – so we will continue to keep an eye on feet, thickness, udders and temperament – while also continuing to mix back in different horned genetics to continue to diversify our genetic base. We are really excited about both our open heifer group, and the yearling bulls that are only days away from being clipped up for bull sale pictures. We are truly fortunate (and very blessed) to own and operate Applecross Cattle where we can continue in our quest to provide new, better, and different genetics to share with the industry.
Cow Families @ the Heart of it All: Fleckvieh Equation Preview 2021
We are pleased to present four bred heifers at Transcon’s 2021 Fleckvieh Equation Sale at 1 pm on December 19th, at the Innisfail Auction Mart, Innisfail, Alberta. We really enjoy the group of consignors that join together in what has become the last ‘live’ Fleckvieh sale of the year in Alberta. Every year seems to bring a few new faces, and this year we are excited to have moved ‘down the road’ a few miles to our new location in Innisfail. The last two versions of the Red Deer County Bull sale have enjoyed great success at the Innisfail Auction Mart, and we look forward to more amazing hospitality from the Daines family.
Our 2021 sale string really showcases the importance of our cow families. We have taken a slow approach to building our herd to ensure that multiple generations of cow families all walk here. This way, the maternal lines can develop, and we can watch and compare as the younger generations work alongside their matriarchs. We are very selective in adding females – typically only circling a few each fall with the goal of adding only one or two neat outcross females that have the potential to found a legacy cow family of their own, and simply make our herd better. So in that vein, it is not a surprise that all four of our bred heifers on offer trace back to three of our initial founding lines. Our ‘Christina’ (or C) cow family, our Pauline (P) cow family, and Lady Western cow family (who has founded five different lines – D’s, B’s, L’s, G’s and I’s (!!!)). Why have naming guidelines if you can’t break them occasionally!
The easiest place to start is with the youngest and last of our founding matriarchs, Dora Lee Christina 28S. We selected Christina as one of our ‘founding four’ females from Dora Lee. We knew that one of the priority cow families from my parents was RHY Zamia 40Z, so we jumped at the chance to obtain this grand-daughter. Christina is one of those seemingly rare females that can produce both top quality sons and daughters, while also moderating birth weights. She is a moderate framed, no nonsense cow, still working here as she enters her 16th year; having never taken a year off. From a progeny perspective, she is probably best known for producing APLX Santana, who put on the miles spending time walking in three different Fleckvieh herds: Wa-Na-La-Pa, Gibbons Farms and Virginia Ranch. She was also the dam of APLX Javar 18A who worked at Troy Cerny’s / Diamond T, and is the dam of high selling daughters Applecross Candice (to Sunville in 2015) and Applecross Cynthia (to Anchor D in 2017). With all the balance to her progeny, it is not that surprising that Christina shows up in the sire side of our Lot 114 heifer, Applecross Olivia, and then as the maternal grand dam to our lot 115 heifer, Applecross Carly. Both of these heifers are moderate framed, solid dark red in colour, and project to have the same versatility that Christina has provided us.
For the Pauline Cow family, let us count the P’s. Poppy, Paula, Piper, Panda, Patience, Pepper & Penelope are all slated to calve in 2022. All of them originate with one of our earliest selections, Spruceburn Pauline, who was our pick of Bill & Donna McMurtry’s heifer calf crop way back in 2009. Bill and Donna got to know my parents from a number of Fleckvieh events over the years, and being one of the original supporters of Fleckvieh cattle, it was great to have them located close by when we relocated to Alberta. Donna is legendary for her knowledge of pedigrees, and was willing to not only provide advice as we first started out, but also AI some cows for us each spring while also allowing our girls to date Spruceburn Starfire for a few years. While we still walk a couple Starfire daughters (and Starfire himself shows up in Olivia’s pedigree as he combined with Christina to produce ‘Santana’), it was the acquisition of Pauline that really stands out as carrying on the Spruceburn legacy at Applecross. Despite a relatively short career, she left us with two daughters. Applecross Poppy 1X and Applecross Paula 13Z. Both have been very prolific and popular! Poppy is an amazing looking female, and cruises around our pastures as a 2,000lb working girl. Her progeny has topped both our bull sales (APLX Wrangler) and heifer sales (Applecross Penny). Paula is one of Jeanne’s favourites (as our camera roll would attest), and as such her daughters seem to be vetoed more often than not whenever Transcon is here selecting calves. One look at our lot 116 heifer, ‘Paris,’ and you will see why we are so high on this cow family.
