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

May 21, 2023 | Categories: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

 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!

February 19, 2023 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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.

February 20, 2022 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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 3^rd 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.

January 10, 2022 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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!

December 2, 2021 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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

November 21, 2021 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Our 2021 Red Deer County Bull Sale Report

Our 2021 Red Deer County Bull Sale Report

March 13^th 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

March 21, 2021 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A Focus on Maternal Strength: Applecross Cattle @ Transcon’s 2021 Red Deer County Bull Sale.

We are pleased to present seven herd bull prospects at Transcon’s 2021 Red Deer County Bull Sale on Saturday, March 13th at 1:00pm at the Innisfail Auction Mart, Innisfail, Alberta. This is our eleventh 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 2021 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. 

At the top of the pen is the third set of sons to be offered from NUG Delmonte 81D, who has clearly left his stamp on our herd. Dark red, smooth polled, non-diluting, amazing gain to feed efficiency ratio, and a quiet temperament are the adjectives that  immediately come to mind when we think ‘Delmonte’.  Loaded with hair and heavily pigmented, plenty of power yet moderate birth weights are common across the group of ‘Dalton’, ‘Dillon’, ‘Daytona’ and ‘Denzel’.  These four Delmonte sons all bend the curve, with very intriguing EPD profiles, that balance calving and maternal strength with strong performance numbers.   

We have tried something a little different this year, by bringing a couple of calving ease bulls to town.  It has always been a struggle for us to evaluate sons from first calf heifers, as they typically just don’t have the performance to stand up to our strict bull pen selection criteria.  This year we have two bulls that made the grade, ‘Gideon’ and ‘Cairo’, who both present as intriguing options for the heifer pen.  Joining these two bulls in our ‘junior division’, is ‘Watson’, who is a unique youngster with potential, having only a February 20^th, birthday.

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 of 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.  As 2021 has been an eventful spring, we also plan to have videos of each of our sale bulls the next couple days.   Please check our Applecross Cattle Facebook page for up to date info on our sales offering.   

Transcon’s 2021 Red Deer County Bull Sale promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great day on March 13th at the Innisfail Auction Mart!

March 1, 2021 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Equation 2020: The Fabulous Four

We are pleased to present four bred heifers at Transcon’s 2020 Fleckvieh Equation Sale on December 20th, at 1pm at Westerner Park, Red Deer, Alberta.  There is always a great cross section of genetics available at this prestigious event, and we are proud to be part of this progressive group of breeders.

This year we are showcasing progeny from four of our young cows that each have lots of potential.  In addition to the bred heifers selected for Equation 2020, all four dams weaned off big calves again this year that have subsequently been retained for further development in either the bull or open heifer groups.  Three of the dams are FGAF WowEffect daughters, a bull who has not only left a legacy here, but whose progeny has also impressed in the sales ring.  The fourth dam is an intriguing Banker daughter, who was our selection from the Virginia Ranch program at Western Harvest 2018.

It is Virginia Ms Chardonnay’s first daughter who will lead our 2020 string to Red Deer.  ‘Cabernet’, is a dark red, heavily pigmented, head turner that already carries massive volume.   There does not appear to be many Kuntz Gudas daughters on offer this fall, so ‘Cabernet’ will represent a unique combination of Seldom, SouthSeven Mr Adonis, Jeremiah and Laredo spread across the four quarters of her pedigree.  And she sure has the looks to balance her depth of pedigree!   

‘Tanis’ and ‘Lyanna’ are three-quarter sisters that combine WowEffect with NUG Delmonte, and represent two of our proven cow families.  ‘Tanis’ traces back to our foundation HEMR Tasha 8T, who sired a sale topper in APLX Axel 5Z, while also giving us daughters that have built an extensive cow family here.  ‘Lyanna’ is the granddaughter of one of our ‘founding four’ females in DLD Lady Western 48R – of whom we have 5 daughters working here.  ‘Tanis’ (cherry red) and ‘Lyanna’ (brown), each follow their dams colouring, but have their sire’s heavy pigmentation and non-dilutor status.  As is evident, we are really happy with the WowEffect-Delmonte cross, and that combination will be featured heavily in our Red Deer 2021 Bull Sale Offering.

The final heifer on offer this year is Paprika.  Our P-Line, that was founded with our original purchase of Spruceburn Pauline back in 2009, has been very popular over the years. This is somewhat surprising as Jeanne consistently uses her veto on a ‘P’!  Now that we have six ‘P females’ in production (Poppy, Paula, Piper, Pepper, Panda, Patience), a seventh vetoed (Penelope) to be added in 2022, and APLX Wedge (a P son) as our junior herdbull, she will continue to have trouble vetoing them all!   ‘Paprika’ will also be one of the final Dora Eclipse daughters to sell, as his semen is now very scarce.  We have successfully utilized Eclipse on heifers for the past 12 years, and have been impressed not only with his calving, but also in the daughters he has provided.  Paprika is a great example of the broody females he has produced for us over the years.    

