Red Deer County 2025 Bull Sale Report (and other bull sale season thoughts)
Red Deer County 2025 Bull Sale Report (and other bull sale season thoughts)
It was a gorgeous spring day, with unseasonably warm temperatures, that brought a capacity crowd to the Innisfail Auction Market to see a diverse, multi-breed Red Deer County Bull sale on Saturday, March 8th. Now in our 15th year of consigning to this sale, it has steadily evolved and now includes a wide variety of Simmental, Angus, Hereford, and Charolais bulls on offer. The cattle markets continue to be very robust, and it was great to see some really impressive herd sire prospects.
With the multi-breed component now firmly embedded in the Red Deer County Bull Sale, it was the Red Simmentals turn to lead things off. Our good friends at Red Top, Ben & Kassandra Farrant brought a really impressive string to town and their lead bulls started off the day to rousing success. When it was time to present the Flecks, one of our bulls, Lot 68: APLX Payday 20M made sure that everyone was paying attention. This dark red, heavily pigmented, homo polled rascal also happened to be our pen heavyweight – not something you usually see in a heifer bull prospect! Payday’s arrival in the ring led to some very spirited bidding from notable purebred programs from across North America. When the gavel fell, Payday sold for an incredible $38,000 to Jeff Sorenson of Garretson, South Dakota. About a month prior to the sale, Jeff came up to walk through our bull pen and Payday quickly caught his eye. We are pretty excited to have our bull join his elite bull battery south of the border.
For the balance of the APLX string, we had a very solid day, with all of our bulls on offer finding great homes. Emilee Oro / Skylark Cattle Company, Clive (Slash), Valley’s Edge Farm, Eckville (Briggs) and Layden Land & Livestock, Innisfail (Jasper) were all repeat customers of Applecross Genetics, while Rich Simmentals, Calmar (Bono), Moonlite Farm, Fairview (Touchdown) and Keith Pengelly, Caroline (Top Gun) all acquired their first bull from us. It is always a treat to have new customers alongside repeat buyers continue to support our program. In all, it was a great day to watch our bulls sell!
Overall 105 bulls sold for a very impressive $9,533 average – a $1,000,000+ sale! One of the other things we noticed going over the sales report was the that top 5 bulls sold represented 5 different segments of the sale – a Fleck, Charolais, Red Angus, Red Simmental and Hereford were the top five sellers. Talk about a well balanced multi-breed bull sale!
We would be remiss not to recognize Jay Good, Cody Copeland, Darren Paget, Glen Norton and the Transcon team for doing a tremendous job working the phones and managing the sale. I can’t imagine the life those 4 gents (and the auctioneers, and their office team) lead for the crazy two months that is bull sale season – travelling across the prairie provinces with often only a day between sales. Taking calls. Making calls. Offering advice. Dealing with bidders. And buyers. And sellers. It is certainly an occupation built only for some! We really appreciate the work they all put in for us on behalf of Applecross Cattle.
Some additional thoughts on Red Deer 2025 and this years’ bull sale season:
- 2025 was the 2nd time we have ever had the overall high seller at a bull sale. The first was back in 2013 when APLX Axel 5Z was selected by MI Simmentals; Mike Imler for $11,200. Twelve years later, Axel is probably most well know for being the sire of MI Ms Dallas (dam of NAC Battle Cry 4F). With twelve years between topping sales, it is certainly an honour we don’t take lightly!
- We have only ever topped a heifer sale once. That was Fleckvieh Equation 2019 when Applecross Penny 8F was selected by Virginia Ranch for $14,500. Along with the bulk of the Viriginia Ranch cow herd, Penny now walks at Skywest and is fresh off producing a $20,000 bred heifer of her own in ‘Virginia Glamor Gal’ who sold at Western Harvest 2024.
- It is always rather cool, humbling and flattering when a fellow purebred breeder decides to add our genetics to their herd. High sellers are great – but we also love to see all our genetics find awesome new homes.
- For the 4th year in a row, a homozygous polled bull has been our high seller. Similar to when we started selling hetero polled cattle, there is currently a robust demand for homozygous bulls. At the same token, we feel they have to be quality animals to sell well. Customers have options – and there are many traits to be reviewed when selecting a bull – so just because a bull is polled or homozygous, doesn’t mean the sale price is automatically higher.
- I do find it somewhat surprising, but we still hear/see people comment that polled cattle are still somehow ‘deficient’ compared to their horned counterparts.
- My short answer to these comments would be as follows: one of the great things about the purebred cattle business is that every breeder is free to follow their own ideas on breed improvement. If you don’t like polled cattle. Perfectly Fine. Breed horned. Nothing is stopping you.
- My longer answer is that people who suggest such must have a different perspective on where they feel the market for cattle genetics is headed. We see the market for polled cattle continuing to increase, and have been more than adequately compensated for our investment and development of polled cattle. Everyone can’t be the same – and life would be pretty boring if we all were! But I would suggest that the dramatic rise in the number and quality of polled genetics would suggest that the polled trait is here to stay.
- This concept can be extrapolated beyond polled. It doesn’t matter if it is red, black, 100% fleck, full fleck, high percentage fleck, horned, polled, goggled, or traditional painted up Simmental. We have an incredibly diverse breed with quality across every segment! Breed the cattle you enjoy, have a focus and become good at it! The market rewards quality, useful cattle, so follow your own vision (while also ensuring you can make a buck). That is the fun of being a purebred cattle breeder!