As much as I like to tease Jeanne about consistently vetoing progeny from the ‘P-Line’, I will readily admit to having a soft spot for ‘Lady’. DLD Lady Western 48R was one of my dad’s favourites; a direct King Arthur from SRN 2Y, one of his founding Fleckvieh lines. She was the toughest one for him to part with when he gave us full rein to select four cows to come west with us when we started Applecross Cattle. Lady Western is probably best known for being the dam of APLX Envoy 2Y that left his mark at Lone Stone Farms / Lonnie & Karen Brown, as I hoarded all of her daughters here at Applecross. Over the years, she left us five daughters to start cow families with: ‘Diva’, ‘Bella’, ‘Grace’, ‘Isobel’ and ‘Frauline’. As we already have an ‘F Cow Family’ (started by Anchor D Fergus), we promptly decided to name all of Frauline’s daughters L’s. Frauline has given us three full sisters in a row: Lyanna, Liesel and Lydia. This years model Lot 117 ‘Liesel’ is an absolutely massive, big volume homozygous polled bred heifer, that we originally planned on retaining – there is simply so much breeding potential in this heifer! She certainly carried the volume of her grandma through the generations, and will provide endless genetic possibilities for her new owner.
Individual pages (short-cut links are on the top right), have been created for each of ‘Olivia’, ‘Carly’, ‘Paris’ and ‘Liesel’. We preg-checked in mid October and the vet feels that all four are safe to their AI breeding or early exposure. The Heifers are also vaccinated with ViraShield Gold and Covexin Plus. They will be treated with Scour-Guard prior to sale day. On the individual pages, we have also pictured their sires, dams and siblings. We hope to have videos of our sale heifers completed next weekend.
The 2021 Fleckvieh Equation promises to be another exciting event, We look forward to a great day on December 19th in Innisfail!
Take Time to ‘Smell the Roses’
Take Time to ‘Smell the Roses’
The title tonight is one of my dad’s sayings. An idiom as a reminder to take time, to do the things that we enjoy; even when our schedules may seem busy. A pause on the farm – for a few minutes – an hour – an afternoon – an evening. Just to enjoy the blessings we have been given, and to be thankful. It has been a tough six months for us at Applecross Cattle. The continuation of a world wide pandemic, combined with personal loss and some family health challenges, has had a material impact on our mental health. So practicing self-awareness, and focusing on our own communication skills, have become essential. It is also a reminder that I am very fortunate that I have a partner I travel through life with, that I can share / talk to / be with / be a source of strength and remind me (or I can remind her) that sometimes we just need a break; to take time to ‘smell those roses’.
We are very fortunate to be able to have a cattle operation. We do this by choice. And a lot of people, in a lot of professions, can’t say that. There are certainly lots of great things about having the cows, but at the same token there is simply no escape from them. As one of our great friends mentioned when we were visiting the other day ‘the best part of the place is the cows / but it is also the worst part’. Cows demand attention; and more often then not, when it isn’t convenient! If the bull calves decide to push through a fence and get on the highway in the dark one night, or the resident senior herd bull decides that 2am is a great time for exploring the flowerbeds, neither situation is something that can be deferred to more accommodating daylight or even business hours between 9-5 in order to be resolved. Nothing impacts a Saturday night ‘date night’ cow-tour like noticing an animal with a limp, or simply looking ‘off’. Having cattle reinforces the suggestion that while for many days of the year they can exist perfectly healthy (in the pasture they are supposed to be in), that we are still on call 24-7-365. So a pause, spontaneous or planned, can remind us of all the great reasons we do choose to spend our life in the purebred cattle business. Outside, with nature, watching our cattle turn grass into milk and meat.
