“Nothing is as constant as change.” More than 2,500 years ago, the Greek philospher Hereaclitus of Ephesus (535-475 BC) coined that phrase which is still relevant and used today, and effects every one of us in one way or another.
Thirty-eight years years ago, individuals who worked with this paper who have since passed away, decided to put together a special section for cattle producers called “Breeders Directory.” It was, and still is, meant to inform cattlemen in our area about bulls of various breeds for sale and who is selling them. It also notes some of the upcoming bull sales, and other information regarding the cattle industry.
As someone who worked with this newspaper and the annual Breeders Directory for 32 of those 38 years, I have been asked to share some thoughts about what I have observed, not just with the Directory, but the cattle industry in general.
Doing a little search, I was surprised to read there are over 1,000 breeds of cattle recognized worldwide. Perhaps I am not totally surprised, as I viewed some very different cattle breeds in Ethiopia and Kenya on trips there years ago with our local NGO group. Certainly nothing like what we see here in our local area. And of those over 1,000 breeds, not all are beef cattle, with several being dairy breeds.
But back to our Directory and change: When I first worked with this section, there were many more cattlemen and breeders in this area. And there were many more sales, both private treaty sales, where a breeder sells his bulls directly to the buyer on the farm at a price mutually agreed upon. Those still take place, but not to the extent they once did. Actually, if you went back far enough, when herds were very small, a farmer would just take his cow down to a neighbour’s place and have her bred by his bull. Or the bull might “accidentally” get through the fence from one neighbour to another’s cows.
I digress. In the earlier days of this publication, there were still some smaller purebred beef operations, and some with the same breed or several breeds would get together and hold a bull sale, often in one of the local auction sales facilities. Bulls could be viewed in pens outside prior to the sale, and sales today still have that practise. At sale time, the bulls would be run individually, or maybe two at a time, into the sales ring in front of the crowd of buyers, with the auctioneer calling the bids over the loudspeaker and ringmen down in front catching the bids.
Wow! Under the bright lights and all the noise, and coming in from the outside? I have seen some bulls go pretty crazy in the ring, where normally most would be quite docile. Those bulls would be ushered through quickly, and I think sometimes, bidding was down as a result of the bull’s reactions. Not really a fair assessment of the bull.
As time moved on, some breeders increased their herd numbers, and we began to see more sales on facilities right on the breeder’s farm. Often it would be a farm shop set up with a ring and chairs, sometimes a couple of bleachers, but cattle were still run in and out of the facility to sell.
Things changed. While there were, and still are, some on farm bull sales in the breeders own facility, the number has diminished greatly. The big change seemed to coincide to an extent, with the discovery of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow disease, as it was commonly called, in May, 2003.
Perhaps that was only a part of it, but the big change was in technology and safety. Some sales still continue on farm, but bulls no longer are run through a sales ring in front of the buyers. I am aware of only one that still does, and for a group of breeders. Today, most sales show the bulls calmly walking back and forth on video screens in front of the buyers who are seated comfortably in warm facilities while the auctioneer calls the bids. And sales are no longer just on site. A buyer can be sitting at his home hundreds of miles away, watching the proceedings on his computer, and through pre-arrangement, can bid on bulls right from his home, either through the computer or on the phone. Buyers still have the option of viewing and assessing the bulls in pens prior to the sale, but the excitement of bulls coming into a sales ring is pretty much a thing of the past.
So are some of the breeds. The main ones we see today in bull sales (and forgive me if I miss any) are Red and Black Angus, Simmental, Charolais, Limousin, Hereford, Gelbvieh, and Salers. The first five are the main ones we see locally today. Some sales included the more recently formed breed, Speckle Park, but I am not aware of any today.
Almost totally gone are the days I recall when groups of breeders got together to hold a sale of one breed or several. Pembina Valley Charolais Breeders Association, Northern Alberta Purebred Cattle Association, and Prime Limousin Club were some, to name a few.
Gone too from the area are a few breeds that seem to have pretty much vanished from the local scene - breeds like Piedmontese, Parthenais, Brahman, and Belgian Blue are some of the ones that come to mind.
There are still a few cattlemen around the area raising some Belted Galloway, Dexter, Scottish Highlands, Texas Longhorn, Red Poll, Lowline, Murray Grey, Maine Anjou, Blonde d’Aquitaine, and perhaps one or two more, but any sales that I am aware of would be private treaty - cattleman to cattleman.
The number of beef cattle producers in the area has diminished considerably in the past 38 years, but herd size for most still in the business has increased dramatically, from what I have found. Census figures from 2021 put the average beef herd size on Alberta farms at 173 head; the largest in Canada; and Jan 2024 figures suggest 1.55 million head overall, with the Canada herd at 9.17 million head. Overall, however, the current Canadian cattle herd has decreased dramatically since the high of over 5.3 million head in mid-2005.
Though many things have changed in the cattle industry since this Breeders Directory was first established 38 years ago, the Directory continues to be a relevant source of breeder and beef cattle information. Here’s to continued high cattle prices.