- One of the great side effects of all the interest in polled, is that there are more options to choose from! Our own search for genetics led us to Quebec and FSMB Millenium 13M to add as our new walking heifer bull. With a pedigree that reads: Gold Trigger x Magnum x Dirty Harry, his genetics aren’t necessarily new, but pack a certain consistency that should dovetail well in our heifer pen. With pretty cool pigmentation and quiet as a kitten, we look forward to his impact on our program as we move forward.
- One thing I have noticed about people during my off farm career that definitely applies to cattle breeders: Don’t just listen to what people say. See how they act as well. In the context of cattle, this translates into watching what breeders are buying and not just what they are selling. A purebred breeder has to market and promote what they have on hand (and thus that is what they will focus on talking about), but actions on what genetics are being added to a herd tends to reveal more about their longer term direction. It takes a long time to incorporate new genetics into a herd. A bull bought in 2025 will have their first calves on the ground in 2026, with the first sons on offer selling in 2027 – and the first daughters won’t calve until 2028. And that is the earliest new genetics make their way through a program! So it takes time for a new bull to make an impact – and prove themselves. If you admire a program and want to ‘follow’ it, keep a closer eye on their buying decisions vs what they may have on offer.
- Closer to home, we continue to make changes and invest in our operation.
- We spent considerable time and energy making improvements and revamping our bull development facility in 2024 with more tweaks planned for 2025.
- We have talked openly about our struggles with semen testing our yearling bulls in the past, and while our reno’s appear to have helped in that regard, we still had a few younger bulls that didn’t pass their tests in time.
- While we do agree with our vet that we ask a tremendous amount of a yearling Simmental bull – that needs to test and measure up at 12 months of age – we do compare to our peers who seem to have more luck. So there are more changes we can make, and hopefully we can keep increasing the odds of a successful test.
- (If I can get my thoughts together, I hope to do a deeper dive into the world of bull development and semen testing in a future blog post).
- The importance of the bull pen will certainly ring true for 2026, as we have an absolutely massive bull calf crop coming up. We ran 2:1 bulls this year, and we look forward to making some hard decisions at weaning time. Our bull calf crop is dominated by sons of our ‘Journey’ and ‘Tombstone’ walking bulls, so we expect a very consistent bull string for 2026.
- We are also keeping an eye on our bred heifer pen. With ‘Shades of Fall’ being a couple months earlier than December’s Equation, the selection process also starts earlier. We tentatively have 8 heifers that we are considering, but there are some milestones they still need to achieve. Every animal we sell carries our prefix, so we need to be happy with every single one of them!
For fifteen years now, it has been great to be part of the Red Deer County Bull Sale. Public auction is a great forum to get feedback on the program we are building at Applecross. We strive to produce top quality cattle, and every year provides the opportunity for feedback and ideas on what we could do differently. Some years we have the euphoria of a super high seller – other years, we don’t – but not a year goes by that we don’t learn how to do things a little better for next year. It is simply so important to continue to receive tips and advice on how to make improvements to our program.
With the bull sale now in the rear-view mirror, and breeding season underway, the breeding groups have finally been decided for the year as the excitement to incorporate new genetics competes with genetic combinations that have worked so well in the past. We look forward to the challenge of developing more, different and better genetics for future years.
Until Next Time,
Dennis
Our Red Deer County 2024 Sale Report (and a Few Other Thoughts)
It was a gorgeous early spring day, with mild temperatures, lots of sunshine, and an absolute capacity crowd on hand to watch 119 lots of pure beef bulls roll through the Innisfail Auction Mart for Transcon’s Red Deer County Bull Sale. The multi-breed concept expanded again this year, so there was a broad selection of bulls on offer, representing Simmental, Angus, Hereford and Charolais genetics with an impressive amount of diversity within each breed – horned or polled; red, black or fullblood – there were simply lots of options to choose from!
The lead bulls rotated back to Simmental this year, and the sale started off with some palpable excitement as the first BEE Alpha sons were set to lead off the Red Deer 2024. We were at Beechinor’s the day that Ben & Kassandra Farrant selected BEE Alpha 915J, and if we recall correctly they paid $120,000 for the privilege. You wouldn’t think it possible to ever fly under the radar with a $120,000 bull purchase, but with the record setting ‘Rumble’ also selling that day, the ‘Alpha’ acquisition was maybe a little overlooked. The whole pen of Alpha sons were incredibly impressive; with none more so than Lot 10, Red Top Mr 108L. After some very spirited bidding, the gavel slammed home at $80,000, with Labatte Simmentals and Circle 7, from Shaunavon, SK emerging as the successful bidders! An amazing way to kick off the day, and rather cool to have the lead bull selected to work the legendary pastures at Labatte’s! We have gotten to know Ben & Kassandra over the years as we have been part of the same bull and heifers sales, and it is absolutely incredible to see their passion for elite purebred cattle shine though and be rewarded in the sales ring. It can be tremendously stressful to step out and invest heavily in purebred genetics, and it takes years to develop a program and weave different genetic lines together, so it was so awesome to see their success!
It was also a record day for Applecross Cattle. In the lead up to the sale, we received a lot of interest in this years’ bull string, specifically in our two homozygous polled bulls. We were really happy in the condition all our sale bulls were in and thought they were a pretty neat group that each had their own merits (and personalities!). The challenge with auctions is that you always need at least two bidders to be interested in the same bull for the price to move higher, and we certainly did more than alright in that regard in 2024! APLX Conway 23L, our lot 103 bull, was selected by Forden Fairview Farm / Lyle & Leanne Forden of Punnichy SK for $30,000, and has already made the trip to Saskatchewan, where he got off the truck and went straight to work! Meanwhile, lot 98, APLX Bastion 17L was selected for $23,000 by Jensen Simmentals in Osawatomie, Kansas, and will be leaving this week for his new home in the sunny south. Steve Jensen also selected a bred heifer (Applecross Abigail) from us at Equation 2023, so we certainly appreciate all his interest and support over the past few months! Lot 104, APLX Convoy 12L, also gets a lengthy truck-ride as he’ll be headed for Big Hills Simmentals, Sandy Lake, MB, while lot 99 APLX Biggio 30L, gets to stay close to home after being acquired by Ryan Layden / Layden Land & Livestock Ltd, from Red Deer County. Ryan was a repeat buyer for us, after selecting ‘Dillon’ from us back in 2021. It is always special to see customers return for more bulls. We were incredibly happy with our sales results, and its rather cool that three of our bulls will be working for fellow purebred breeders!