Individual pages (short-cut links are on the right, names can be entered in the search bar on phones), have been created for each of ‘Paprika’, ‘Lyanna’, ‘Tanis’ and ‘Cabernet’.  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.    As 2020 has been an eventful year, we also plan to have videos of each of our sale heifers over the next couple weeks.  Please check our Applecross Cattle Facebook page for up to date info on our sales offering.

All four heifers are AI only, and were pregnancy checked in mid-October.  The Heifers are vaccinated with ViraShield and Covexin Plus. They will be treated with Dectomax and given Scourguard prior to sale day. 

The 2020 Fleckvieh Equation promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great day on December 20th at Westerner Park.

November 22, 2020 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Emergency Fund

After I turned 16 and obtained my driver’s license, I received an unexpected gift.  No, not a new vehicle – like most farm kids, I would now get to borrow the ‘farm truck’.  Assuming, of course, that my chores were done, and that my grades and behavior still allowed me vehicle privileges, I could take the truck and head out for a Saturday night with friends.  The gift itself was simply a twenty-dollar bill for my wallet.  I was told to tuck that $20 away; not spend it, but save it in case of an emergency.  I could get stuck on the side of the road or maybe even require emergency fuel.  But even if I did need to use it; the $20 should be replaced so that it would be there for next time.

It was a different era 30 years ago – ATM machines and bank cards were just starting to show up in rural areas and $20 went a lot further.  There were no cell phones, so the possibility of becoming stranded was a reality.  Just think of the panic that sets in today whenever someone realizes they have left just their phone at home!

But with that gift of $20, and at that early age, the practical value of having an ‘Emergency Fund’ was born.

As I grew through my late teens and moved off to university, the concept of an emergency fund only gained importance.  Student Loans were arranged at the start of the school year, so then I was responsible for budgeting and managing my own cash flow throughout the year.    Like most students, it was easy to get ‘sidetracked,’ not worrying about running out of money later in the year, and splurge on fun things like a killer new stereo for my dorm room.  (Editor’s note – some of us did budget VERY carefully because we did worry we wouldn’t have enough to make it through the year.)  My second year brought my own vehicle to also budget for – but also a ride to go on dates with my cute new girlfriend!  (26 years later, she’s still pretty hot!).  As I evolved through the different stages of life most kids go through, my need for an emergency fund increased from simply a $20 in my wallet, to include the unexpected costs of vehicle repairs and maintenance, while also trying to manage school costs.

I have been very fortunate to always be aware that my parents were there to help, and that home at Dora Lee was always a haven of quiet and comfort (something we have tried to emulate here at Applecross).  Like most college kids, coming home on the weekend for a visit and meals (and laundry! and farm fuel!!) was always a pleasure – and an escape from the responsibility of being an ‘adult’, if only for a day or two.    And it was comforting to know that if I had a financial emergency, my parents would always be there to help.  So they did help – and always ensured that ‘us kids’ knew that they could help if we needed it.   But at the same time, while it was amazing to know that my parents were always there to assist, I knew it was incredibly important to me to build my own emergency fund.  Maybe this goal was a product of my own independent streak, or the (sometimes) uncomfortable questions that I needed to answer about my current situation.  But in any event, despite knowing that they were in a position to provide support, it simply reinforced the need for having my own contingency plan.

There is an old adage about lending money to friends (or family): be prepared to lose either one or both.  Money issues are the number one cause of family relationship stress, and a leading cause of divorce.  Parents, kids and siblings can all argue over different interpretations of a ‘helping hand’.  What was the intent: is it a gift?  a loan?  Did a sibling get treated better?  What is fair?  What is equal?  From a friend perspective, if a loan doesn’t ‘work out’; the situation gets awkward in a hurry…for the lender, if the loan isn’t repaid as expected, it is something that always gets remembered.  For the borrower, constantly knowing that you haven’t been able to repay the loan from a friend is also an issue.  This awkwardness often leads to the loss of friendships.  While family ties are not something that will break as quickly as a friendship, there are certainly plenty of family situations where members may not talk to each other for years.  It can be a tremendous asset to know that friends and family are there for financial support if needed, but it always seemed uncomfortable to rely on them as a backup plan.  Developing our own, independent solution seemed to be a better option.