This year both of us have tended to operate with a higher level of emotion, so we have made a conscious effort to take these breaks to remind ourselves why we do what we do. A pause on a hilltop to watch the cattle work their way through a new pasture. A Saturday night gator ride that stops for no reason, other than to watch the cattle grazing, backdropped by a glorious sunset. A pause to reflect, a reminder that we are fortunate enough to do what we do, and that billions of people in our world have life so much worse. We are fortunate in so many ways. We need to take time to reflect, give thanks, and enjoy the moment while blessed to have each others company. And as the world turns back toward “normal”, time with family and great friends also returns to become moments that are cherished. Cherished because of what was missed; but also cherished because there is that sense of sharing; of openness and the awareness that everyone has their own demons. Together we can give each other strength – while also (often) enjoying some great cattle to boot!
When life becomes more challenging, it is often the deep rooted pillars that have always anchored our lives that move towards the fore. For us growing up, Sunday was always a time for our faith, and a pause (as much as possible) from ‘farm work’ so that we would have time for reflection, restoration, and rejuvenation. I was also blessed to grow up in a house of music. My mom sung in the barn during chores (and sometimes – if it wasn’t stupid early in the day – we would even join in!). My dad would play the same ‘Sunday Songs’ before church every week. And with two siblings that played the piano (one of whom is a now church pianist), music was never far. So between scripture and song, they continue to be inspirations that keep us grounded, sane and settled. A couple readily come to mind: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself…Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34) and also ‘Trust I seek, and I find in you. Every day for us something new’ (Metallica). Reminders that while still planning for the future, try to stay in the “today” without worrying unnecessarily about things that might not even happen tomorrow. And also that we are fortunate the have someone to share our burdens with; hand in hand as we journey through life.
For Applecross Cattle itself, the farm has done very well for us this year. Despite widespread drought across Western Canada, some timely rains in June and again in late August allowed us to stretch our pastures a lot longer than anticipated. The cattle have moved closer to home and were put on feed 2 weeks earlier than usual, so we count our blessings that we have been so fortunate. As we were short grass, we did pivot and double the usual number of cull cows that went to town after weaning. The entire cow herd is mapped for performance of their progeny, with a simple test of whether their offspring was retained into our herd, became one of our sale animals or were culled. The combination of lack of performance, some flaws (I really like to clean up udders and feet), alongside some older cows that simply aged out of our program, meant quite a number went to town. It is always a sad day to see some trusted mainstays leave the yard, but at the same token having the opportunity to clean up the bottom 20% of the herd should never be passed up. The bonus is that I am much happier touring the cow herd!
We enjoyed a balanced calf crop and were able to continue our progression with polled genetics. I have said this fairly frequently over the past 5 years, but we are blessed with the strongest set of open heifers we have ever raised – there are some really neat, different genetics in the pen – and some of our more impressive matron cows (finally) gave us daughters. We also retained more bulls in our development paddock than we have ever had in the past, and have selected four bred heifers to present at Equation 2021. We won’t spoil the details, but between our walking bulls, some AI, and (rare for us) embryo calves, we are pretty excited for the potential of our 2021 calf crop.
In closing, this blog post may be a bit of a departure from our usual musings. Everyone has days they struggle with internal demons. And in Agriculture, I think there has always been a stigma to acknowledging them; confusing a public persona of ‘toughness’ and resiliency with experiences and challenges that every person faces. Mental health is just too important, so we decided to share a small snapshot of our journey. We are so fortunate to be able to live our dream of Applecross Cattle, while having each other to rely on when times are a challenge. So on Sunday night, we pause. To reflect, and to just ‘smell those roses’. We are so grateful. For friends. Family. Scripture. Song. Partnerships. And (of course), plenty of time to talk cattle.
Until next time,
Dennis
Our 2021 Red Deer County Bull Sale Report
Our 2021 Red Deer County Bull Sale Report
March 13th was another great edition of the Red Deer County Bull Sale at the Innisfail Auction Mart, in Innisfail, Alberta. It was a gorgeous spring day, with unseasonably mild temperatures in Central Alberta which, despite all the uncertainty surrounding the current pandemic, led to a robust crowd enjoying comfortable weather to inspect bulls in their large outside pens. Customers had the opportunity to have a hot lunch and preview a diverse group of bulls presented by a number of great consignors, before watching them strut their stuff in the sales ring.