Overall, the sale averaged a very impressive $9,710, with 55 Simmentals averaging $10,486. 8 Charolais averaged $9,938, with 8 Black Angus averaging $10,688, 17 Herefords averaging $6,882 and 6 Red Angus averaging 9,000. It was great to have success throughout the auction across so many of the consignors!
Once again we need to recognize the team at Transcon for doing a tremendous job working the phones and managing the sale. The Red Deer County Bull Sale is part of an extremely busy stretch of events, and we appreciate the time and energy Jay Good, Glen Norton, Darren Paget, and Cody Coupland invest to ensure we have a successful sale. We are confident in referring inquiries we receive to the Transcon Team, for an unbiased and independent opinion of our cattle. They were constantly on the phone and in our pens, taking pictures of feet, watching the bulls walk out and passing their findings back to prospective buyers. With our three lead bulls all being selected by ‘Transcon on Order’ they were certainly busy! Every year has different bulls and different buyers (looking for different things), and their efforts may not always be as tangible as they were this year, but we always appreciate all of their hard work! We look forward to working with them again later in the year at Fleckvieh Equation!
A few additional thoughts on Red Deer 2024:
- A common theme on our two high sellers were certainly the homo-polled heads, but I also think that the non-dilutor status also made a difference in their sale price. We have tested for the dilutor gene for a number of years now, and it is another trait on our list that we check for. We have walked several dilutor carrier bulls over the years, so it isn’t a ‘deal breaker’, but we wouldn’t be doing our job of we weren’t noticing traits our customers also select for.
- We had another tough year on the semen testing front, with 5 of our 10 bulls making it to sale day. While the reasons did vary a bit, we have certainly done a lot of reflecting on our program and how we can improve things going forward. (It is said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results). We are looking to our wintering area as a spot that may need an upgrade.
- One of the downsides of wintering our sale bulls in a 5 acre paddock is that they don’t always have protection from the elements when it is -50 or when there is a -20 degree windchill…so maybe we can create a balance – where they have access to a larger space (to exercise and travel to keep their feet under them), but then also have the ability to confine them to a smaller, protected area once ‘hard winter’ hits. Things to think about; changes to make; as it simply doesn’t make economic sense to raise bulls that just end up in the meat ring. We can never be perfect, (and certainly we can’t expect every bull to always pass their semen test), but we can certainly learn and get better!
- One of the largest changes for Red Deer 2024 was the size of the sale. With the addition of several new consignors and different breeds, there were a total of 130 bulls catalogued, which was almost double the 68 bulls that sold in this sale only two years ago in 2022. There are a number of good things – the capacity crowd on hand meant Innisfail Auction Mart had as many people in attendance as I had ever seen, and more bulls translates into lower costs for consignors. But there are also some downsides – with some awesome BBQ on site, despite cutting steaks in half, we still ran out of food (and water) for all our guests. And, with such a large crowd, we know some people that left early (hopefully to go home to watch/bid online!).
- I also wonder if the Fullblood Simmentals ‘got lost’ a bit within the sale. With so many breeds on offer, and a lengthy sale, there wasn’t a separate ‘fullblood’ carve out – with 3-5 selling in one spot, 5 in another, and then a couple here and there throughout the day. Part of that is on us – if our entire bull string had passed semen testing, the fullblood numbers would have been a fair bit higher, but I do think that bidders and buyers interested in Fullblood bulls, had to be very diligent throughout the afternoon, not to ‘miss’ bulls. We have attended several large dispersals over the years, and found that often the best opportunities for upside were found later in the day, so there are always pro’s and con’s to larger events – perspective that also depends on whether a person is buying or selling!
- In regards to our own breeding program in 2024, we will be staying fairly ‘status quo’ after splurging last year on two new herd sires. Both BLL Tombstone 223K and Virginia Journey 509K now have their first calf crops on the ground, and we are pretty pumped about each bull’s potential based on the early returns from their respective calf crops. Black Gold Battleborn 44H is now the ‘proven seasoned veteran’ of the group and, while he has outgrown the heifer pen, he has proven himself to be very versatile, allowing us to have three fairly even breeding groups.
Over the past fourteen years, it has been great to be part of the Red Deer Bull Sale and 2024 was certainly no exception. Public auction is a great forum to get feedback on the program we are building at Applecross Cattle, and we were both humbled and honored with the number of compliments our pen of bulls received throughout the week-end, from both peers in the purebred industry and commercial cattlemen alike. We strive to produce top quality cattle, and can at times be our own worst critics, so it is wonderful to hear all the kind words. Not a year goes by that we don’t learn how to do things a little better for next year, and it is equally important to continue to receive tips and advice on how to make improvements to our program. With the bull sale now in the rear-view mirror, and breeding season underway, we look forward to the challenge of developing more and different genetics for future years.