Debt is another tool that people often rely on for emergency funds.  The majority of farmers have an operating loan of some sort, and personal credit lines / VISA cards can also provide emergency access to capital.  The challenge with debt though, isn’t only that it has to be paid back; it also may not be available when times become challenging.  The first thing a lender looks at when it comes to increasing credit facilities is a client’s ability to repay the loan.  If there is an ‘emergency’ and little to no income being earned, then how does the loan get repaid?  This was the case for a lot of people in Alberta who have experienced job interruptions during the current downturn in the oil & gas sector…going to the bank after a job loss and trying to qualify for additional credit, without income to support, is going to be a challenge.  And that is the banking conundrum.  Banks are investors in your life or in your farm – and they make that investment as long as they are comfortable they can get repaid as agreed for an acceptable return.  There is some truth to the statement that it is easy to borrow money when you don’t need it – and tough to borrow it when you do.  Reality is a more complex matter, as any lender who understands agriculture is aware of the cyclical nature of farming, and that there may not be profit earned every year.  So banks (and bankers) certainly make a reputation on whether they support their farm clients during ‘good times and bad’.   But regardless of the trust you may have with your advisor or financial institution, debt may not be the most reliable source of funding in an emergency – especially when it may be needed in a hurry!

There are other challenges with debt, or having someone else as an investor in your life or farm.  Usually as a condition of their investment, they negotiate terms.  It could include interest rate, collateral, credit limits and a schedule on repayment.  There may also be other terms and conditions that need to be followed, such as providing annual financial information in a certain format, or achieving specific results.  If the terms of the agreement aren’t followed, then the loans (and limits) can be reduced or due in full.  Or, potentially even cancelled outright if they aren’t being utilized.

This last situation happened to Jeanne and I when we were first married.  Having just graduated from university, Jeanne was excited to get accepted into teachers’ college.  I had just started as a banker, and we both had our fair share of student loans (we joked that there was no use having a pre-nup as we had a negative net worth when we got married!), so while Jeanne was going to school, we knew cash flow would be in short supply.  I wasn’t worried, as I had a credit line from my time as a student that we had been able to pay down to zero, and I figured that if we got tight, that we could just tap into that.    What I didn’t realize at the time, was that because it was a student loan, and I was no longer a student, since my loan had a NIL balance, it had been closed.  So several months later, when we went to use it, we had a bit of a surprise!  We were welcome to apply again for a ‘regular’ credit line (that we might have access to ‘in a week or so’), but not having ready access to our ‘emergency credit line’ did create some short term panic.  It certainly was an early life lesson, when the banker didn’t even know the terms and conditions of his own loan!

So again, as a person with an independent streak, it seems only prudent to have at least some of our own resources available to provide some flexibility in the case of emergencies.  Agriculture is big-business though – so I don’t know how realistic it is to tuck away a huge amount in an emergency fund – but at least having some money put aside does provide some time and space until more fundamental changes can be made.

The question becomes: How much money should be in an emergency fund?  The general rule of thumb is 3 months worth of expenses – which can be different than 3 months of income!  In our case, as we both have off-farm pay-cheques, having a 3 month buffer suggests that we could both be unemployed for 3 months or, more realistically, one of us could become unemployed for 6 months, and we would still have sufficient funds put away that we would have some flexibility to make alternative plans.

Sounds easy, but what about farmers who can have such variable income streams throughout the year? I still think 3 months (or 25% of annual cash expenses) would be a good number – the challenge, of course, is remembering that an ‘emergency’ fund should be treated significantly differently than day-to-day cash flow management.  Emergency funds are just that – to be used in the case of an emergency, such as a crop failure or drought, that puts an ‘extra-ordinary’ stress on cash flow.  Agriculture can be so variable and cash flow depends on both weather and markets – both of which are outside of farmers’ control.  It can be easy to confuse market cycles with ‘extraordinary events’, and get tempted to dig into that emergency fund.  (We have a saying in banking: if ‘extraordinary events’ happen every year, then they really aren’t that extraordinary!)  While an Emergency Fund is supposed to provide time and space, it also starts a clock ticking.  Once funds start getting utilized, it does add pressure as to what happens when the emergency fund runs dry.  But the alternative option, of not having reserves at all, can create substantially more stress, and lead to knee-jerk reactions that may not have been the preferred approach if a little more time and space was available.

The other big question is how to establish an emergency fund.  I am a firm believer of the pay yourself first concept.  By taking a small amount (10%) of money off each pay-cheque as soon as it hits the bank account, saving can be relatively painless.   My understanding of this methodology dates back to an early read of ‘The Wealthy Barber’ in my late teens – it was a bit of a slog at that age, but it certainly helped shape my habits. And since it was a gift from my favourite uncle (thanks Uncle Jim!), it actually got read!  Being surrounded (and influenced) by people who have good financial habits is a huge help – especially as habits can be started so young!  The concept I recall is partly based on an understanding of human nature.  If there is money in a bank account, (or room on an operating line), it provides a sense of comfort – and that comfort often means that money simply gets spent on ‘stuff’.  By paying yourself first and transferring funds right off the top to a separate savings account, the primary chequing account may stay a little ‘tighter’ than what would be preferred (which does help with spending habits), and the savings account will grow over time.  This same concept can be utilized by farmers.  By taking a small percentage of sale proceeds (the grain cheque / cheque from the auction mart) and transferring it directly to a savings account, an ‘emergency’ fund can slowly be built.  As my dad would say ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ – so an emergency fund is something that can be built gradually over time.