The three lead bulls in the ring were all from the Keato Meadows program / Jonathan and Ebony Kittlitz of Ft. Sask. Despite being regular consignors at this sale for more than a decade, this was their first time being selected to lead the sale! Their headliner status did not disappoint, as their lot 34 bull ‘Keato Pld Ben Hur 951G’, both led off the sale and ended the day as the overall high seller, for $18,500 to Lakeview Simmentals at Meacham, Sk. One of the cool features of the Red Deer Bull Sale is that, over the years, numerous breeders have been given the spotlight in the lead-off spot, so it was great to see Jonathan and Ebony’s program showcased and recognized with the high selling bull!
Over the past few years, the Red Deer bull sale has evolved from one devoted exclusively to Simmentals, to one now involving both Angus and Herefords. It has been great to meet and get to know these up and coming breeders, who also bring different perspectives and a whole lot of enthusiasm to the sale. In this regard, we would specifically like to recognize the Bricker’s from Chestermere Stock Farm – their Hereford string was very impressive, averaging a very strong $8,228 across their nine lots.
In all, nine bulls ended up topping the $10,000 threshold at this years’ event, with the high-sellers split fairly evenly across all breeds, including both fullblood and purebred Simmentals. Overall, 62 lots sold for an average of $6,630.
The highlight of the day for Applecross Cattle was the selection of two lots by Arthur Smith of Smith Simmental Ranch from Ft. Sask. Arthur has been a long time supporter of the Lone Stone Farms Simmental program at Westlock, where he had acquired several ‘APLX Envoy’ daughters over the years. This year they turned their attention to our curve-bending lead bull, APLX Daytona 55G, who they acquired for $11,250. Later on in the afternoon, they were also successful in acquiring our heifer bull candidate, APLX Cairo 14H, for $6,500. We hope these two youngsters perform just as well for their program as their ‘Envoy’ daughters have.
It was also great to see the return of two of our previous clients. Frank Deur of Crossfield selected ‘Diego’ at last years’ Red Deer Bull Sale, so it was awesome to connect and have him select our homo-polled youngster, APLX Watson 29H. We were also super excited to see Linda Bingeman / Conestoga Farms successful in acquiring APLX Dalton 50G. Linda had been to Red Deer in 2013 to select ‘Ajax’ from our program, so it was nice to see her back looking for another APLX bull. Repeat buyers are the foundation of any successful bull sale!
APLX Denzel 9H is Ontario bound, after being selected by Brian and Lynn Vail, of Clarksburg. Vailview Farms have been long time customers of my parents operation (Dora Lee Genetics), so with Dora Lee winding down, it is pretty cool to see the Vail’s decide to connect with the Alberta based Smalls! It is not a surprise that Denzel goes back to one of our founding Dora Lee females, DLD Lady Western 48R.
Our final bull, APLX Dillon 57G, stayed right here in Red Deer County, after he was selected by Ryan Layden of Layden Farms, just east of Innisfail. It is always neat to send bulls long distances, but having our prefix on bulls in the ‘neighbourhood’, is also a great experience.
Overall it was a tremendous day for Applecross Cattle at auction. Our 6 bulls all found great homes, and it was fun to meet new people and visit with old friends on a gorgeous afternoon in Innisfail!
Once again we need to recognize the team at Transcon for doing a tremendous job working the phones and managing the sale. Jay Good and his team are always a quality, sales management group – constantly on the phone while inspecting cattle for prospective buyers. Bull sale season is a tough gig – there is a different sale every 48 hours, across three provinces, so it can be easy to lose focus – but we always admire their professional approach. We look forward to working with them again later in the year to market our females at Fleckvieh Equation!
We also want to give a big shout out to the Innisfail Auction Mart. It is simply a great venue for marketing bulls. The Daines and their team are awesome hosts, provide first class service, and are great people that showcase a strong desire to host successful agricultural events. We are super supportive of the sales’ decision to relocate to Innisfail!
With both the bull sale and calving now behind us, our thoughts move directly to breeding season. We have a couple of (new to us) high profile options for AI and a brand new walking bull to test out. It is an exciting time for Applecross Cattle to continue in our quest to provide new, better, and different genetics to share with the industry.
Until next time,
Dennis
Applecross Cattle 