Until next time,
Dennis
2022 Red Deer County Bull Sale Report
March 12th was another great day to hold the Red Deer County Bull Sale at the Innisfail Auction Mart, Innisfail, Alberta. Unseasonably mild temperatures created beautiful travelling weather to see a great group of bulls sell. Customers had the opportunity to have a hot lunch and inspect a high quality, diverse group of bulls presented by a number of great consignors, before watching them strut their stuff in the sales ring.
In all, eight bulls ended up topping the $10,000 threshold at this years’ event which included bulls from each of the Fleckvieh, Purebred Simmental, Black Angus and Hereford divisions – truly a strong multi-breed sale! The overall high seller was a polled Fleckvieh bull from Keato Meadows – Lot 49 – that sold for 21,000 to Lakeview Simmentals of Meacham, SK. This is the second consecutive year that Jonathan & Ebony Kittlitz of Keato Meadows have brought the high seller to town. As we have worked beside their program in both the Fleckvieh Equation and Red Deer Bull Sales for quite a number of years, it is awesome to witness their continued success! Overall 68 lots sold for an average of $6,899, with the fullblood bulls averaging almost $8,500.
While our own string suffered some setbacks during semen testing, the highlight of the day for us was our Lot 42 bull – APLX Coach 37J. We think very highly of the potential of this homo-polled, herd builder, and were excited to have him sell to the deep south of the United States! ‘Coach’ was acquired for $15,000 by a partnership of Red Oak Farm / Josh & Hilarie Gardner of Greenville, Alabama and Little Creek Cattle / Jason & Nikki Gress of Starkville, Mississippi! It is always a great feeling to have your genetics selected for international use, and we look forward to seeing how ‘Coach’ performs for his new owners.
Coach wasn’t the only bull who got enjoy a lengthy truck ride, as our lot 41 bull ‘Impulse’ is New Brunswick bound after being selected by Mike Groom / Kenridge Farm, Leverville, NB. Our other two bulls both stayed close to home. John and Terry Matheson of Red Deer County selected our lot 47 bull ‘Wrigley, and Dallas Phillips acquired our Lot 40 bull in ‘Intrigue’. Dallas was a repeat buyer for us, after selecting ‘Dundee’ from us back in 2019. It is always special to see customers return for more bulls!
Once again we need to recognize the team at Transcon for doing a tremendous job working the phones and managing the sale. The Red Deer County Bull Sale is part of an extremely busy stretch of events, and we appreciate the time and energy Jay Good and his team invest to ensure we have a successful sale. We look forward to working with them again later in the year at Fleckvieh Equation!
With both the bull sale and calving now behind us, our thoughts move directly to breeding season. While we haven’t been successful in adding a new walking bull this year, we do have a couple of new options for AI so that we can continue to diversify our offering. It is an exciting time for Applecross Cattle to continue in our quest to provide new, better, and different genetics to share with the industry.
2018 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale: Three’s Company
Our Three Bulls Heading to Red Deer: Wrangler, Wyatt and Rocky.
We are pleased to present three herd bull prospects at Transcon’s 2018 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale on Thursday, March 22nd at 1:00pm at Westerner Park, Red Deer, Alberta. This is our eighth 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.
This years’ offering can be summed up in a word: three. We are in the middle of three consecutive years where our heifer calf numbers have dramatically exceeded our bull calves, which has resulted in three intriguing herd sire prospects being offer for Red Deer in 2018. This is also the third consecutive year that FGAF WowEffect sons will lead our string, and we have been extremely pleased with his consistency. His calves all show lots of length, great muscling and have tremendous hair coats, and our customers have been very happy with their purchases.
Our three bulls are backed by very strong cow families. ‘Wrangler’ comes from the same ‘P’ line that created waves at Equation 2017, and his dam ‘Poppy’ is our heaviest cow. ‘Wyatt’ is the third straight full brother to be headed to Red Deer – the Cassie x WowEffect cross has been popular in the past – and she seems to be the one cow we can always count on for an awesome bull calf. ‘Rocky’ is also an intriguing individual – a smooth polled head comes courtesy of his sire, APLX Rambo, while the dam ‘Eva’ combines Pharoa and old C&B Western into a real stylish package.
Individual pages (short-cut links are located in the right-hand column) have been created for ‘Wyatt’, ‘Wrangler’ and ‘Rocky’. The bulls have been developed on a ration of free-choice quality first cut hay, combined with a forage based pellet by Country Junction. The bulls are housed in a 5 acre paddock to ensure lots of exercise, have been tie-broke, and have quiet temperaments. On the individual pages, we have also pictured the sires, dams and grand dams. Maternal lines are very important to us, and we feel that behind every great bull is an outstanding cow family. As some people prefer paper copies, we also have individual bull profiles available in PDF format that can be e-mailed and printed, or sent by regular mail. Please let us know if you would like any additional information on any of our animals.
The 2018 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great day on March 22nd at Westerner Park.
2017 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale: Our Maternal Focus Shines Through
We are pleased to present four herd bull prospects at Transcon’s 2017 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale on Thursday, March 23rd at 1:00pm at Westerner Park, Red Deer, Alberta. This is already our seventh 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.
This year’s group consists of two FGAF WowEffect sons (Wagner, Weston), and one from each of Sanmar Polled Pharao (Pharaoh) and APLX Rambo (Raider). All four bulls showcase our program very well – we strive to produce bulls that are highly maternal and will calve out moderate birth weight progeny, while still having strong performance numbers.
We have been very happy with how FGAF WowEffect has worked for us – he has proven to be extremely consistent regardless of what type of cow he gets bred to. The WowEffect sons both combine their sires’ explosive performance and maternal strengths, and each are backed by outstanding cow families. Both Wagner and Weston have maternal brothers working in purebred herds.