One other point to make on an emergency fund is making sure the funds are available when you need them.  Financial Institutions typically pay very poor interest rates on savings accounts, but regardless, this is typically where your emergency fund should be located.  There are (slightly higher paying) options like ‘e-savings’ that may require electronic transfers, that are also great options. However, I would hesitate to lock an emergency fund into a GIC or other fixed term investment just to generate a little more return – in case it was ‘locked in’ right when you needed it. Emergency funds are just that – for use in an emergency – you never know when you may need it, so keeping that deposit ‘liquid’ so it can be accessed is more important than a little more interest.

A contingency fund provides time and space.  As readers of this blog would be familiar with, ‘time, space (and communication)’ is my favourite problem solver.  Whenever there is a shock to the system/operation, having emergency reserves allows for adequate time to allow the best decisions to be made.  This is something the recent COVID outbreak really brought home.  As a banker (and consumer), I was astounded by how many people and businesses needed payment relief within 2 weeks of the outbreak shutting down our economy.  And to be clear, the financial impact of COVID has been devastating.  Fortunately, the agricultural community has (so far) been spared from the worst of the impact.  But it does say something about our society, when a significant portion of the population is running that close to their financial edge.  Farmers are rather used to the concept of disaster striking – so having reserves that provide some time and space, so the best plan to move forward can be determined, just seems like prudent planning.

At the risk of diving into political theory, self reliance is a powerful concept!  It is so important to know your own family/farm financial position, and then take responsibility for managing it!  Understand that those marketing jingles that include any sort of idea that you ‘owe’ it to yourself (or your family) to purchase whatever trendy item or experience that is being marketed can safely be ignored.  We don’t ‘owe’ ourselves anything – except taking responsibility for our own financial position, and making sure that we know exactly where our money is being spent.    ‘Don’t pay a cent events’ on furniture / electronics, a new vehicle, well-deserved (!) vacations, the latest phone, and dining out are all luxuries.  And in farmer speak, luxuries are luxuries whether they are tax-deductable or not – farmers sometimes focus so much on NOT paying income taxes, that the ability to ‘write things off’, doesn’t necessarily make a discretionary financial decision a good one.  Yes, farmers work hard – and this is a unique industry with extraordinary challenges.  And I would suggest that it is equally important to ‘live a little’ and not be solely guided by a profit and loss statement.  But, the point is, we should all know our financial position BEFORE proceeding with discretionary purchases, so we understand the consequences to our bigger financial picture.

The last point (I promise,) that I’d like to make on the concept of emergency funds, is the importance of being on the same page as your significant other.  I am extremely blessed to have met Jeanne early in life (editor’s note: correct).  And even more fortunate that she is more frugal than I am.  Everyone has a unique upbringing and, as mentioned earlier, habits start young.  So being aligned in the household on the importance of saving (and having an emergency fund), was something we discussed in our pre-marriage counselling, and a topic we have certainly had to revisit over the years.  It takes discipline to be financially prudent – and we have certainly been tested along the way.  And frankly, purebred cattle is a crazy industry when you think about the logic behind spending (tens of) thousands of dollars on ‘genetic potential’.  Finding the right partner, and having an open, honest and collaborative conversation on finances is just such a huge advantage when it comes to managing the bumps on life’s journey.

So, my long, rambling message is actually pretty simple.  As tough as it may be to begin, set aside some money.  Start small, but make it a regular habit.  If you need to dip into the emergency fund, make a plan for replacing it (note to self: not exactly an emergency to ‘buy just one more heifer’).  Sacrifice a little discretionary spending today, for a little extra cushion in case things don’t go as expected.  Have a candid conversation with your spouse/significant other about money (and where it goes) in both your household and farm operation.  Give yourself some time to manage the curves that life throws at you.  And balance the needs of today, with the promise of (an uncertain) tomorrow.

Until next time,

Dennis

July 19, 2020 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

2020 Red Deer Bull Sale Report

March 26th was a bit of a surreal day to hold the Red Deer Bull Sale at its emergency location of the Innisfail Auction Mart, in Innisfail, Alberta.  It was a gorgeous, late winter, sunny day, but it was with mixed emotions that only a handful of people were on hand to see a great group of bulls sell.  The social distancing measures required for everyone’s safety meant only a trickle of bull buyers toured through the bulls over the three days prior to the sale. Thanks to digital technology, a great facility, and a hard working sales team, despite a lot of trepidation, the sale turned out to be a tremendous success.

The first bulls through the ring were from our good friends at Skywest Simmentals, who presented two contrasting sire groups in ‘Duramax’ and ‘Spartan’.  With ‘Spartan’ being an ‘APLX Santana’ son, we have always kept an eye on his highly appealing calving-ease progeny, but once again it was the ‘Duramax’ string that pushed the scale down and started the sale with a bang.  It was lot 19 – Skywest Gridiron, a 1615 lb behemoth that measured 44.5cm, who led off the day, and ended up as the high seller, after being selected by Leewood Ranch for $11,500.  Overall, 61 lots sold for an aveage of $5,810.

The highlight of the day for Applecross Cattle was the return of one of our commercial clients, JNJ Simmentals, Jim and Janet Woynorowski of Westlock.  Jim & Janet selected APLX Dakota at the 2019 Red Deer Bull Sale, so it was pretty special to watch them pick up two more bulls from us this year in Lot 41, APLX Durango, and Lot 43, APLX Mayhem.  The Woynorowski’s are also home to APLX Rambo and APLX Clancy, so it is pretty neat to have 5 bulls carrying our prefix all working at one operation.

Our other four bulls all found great homes as well.  Garnet Marshall was in to tour the bulls on Tuesday, and was the successful bidder on Lot 38: APLX Dodger, while Frank Deur drove up from Crossfield to select the calving ease of Lot 42 in APLX Diego.  Both APLX Dynamo and APLX Delgado were selected by online buyers in Gerry Smith and Ashley Perepelkin respectively, both of whom are located not that far from Applecross Cattle!  All in all, despite all the nerves of the day, we are quite happy with how our bulls showed up, and how they were received by their bidders and buyers.   Complete buyer information and prices have been added to the individual bull pages located to the right.

For ourselves and our fellow consigners, the 2020 Red Deer bull sale was incredibly stressful.  With the Covid-19 outbreak, our original sales location shut its doors, resulting in a bit of panicked scramble.   We cannot stress enough, the value we found in Transcon calling in a favour and organizing the relocation of our sale to the Innisfail Auction Mart.  Danny and Dusty Daines were incredible hosts, and welcomed us to their facility with open arms.  There was such a starkly different contrast between our regular location at the Westerner Grounds (where we have increasing felt like a nuisance more than a customer), and the hospitality, authenticity and professionalism of the Innisfail Auction Mart.  It is not a surprise that it was announced to lead off the sale that the Innisfail Auction Mart with be the new home of the Red Deer County Bull Sale!

Buying bulls is also something that is typically done based on physical inspection.  Pictures and videos certainly help, but there is nothing better than actually seeing a bull to determine whether he is a ‘fit’ for everyone’s respective program.  With attendance restricted due to ‘social distancing’, it was once again Jay Good and his team at Transcon, who stepped into the void and helped get the bulls sold to ensure a successful day for all the consignors.  Bull sales are a big source of income for all the consignors – and the results of 2 years of hard work, planning and developing genetics.  It is pretty surreal (and stressful), to be sitting in the auction mart on sale day, with only a handful of people in attendance when there are 60 bulls to sell! So it was a very reassuring feeling that ‘Transcon Online’ and ‘Transcon on Order’, did the bulk of the heavy lifting.  Glenn, Darren and Cody all had front row seats with a phone in one ear and bidder orders in hand, which led to a steady stream of bids and buys throughout the day.  Considering the situation and circumstances, it was an incredibly successful day, and we really appreciate the hard work that our sales management team put in to make the 2020 Red Deer Bull Sale so memorable.    We must admit though, we are already looking forward to a more ‘normal’ 2021 version!

With both the bull sale and calving now behind us, our thoughts move directly to breeding season.  We have some recips this year, have dusted off some old proven options for AI, and have 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.

April 12, 2020 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

2020 Red Deer Bull Sale: Consistency Rules the Day

Our Seven Bulls on Offer.  From Left:  Diego, Dynamo, Delgado, Mayhem, Rockton, Durango and (peaking over the back) Dodger

We are pleased to present seven polled/scurred herd bull prospects at Transcon’s 2020 Red Deer Bull Sale on Thursday, March 26th at 1:00pm at Westerner Park, Red Deer, Alberta. This is our tenth 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.

We are proud to say that our 2020 offering will be our most consistent 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.  In a market that is always searching for ways to add value and build margin around the edges, we are also quite proud of the strong carcass traits projected in all of our bulls on offer. EPD’s certainly aren’t the ‘end all / be all’, but it is pretty cool to see the amount of ‘green’ across our CSA bull profiles.

Individual pages (short-cut links are located in the right-hand column) have been created for all seven of our bulls on offer. The individual pages also include pictures of the sires, dams, siblings and grand dams. Maternal lines are very important to us, and we feel that behind every great bull is an outstanding cow family.