Pharaoh is also a really neat individual; pedigree and BW suggest heifer bull, but both the scale and visual inspection certainly suggest a lot more than ‘just’ heifers. We are also excited to introduce the first progeny from our junior herd sire APLX Rambo in ‘Raider’; our youngster in the group that also showcases curve bending performance backed by two strong cow families. All four bulls show lots of muscling, have tremendous hair coats, and have been tested for the dilutor gene.
Individual pages (short-cut links are located in the right-hand column) have been created for ‘Pharaoh’, ‘Weston’, ‘Wagner’, and ‘Raider’. The bulls have been developed on a ration of free-choice quality first cut hay, combined with a forage based pellet by Country Junction. The bulls are housed in a 5 acre paddock to ensure lots of exercise, and all have quiet temperaments. On the individual pages, we have also pictured the sires, dams and grand dams. Maternal lines are very important to us, and we feel that behind every great bull is an outstanding cow family. As some people prefer paper copies, we also have individual bull profiles available in PDF format that can be e-mailed and printed, or sent by regular mail. Please let us know if you would like any additional information on any of our animals.
The 2017 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great Thursday on March 23rd at Westerner Park.
2016 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale Report
APLX Waylon 8C- our co-high seller selected by Eagle Ridge / Danny & Loretta Blain
2016 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale Report
A gorgeous week-end with sunny skies formed an appropriate prelude to the 2016 Edition of Transcon’s Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale on Monday March 21st, where a very strong set of Simmental Genetics were presented to an enthusiastic group of commercial and purebred cattlemen.
The excellent selection of quality bulls from both purebred and traditional Simmental breeders led the sale to maintain the strong results achieved in 2015. 62 bulls sold with an average of $6 859, an increase of $100 over last year.
Sale highlights included another great lead-off string from Starwest Farms, who provided the high seller with lot 31 Starwest Pol Combine, an impressive heavyweight that combined their top Fleckvieh and purebred genetics. For the second consecutive year, the renowned JNR program brought 4 of the top bulls to town – averaging a very consistent $12,625. On the purebred side, new consigners Red Top Livestock also had a very exciting debut – their top two bulls averaged $16,000, and they had a very impressive overall line-up.
The Applecross bulls continued to be well received. Some highlights are as follows:
- Our high-sellers on the day were two WowEffect sons, as both APLX Warner 5C and APLX Waylon 8C were selected for $8,000. Waylon is now at work in the legendary Eagle Ridge herd, under the close eye of Danny and Loretta Blain. Warner is headed north to Kaitlyn Matters and 4 Matt Simmentals at Vermillion
- Gordon Leslie ‘swept the page’ and purchased all three of our more moderate calving ease bulls that were lots 68-70. APLX Phoenix, APLX Reno and APLX Cairo will all be making their home near Leslieville, AB.
- In total, 7 of our bulls found homes within 30 minutes of Applecross, so we look forward to being able to keep a close eye on their progeny.
We would like to thank all the bidders and cattlemen who took the time to inquire and inspect the bulls we had on offer. With our larger numbers this year, we experienced a tremendous amount of interest – both in visiting with us on-farm prior to the sale and then through the pens on sale week-end itself. We felt our bull string really showcased our breeding philosophy, so it is very gratifying to see their acceptance in the industry.
Once again we also thank Transcon for all of the work that they do working the phones and managing the sale. Jay Good and his team always put on a first class, professional event that we are proud to take part in.
With bull sale season wrapped up, our attention turns to breeding season, and our never-ending quest to provide new, better and different genetics to share with the industry.
2016 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale: Our Deepest and Most Diverse Bull String Yet
2016 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale: Our Deepest and Most Diverse Bull String Yet
We are pleased to present nine herd bull prospects at Transcon’s 2016 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale on Monday, March 21st at 1:00pm at Westerner Park, Red Deer, Alberta. This is our sixth 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 2016 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 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 the North American cow-herd is (at long last) expanding, we think our bulls on offer all provide the maternal characteristics that will produce tremendous replacement females.
Individual pages (short-cut links are located in the right-hand column) have been created for all nine of our bulls on offer.
At the top of the pen are the first sons to be offered at auction from FGAF WowEffect, an exciting young sire selected by (my father) Ross Small of Dora Lee Genetics as his pick of the Gagnon 2013 bull calves at their September production sale that year. We were successful in obtaining an exclusive interest in the bull, and these first WowEffect calves are really impressive. ‘Warner’, ‘Waylon’, ‘Windsor’ and ‘Watson’ all come loaded with hair and are heavily pigmented. The bulls showcase plenty of power while maintaining moderate birth weights and we are very excited to see what they will bring to the industry.
The ‘Wow’ sons are joined by 5 other polled herd sire prospects, out of some of our foundation cow families. The youngest bulls in our offering, ‘Sawyer’ and ‘Eastwood’ are sired by APLX Sampson and APLX Escalade respectively, whose daughters were very well received at the recent 2015 Fleckvieh Equation sale. ‘Phoenix’ is a really intriguing son by Dora Lee’s Platinum – another exclusive pedigreed sire developed in Ontario. Rounding out our bull pen are two bulls that bring highly maternal packages to the table; both are out of first calf heifers. ‘Reno’ is a Radium son by a Bronson/Arnold’s Image dam, while ‘Cairo’ combines the calving ease of Sanmar Pol Pharao with Gidsco Appollo and Sunny Valley Sargeant.
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 nice 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.
On the individual pages, we have also pictured the sires, dams and grand dams. Maternal lines are very important to us, and we feel that behind every great bull is an outstanding cow family. As some people prefer paper copies, we also have individual bull profiles available in PDF format that can be e-mailed and printed, or sent by regular mail. Please let us know if you would like any additional information on any of our animals.