Our bull pen in 2020 is dominated by a great cross section of NUG Delmonte sons.  With his third calf crop now on the ground (and his first daughters calving), Delmonte has done exactly what we have asked from him.  Sired by the very popular Starwest Pol Blueprint bull, Delmonte is adding some frame while still giving moderate birth weights.  He has developed into an impressive mature bull with an excellent gain to feed efficiency ratio, great carcass numbers and an amazingly quiet temperament.   He stamps his calves the same way, but you can still see the variances added by the respective maternal cow families.  Be sure to check out ‘Dynamo’, ‘Durango’, ‘Diego’, ‘Dodger’ and ‘Delgado’.

Joining the ‘Delmonte boys’ are two polled/scurred herdsire prospects that represent slightly different genetic twists from the bulk of the existing polled gene pool.  ‘Mayhem’ comes backed by one of our top cow families and is sired by the US bull FSS Maximus.  ‘Rockton’ will be the last bull sired by APLX Rambo to be presented at auction – Rambo was our ‘heifer’ bull for a number of years – and while he produced very successful progeny for us, simply got too big to use on heifers. Finding ‘different’ is becoming a challenge within the polled Fleckveih population, so we are pretty happy with how both ‘Mayhem’ and ‘Rockton’ have developed.

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 of 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.

We would also like to thank Stefon Beechinor and Mackenzie Stout for taking pictures of our bulls again this year.  While they don’t watermark their work, we are quite happy with the quick and efficient high quality pictures they provide us.  They certainly reduce our historic stress of taking pictures!

The 2020 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great day on March 26th at Westerner Park

March 8, 2020 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Importance of Feedback

One of the benefits of selling cattle by auction is that our cattle get to be put on display to the general public for several days.  While our primary goal is to market the cattle we have brought to that particular sale, there is also the opportunity to paint a picture of our operation, and showcase what we do, not only to try and sell our cattle on that particular day, but also to attract future customers.  By showcasing our operation at an auction sale, we get substantially more visitors through our pens than those who pass through the farm gate – so it is not only a sales tool, but a method of marketing and increasing our exposure as well.

The question becomes, though, how do we evaluate whether we have been successful at any given sale?  Clearly, we can look at our sales results and determine the financial side of the equation (I tend to have both a ‘budgeted’ number and ‘goal’ for the amount of our sales proceeds), but focusing just on sales results, can obscure what a successful auction looks like. That is where constructive feedback has its place.

It may seem simplistic to state but, auctions sell to the higher bidder.  It takes at least two bidders to push a price higher.  Because of this, if two people are interested, an animal can sell for (far) more than expected.  If only one party is interested, that same animal could sell for significantly less than the maximum that person was willing to pay. So judging the success of a sales season by only considering results (or a consignor’s sale average) leaves a lot of insight on the table – specifically for us, when we market only a few animals per year.   Clearly, generating a return is important (says the banker), but if we can also get feedback on our program and vision, among other things, then we will be much farther ahead than if we just read the sale report.

In my opinion, constructive feedback is a combination of positive and negative.  In our society, we tend to extremes.  It is very common to focus solely on the positive, which does not help identify areas that need to improve.  To avoid the risk of offending, it is often easier to be vaguely positive and move on.  The opposite extreme is also very common, focusing solely on the negative.  We’ve all witnessed this, especially in comment threads on social media – comments whose purpose is to cut, anger or show how clever and witty the writer thinks they are.  However, neither extreme is overly helpful when the goal is to improve.

The best description of providing feedback that I have found is to be ‘candid while caring’.   Simply put, feedback can be blunt, honest and direct, but only once it has been established that the reason feedback is being provided, is because you care enough about their success that you want them to know your thoughts.  Delivery is also important.  Most people don’t object to being offered praise in public, but negative feedback or coaching should always be done in a private, one-on-one setting.  Nobody enjoys being singled out in front of their peers for anything negative, so typically advice is heeded a lot quicker if delivered in private.  The short of it is that we can all provide constructive feedback without flitting to either end of the spectrum – life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.  But feedback can also be provided without being an ass.

We appreciate receiving constructive feedback from several sources – the Sales Management Team, our peers, social media, and from our own observations.

The easiest place to start is with Sales Management which, in our case, is Transcon.  As I mentioned in previous posts, I do seek out Jay and his team to get feedback both before and after each sale.  In any given season, Transcon gets to inspect a heck of a lot more animals (and programs) than I do.  They also have a great understanding of what type of cattle are in demand and, at the end of the day, they are paid on commission.  They have a rather vested interest in maximizing their returns from a sale.  They also need to be honest in their assessments of the cattle on offer because they would like all prospective order buyers to be happy with their purchases.  Because of these perspectives, Transcon can provide great input into everything from quality of catalog pictures to cattle condition.  (All without me having to comment on the sale order – which is another post to talk about!)