The 2016 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great day on March 21th at Westerner Park
2015 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale Report
A picture from last September of our two feature bulls – left: APLX Clancy and right: APLX Encore
2015 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale Report
After a snowy week-end, sunny skies and mild weather welcomed the 2015 Edition of Transcon’s Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale on Monday, March 23rd, where a very strong group of Simmental Genetics were presented to an enthusiastic group of commercial and purebred cattlemen.
The record cattle prices were reflected in both an increased number of bulls in the sale, as well as much stronger prices. Almost 70 bulls sold averaging $6,753, which was a substantial increase over the 50 and $4,800 from a year previous.
Sale highlights included a very strong lead-off string from Starwest Farms, which included the high-selling Lot 31 “Starwest Bryck” for $33,000 to Black Gold Simmentals. The renowned JNR program also brought a great set of 4 bulls to Red Deer this year – that averaged more than $10,000 each.
Applecross bulls continued to be well received:
The legendary Virginia Ranch program selected APLX Clancy for $9,500. Harry and Michelle Satchwell are no stranger to Clancy’s genetics, and we are honoured to have a bull working in their program. We look forward to seeing Clancy’s progeny in future Western Harvest and Bull Spectrum Sales; not too far from home
Bruce and Marie Eisenbarth from Lacombe selected APLX Encore for $9,000. Bruce looks forward to crossing the tremendous length of Encore on his commercial herd.
We would like to thank all the bidders and the cattlemen who took the time to inspect the bulls we had on offer. Pen traffic has never been brisker. It is our goal to bring a set of bulls to town every year that showcase what our breeding philosophy is all about. We feel we accomplished this objective in 2015, and it is reassuring for us as producers when long time purebred and commercial cattlemen express interest (and are successful) in acquiring our genetics
We would be remiss if we didn’t also recognize the job that Transcon does in working the phones for bids, and managing the Red Deer Bull Sale. Jay Good and his team always put on a first-class event that we are proud to take part in.
With calving done, and our bull sale now behind us, our attention switches to breeding season and our never-ending goal of developing new, better and different genetics to share with the industry.
Our Entries to Transcon’s 2015 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale
Relaxing on the Straw Pack – our Bulls will be ready to strut their stuff on March 23rd.
Our Entries to Transcon’s 2015 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale
We are pleased to present four herd bull prospects at Transcon’s 2015 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale on Monday, March 23rd at 1:00pm at Westerner Park, Red Deer, Alberta. This is our fifth 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 2015 offering continues to showcase 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. 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 the North American cow-herd is (at long last) expanding, we think our bulls on offer all provide the maternal characteristics that will produce awesome replacement females.
Individual pages (short-cut links are located in the right-hand column) have been created for our four bulls on offer: ‘Clancy’, ‘Encore’, ‘Boston’ and ‘Stirling’.
At the top of the pen is Clancy – a well-made Canyon son from Virgina Ms Zillow, the high selling Fullblood at the 2013 Cow-A-Rama Sale. Heavily pigmented and cherry red to his hooves, Clancy packs a punch while also strutting out with style. With two generations of calving ease stacked in his pedigree, we have been very impressed with the thickness and depth Clancy has developed.
Our second bull, ‘Encore,’ is this years’ standout Dora Lee’s Equinox son. This is the fifth year in a row that an Equinox son has topped our performance tables. We may be biased, but we believe Equinox to be the best homozygous Fleckvieh bull available. Like his sire, Encore showcases the tremendous volume and length of spine that Equinox is known for.
‘Boston’ has the most frame of our bulls on offer, and has developed a massive square hip that extends well down his leg. A direct Bronson son, Boston is out of a very moderate dam who puts everything into her calves – she also produced our high-selling heifer at the 2014 Fleckvieh Equation sale. Boston will be fully filled out at sale day, and we expect him to be very impressive.
The last bull in our offering is ‘Stirling’ who, while almost a month younger than his pen-mates, has kept up with the big boys all winter. A unique, double polled package comes together in this cherry-red, heavily pigmented bull.
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 four bulls are quiet and have been tie-broke. We like working and walking through docile cattle, and feel the herd bull should be no exception. All four bulls have also been tested free of the diluter gene via Igenity.
On the individual pages, we have also pictured the sires, dams and grand dams (Boston’s page in particular has 6 generations of the cow-family pictured). Maternal lines are very important to us, and we feel that behind every great bull is an outstanding cow family. As some people prefer paper copies, we also have individual bull profiles available in PDF format that can be e-mailed and printed, or sent by regular mail. Please let us know if you would like any additional information on any of our animals.
The 2015 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great day on March 23th at Westerner Park
2014 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale Report
APLX Javar 18A – our high selling bull – selected by Troy Cerny / Diamond T Simmentals
2014 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale Report
Sunny skies, and mild weather welcomed the 2014 edition of Transcon’s Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale on Monday March 17th, where a very strong group of Simmental genetics were presented to commercial and purebred cattlemen alike.
Almost 50 bulls were on offer, and averaged a very respectable $4,800. Sale highlights included a very impressive string of bulls from Starwest Farms of Chilliwack BC, who led off the sale with the $13,500 high seller going to Eagle Ridge Simmentals of Olds, Alberta, and had several other high sellers through-out the day.
We were quite happy with how our three Applecross bulls were received:
– Our high seller of the day was APLX Javar 18A, who sold for $8,000 to Troy Cerny / Diamond T Simmentals of Barrhead. We think Javar has tremendous potential, so it will be exciting to see what he does on the strong cows at Diamond T.
– APLX Bradshaw 20A was selected by the Letts Family / Bar None of Westlock for $6,200. We are excited to see our genetics go to work at such a legendary breeding program.
– Connie Crouch of Sundre selected APLX Elway 5A for $4,000 – Elway was our ‘heavyweight’ bull of the day, weighing in at 1565lbs.
We would like to thank all of our bidders and buyers for supporting our program. It is our goal to bring a set of bulls to town every year that showcase what our breeding philosophy is all about. We feel we accomplished this objective in 2014, and it is reassuring for us as producers when long time purebred and commercial cattlemen express interest (and are successful) in acquiring our genetics.
We would be remiss if we didn’t also recognize the job that Transcon does in working the phones for bids, and managing the Red Deer Bull Sale. Jay Good and his team always put on a first-class event that we are proud to be a part of.
With our bull sale now in the rear-view mirror, we look forward to the start of breeding season and our ongoing challenge of developing more and different genetics for future years.
2013 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale Report
APLX Axel 5Z – High Selling bull at the 2013 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale
2013 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale Report
After stormy weather on the week-end, it was nice to see sunny skies and a good crowd in Red Deer to watch 65 bulls sell on Monday, March 18th. First in the ring was a pair of excellent red Simmental bulls consigned by sale stalwarts, Oh Kay Farms.
The two reds were followed into the ring by our very own APLX Axel 5Z who was the lead off fullblood bull. After strong interest from some fellow purebred breeders, Axel was purchased by MI Simmentals – Mike Imler for $11,200. Axel ended up being the overall high seller of the day and we look forward to delivering him to Okotoks to his new home this week-end. It is great that he is staying here in Alberta, where we will be able to see future progeny in the Southern Alberta Simmental Round-up Sales.
Axel was followed in the sale by APLX Edge 4Z, who sold to Barney Beechinor of Bentley for $3,000 and APLX Ajax 15Z who sold to Conostoga Farms of Oyen for $5,500. We look forward to these two bulls going to work in commercial herds here in Alberta. We have added all three bulls to our ‘Applecross @ Work’ section, and hope to provide updates on their development in the future.
Other sale highlights included:
– Lot 28 ‘Champs Richlar’ – a nicely pigmented LRX Jiro son that sold from Champ Simmentals to Big Sky Simmentals of Treherne MB for $7,100
– Lot 41 ‘Starwest Pol Gravity’ an impressive JNR Gravity son that sold from Starwest Simmentals to Clearwater Simmentals of Olds for $6,000
– Lot 35 ‘Keato Pol Revved Up’ a powerful JNR’s Secret son from Keato Meadows Simmentals that was selected by Eagle Ridge Simmentals for $5,800.
Overall the sale grossed just over $236,000 on 65 lots, for an average of $3,632. We would be remiss not to recognize the team at Transcon for doing a tremendous job working the phones and managing the sale – They are always a quality, professional sales management team.
Over the past three years, it has been great to be a part of the Red Deer Bull Sale and 2013 was certainly no exception. We were both humbled and honored with the number of compliments our pen of bulls received throughout the week-end from peers in the purebred industry and commercial cattlemen alike. We strive to produce top quality cattle, and can at times be our own worst critics, so it is wonderful to hear all the kind words. Not a year goes by that we don’t learn how to do things a little better for next year, and it is equally important to continue to receive tips and advice on how to make improvements to our program. With the bull sale now in the rear-view mirror, we look forward to the start of breeding season, and the challenge of developing more bulls for future years.
Our Entries to the 2013 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale
Our 2013 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale Entries – From Left: Ajax, Edge and Axel
Our Entries to the 2013 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale
We are pleased to present three herd bull prospects at Transcon’s 2013 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale on March 18th at 1:00pm at Westerner Park, Red Deer, Alberta. This is our third 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.
This year’s group consists of two Gidsco Appollo sons (Axel, Ajax), and one from Dora Lee’s Equinox (Edge). The Appollo sons both combine their sires’ dark red colour and maternal strengths and each are backed by outstanding cow families. Ajax also has the intriguing twist of being scurred/polled. As an Equinox son, Edge is also scurred/polled, and showcases the tremendous volume and length of spine that Equinox is becoming known for. Please note that both Ajax and Edge were registered as polled calves, but since that time they have each developed small scurs, which we have left on and that you will notice in the pictures. All three bulls show lots of muscling, and have tremendous hair coats.
Individual pages (short-cut links are located in the right-hand column) have been created for ‘Axel’, ‘Ajax’ and ‘Edge’. The bulls have been developed on a ration of free-choice quality first cut hay, combined with a forage based pellet by Country Junction. The bulls are housed in a 5 acre paddock to ensure lots of exercise, have been tie-broke, and have quiet temperaments. On the individual pages, we have also pictured the sires, dams and grand dams. Maternal lines are very important to us, and we feel that behind every great bull is an outstanding cow family. As some people prefer paper copies, we also have individual bull profiles available in PDF format that can be e-mailed and printed, or sent by regular mail. Please let us know if you would like any additional information on any of our animals.
The 2013 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great day on March 18th at Westerner Park.
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Update: As of February 28th, all three bulls measured up nicely and have passed their semen test. Scrotal Circumferences have been addded to their respective individual pages. Next Stop: Red Deer.
2012 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale Report
2012 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale Report
With a winter storm blowing into the eastern part of the province, we were pleased to see sunny skies and a capacity crowd in Red Deer to watch 94 bulls sell on Monday, March 19th. First into the ring was ‘Beech Bro Booster 52Y’ an impressive Upgrade son, who created lots of excitement and ended up topping the sale for $25,000 to Kopp Farms Simmentals in Manitoba.