Peer feedback from fellow breeders can be a little trickier.  From my experience, there have been a lot of cases of feedback falling into the polite but not value adding ‘looks good’ category, or to the other extreme of ‘I have just what you need to move your herd forward’.  Since we are all selling genetics, there is a natural urge for self promotion, but if we can get beyond the bloodline component, there is so much more to discover.  Over the years, both of us have spent time observing and trying to learn from fellow consignors, and other breeders that we visit for a cattle tour.  We have noticed everything from tack boxes and hospitality areas, to the signage and swept floors around us.  The condition (and temperament) of cattle is also important to us.  As we are small breeders, we are cognizant that we will always be part of group of consignors.  The condition our cattle are in needs to align with the rest of the cattle at the sale.  When a sale is over, we consciously try to sit down and compare notes, identifying things that we might be able to do at future sales.

Another area we try to be hyper-aware of is attitude. Win or lose, we need to be relentlessly positive in public.  Our behaviour, and the image we are presenting, is very important.  If a sale doesn’t go as well as planned, our new buyers should not be aware of our disappointment.  It isn’t their fault, and we would like them to be totally stoked about their new purchase.  Attitude also goes for the night before, too.  We both enjoy a few drinks, but we really don’t want to be remembered as the consignor that got fall down drunk.  We might try not to make judgments about the behaviour of others, but we are very aware that there are others who are willing to judge our behaviour and attitude.

Marketing, and the use of Social Media, is another area to glean feedback.   There are many questions that need to be considered as we share information about our animals.  Are we sharing enough sale info, and are we sharing it in the correct place? Are we sharing to half a dozen different ‘groups’ that all have the same members and are becoming over saturated?  Are we differentiating between our personal and professional (farm) profiles?  Are we taking a few minutes to congratulate someone in person when they consistently publish content we really enjoy (‘I really enjoy the random FB pics you post about your farm’).  There are a lot of different areas for feedback – and probably just as many answers.   With social media it is also sometimes difficult to determine whether there is any ‘value’ to what is ‘shared’.  It is easy to count likes and read comments, but it is also helpful to receive verbal feedback or a private message to help improve the dissemination of information.

There is also a danger both at sales and with social media to only interact with people of shared interest.  In the scheme of things, we have a small herd of cattle that is highly specialized (100% fleck) and trending in a specific direction (polled).  If we limit our feedback loop only to people within that group, I think we would miss a lot of opportunities to improve.  Our quiet-wean process was derived from a visit to a purebred Simmental breeder (that didn’t have a fleck on the place).  A lot of the genomic work we do was built upon the performance testing we did with the purebred hogs we had while I was a kid.  Ensuring we are open to learning from a broad range of sources can only make us better over the long run.  A good cow is a good cow – the hide colour or breed really doesn’t matter.  Getting viewpoints from a diverse group of people is something we consciously try to do.

The final point I’d like to make about feedback is that, while it is importance to receive it, you don’t necessarily have to agree with it.  I think it is important to understand ‘why’ the person thinks the way they do, but everyone is entitled to a different opinion. If everybody thought the same way, life would be pretty boring! (And we would never need elections!)  When it comes to the purebred cattle business, everyone has their own eye for cattle, their own breeding goals and their own definition of success.  If everyone was the same, all of our cattle would look identical – and then how would we make them better?  Having the confidence to listen to others, and then to stick to your own vision, is also an important trait.

So when it comes to reflecting on a sale, we try to do more than simply assessing our high seller and average, and comparing it to where we have been previously.  We try to dig deeper than the numbers – solicit feedback – and aim to be better for next time.   There is so much knowledge and information that can be gleaned from talking with others.  Feedback which is more than ‘they look good’ or ‘yikes’, but thought provoking enough to show care while providing some insightful commentary.  We will all be better for it.

Until next time,

Dennis

April 15, 2019 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Red Deer Bull Sale Report (and a bunch of other bull sale season thoughts)

It was a gorgeous spring day, with mild temperatures, lots of sunshine, and some really impressive bulls that brought a full house to the Westerner in Red Deer to watch 51 bulls sell on Thursday, March 21st.  After six weeks of punishing winter weather, it was great to see and sense the optimism that a taste of spring can bring to the agricultural community.

First in the ring were a pair of matching Virginia’s Duramax sons from Skywest Simmentals in Didsbury.  Soggy, low-set with impressive shape, these breeder quality bulls resulted in some very spirited bidding.  When the gavel fell, Lot 41 ‘ Skywest Fusion’ was selected by the master breeders of Maxwell Simmentals for $22,000 as the overall high seller.  Lot 42 ‘Skywest Fugitive’ is heading to Manitoba after being acquired by Northern Lights Simmentals for $18,000.  It was a great start to the sale – and set the tone for the balance of the afternoon.