Our very own APLX Jackson 3Y was the 5th bull in the second group of Fullbloods. After strong interest from some fellow purebred breeders, Jackson was purchased by West Gold Simmentals of Minburn, AB for $12,000. We were both humbled and honoured with the result, and look forward to Jackson getting to work with the fine herd that Ken Gilbert has developed over the years. We would also like to thank Keato Meadows, Little Willow Creek and Big Sky Simmentals for all showing interest in Jackson on sale day. We have added Jackson to our ‘Applecross @ Work’ section, and look forward to providing updates on his development.
Other sale highlights include: Lot 20 ‘Beech Bros Anarchy 604Y’ – a nice red IPU Revlolution son that sold to DGR Cattle Co. for $14,500 and Lot 1 ‘Beech Bros Cobra 69Y’ an impressive Anchor D Viper son that sold to Champ Simmentals for $12,000. As you can see from the high seller list, the Beechinor cattle were extremely well received. Overall the sale grossed $455,000 on 94 lots, for an average of $4,840. Bulls sold to all the Western Provinces, with 6 bulls topping the $10,000 threshold; emphasizing the deep pool of breeder quality bulls that were available in Red Deer.
Once again, we were pleased to be a part of this great showcase of the Simmental breed.
Our Entries to the 2012 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale
We are pleased to present two herd bull prospects at Transcon’s 2012 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale on March 19th at 1:00pm at Westerner Park, Red Deer, Alberta. This is our second 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.
Both of this year’s entries are sired by Dora Lee Jake. I was with Dad when he purchased Jake’s dam, MRLN Josette, as an open heifer from the 1995 Fleck Select sale. We were incredibly happy when the legendary Bob Gordon selected Jake, her first son, to go to stud at ALTA in 1998; and now, 12 years later, we are able to tap into these proven Fleckvieh genetics in our own herd here at Applecross. While Jake may be better known for his daughters (Dora Lee Amelia – a flush cow at Wa-Na-La-Pa, and Dora Lee Elexis – dam of Dora Lee Eclipse and donor in the Anchor D program), we are quite impressed with how these two sons have developed. Both bulls balance the performance of their sire with strong maternal traits from their young dams.
Individual pages (short-cut links are located in the right-hand column) have been created for both ‘Joshua’ and ‘Jackson’. Both bulls are heavily pigmented, have moderate (90-100 lb) birth weights, show lots of muscling, and have tremendous hair coats. The bulls have been developed on a ration of free-choice quality first cut hay, combined with a forage based pellet by Country Junction. The bulls are housed in a 5 acre paddock to ensure lots of exercise, have been tie-broke, and have quiet temperaments.
On the individual pages, we have also pictured the dams. Maternal lines are very important to us, and we feel that behind every great bull is an outstanding mother. We also have additional information and pictures available about the maternal grand dams; should it be of interest. As some people prefer paper copies, we also have individual bull profiles available in PDF format that can be e-mailed and printed, or sent by regular mail. Please let us know if you would like any additional information on any of our animals.
The 2012 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale promises to be another exciting event. We look forward to a great day on March 19th at Westerner Park.
Our Entries to 2011 Red Deer Bull Sale
APLX Ensign 2X - headlines our entries
Individual pages (short-cut links are located in the right-hand column) have been created for our three bull entries to the 2011 Red Deer Bull Sale to be held on Monday, March 21, 2011 at 1:00pm at Westerner Park, Red Deer, Alberta. The 2011 edition will represent our first genetics to sell by auction, and we are pleased to be a part of this great event.
The three bulls selected represent the best of our 2010 bull calf crop. We weaned September 3rd, 2010, evaluated the calves, and then culled thoroughly. These three bulls are all solid colour, heavily pigmented, have moderate (90-100lb) birth weights, show lots of muscling, have tremendous hair coats and are backed by strong, often unique, pedigrees. The bulls have been developed on a ration of free-choice quality first cut hay combined with 10lbs/day of mixed grain, formulated to 12% protein. To ensure they are in shape for breeding season, the grain ration was increased to 12lbs/day on February 1st. The bulls are housed in a 5 acre paddock to ensure lots of exercise, they have all been at least tie-broke, and all have a quiet temperament. In short, we have raised them to be the type of bulls we would wish to buy for ourselves, and feel they will go out and get the job done.
Thanks to their sire, all three bulls are scurred and may pass the polled gene along to their offspring. In 2009 we were selected to help ‘prove’ an exciting new homozygous polled bull that was the result of 10 years of development – Dora Lee’s Equinox. We are very pleased with how his first calf crop has performed, will continue to use him extensively. Thanks to his development in Ontario, we also believe his genetics are outcross to the vast majority of Fleckvieh lines in Western Canada. These three bulls will also represent the only Equinox sons to sell publicly in 2011.
On the individual pages, we have also pictured the dams. Maternal lines are very important to us, and we feel that behind every great bull is an outstanding mother. We also have additional information and pictures available about the maternal grand dams; should it be of interest. As some people prefer paper copies, we also have individual bull profiles available in PDF format that can be e-mailed and printed, or sent by regular mail. Please let us know if you would like any additional information on any of our animals.
The 2011 Red Deer Simmental Bull Sale will be a very exciting time for us. We look forward to seeing the first Applecross genetics sell March 21 at Westerner Park.
Picture Note: The above picture of ‘Ensign’ taken in October of 2010. We really like this picture of Ensign, as it showcases his tremendous volume and heavy muscling, but wanted to use a current ‘winter’ picture in order to have consistent maturity with the other bulls in the catalogue and on his web-page.
Applecross Cattle 