Due to some weather related setbacks with our bull string, we only brought three of our six bull prospects to Red Deer.  All three of our Delmonte sons found great new homes with Dallas & Cindy Phillips of Eckville, AB (Dundee), Chris Young from Caroline, AB (Denver) and JNJ Simmentals  at Westlock, AB (Dakota).  It is always a treat to have new customers acquire their first APLX bull.

Overall the sale grossed just over $335,000 on 51 lots, for an average of $6,562.  We would also be amiss not to recognize Jay Good and the Transcon team for doing a tremendous job working the phones and managing the sale.

A few (or maybe a lot of) other thoughts on Red Deer 2019 and this years’ bull sale season:

• I can’t say enough about how impressive the Skywest string of bulls was. They were penned right beside our bulls, and the amount of consistency in type through-out their seven bulls was remarkable.  Jolene and Riley Edwards & family have been building their Simmental operation for several years now, and it was very special to see them both lead off Red Deer 2019 (and top it) for their first time!  They are great people – so truly awesome to see their success.
• One of the things I really appreciate about Transcon is the feedback. I do try to have a good honest conversation with Jay or one of his team both before and directly following the sale.  Honest feedback is just so important.   We might not always like what we are told, but it is important to hear the message and have a conversation for long enough to ensure we understand their reasons for thinking as they do.  I hope to expand on this topic in a further blog post.
• Both the heifer bull and polled bull market were strong in 2019. There were clearly some eye-popping sales of polled bulls, but digging deeper into some of the sale reports, there was also a strong demand for heifer bulls – which may partly be caused by the current feed shortage in Central Alberta.  Heifers eat less, have more future earning potential and should be genetically superior to old cows, so when feed is short, it makes sense to leverage the opportunity to make the cow herd younger – you just need bulls to use on those heifers.
• Our own shopping needs combined the two, and we were on the hunt for a polled heifer bull this spring. We were disappointed when a couple that we were interested in sold out of our price range.  Heifers bulls are so tough to budget for – they have a limited timeframe that they can be utilized on heifers before they get too big – and in order to stay around after that, they need to be ‘good enough’ to use on cows – so on our smaller numbers I find it difficult to determine a price point that works.
• In hindsight though – if we are willing/planning to spend $10,000-$15,000 on an elite outcross heifer each fall (who will only give us one calf a year), maybe the budget for a heifer bull should be a little higher.
• In our case, we ended up moving a different direction. As they say ‘when you are dealt a hand of lemons, make lemonade’, so when one of my favourite bulls in our own pen, APLX Wedge 6F, came up DD on his semen test, we decided to retain him to use on our heifers.  Being both a WowEffect son and from our popular ‘P line’, we can’t use him on every animal, but he should be a real neat addition to our bull battery.
• I like having options. I joked that retaining Wedge was ‘Plan E’.  (Which is a modification of Plan D, where we AI all our heifers with no clean-up bull).  We did have a ’Plan F’, but (thankfully) no need for it this year.
• I do think 2019 will reinforce the value of leveraging AI as a herd management tool. With the brutal February weather (which frankly all of Canada experienced), it will be interesting to see how many natural bred calves will be born next January, as I anticipate that despite all the extra care that has gone into them, that bulls simply won’t be as ready to go (but will recover over time – I guess it all depends whether that recovery period is 3 weeks or 6 weeks as to the amount of impact it has on next years’ breeding season).
• AI takes time and management, but even if you pencil in the cost of semen and (in our case), having an AI breeding technician come to breed heifers (Thanks Donna!), you can sure breed a lot of animals for what you could walk a bull for.
• I also like the diversity that AI can bring – it allows smaller herds like ours to sample of number of different or new/outcross bulls each spring. The drawback is that sample size is smaller, and it can be tough to draw a conclusion from a handful of calves.
• I also think exclusivity (or outcross) in owning a bull outright has a value (in that customers would need to acquire those different genetics from one place), which you wouldn’t have with an AI bull.
• a great example of this would be Starwest Pol Blueprint – two years after a number of his sons were high sellers, there have been both sons and grandsons be readily accepted in 2019 – which potentially leads to people looking for something different if they already have those genetics.  I would expect that thanks to the high selling nature of FGAF Radioactive 030E (and his semen!) and the ready availability of his sire may also lead to a spike in Guererro bull calves in next years’ bull sale season – especially as he ties nicely into the theme of polled and heifer bull.

Over the past nine years, it has been great to be part of the Red Deer Bull Sale and 2019 was certainly no exception.  Public auction is a great forum to get feedback on the program we are building at Applecross, 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 critic 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

March 28, 2019 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment