Canadian Western Agribition wrapped up on Saturday evening and organizers indicate attendance was near the record set one year ago.
Agribition President Michael Latimer says it was a good year for both the purebred and commercial cattle.
“We’re pretty much at capacity when we hit about 15-hundred entered purebred cattle and we hit that again this year,” Latimer said. “The show has been strong regardless of what breed you go watch, like the quality from the first place animal to the last place animal is very good and that’s what Agribition is known for.”
A Simmental female and a Red Angus bull won the Beef Supreme at Canadian Western Agribition in Regina Saturday evening. Wilbar Cattle Company from Dundurn, SK exhibited the top bull entry in the multi-breed show. The co-owner of the bull is a ranch in North Dakota. This is Wilbar Cattle’s second Agribition Supreme Champion banner, winning back in 2013. Wheatland Lady 211H from Wheatland Cattle Company at Bienfait, SK, Michelson Land and Cattle, and G2 Cattle took honors for Beef Supreme Female.
This was the 25th year for the Beef Supreme, presented by CN Rail. It featured 37 bulls and 38 females, along with 25 calves.
Latimer says prices in the sales ring were higher at Agribition this year. “That’s also a strong reflection of the beef market in general. We have low cattle numbers historically across Canada and the U.S. so that’s pushing beef prices higher and everything is just moving up,” he said. “It just comes down to making sure that people breed really good cattle and our Canadian producers do that year after year and we’re fortunate they choose to exhibit those here at Agribition and that’s why we’re seeing the excellent sales (not only) Simmental and Angus but also the other breeds that have had sales throughout the week.”
Latimer says there was good interest in the heifers and hopes that leads to a rebuild of the Canadian herd.
There were plenty of international visitors, along with newcomers in Canada. Then there was the delegation from Beef Australia, which was the return part of a visit Agribition officials made to Australia last year. Latimer says part of the objective of the trip to Australia was to promote Canadian beef cattle genetics and another to learn more of how a cattle show operates and how they can do things more efficiently. “How do they deal with some of the operational challenges from an organizational standpoint? Part of that was have them come up and see what we do and experience it and they had lots of questions on how we do things and how we organize ourselves and I guess from our discussions (they) were very impressed – how the show flows, the amount of entertainment, the diversity of entertainment whether that’s family focused or young teenagers wanting to come and have some fun, but also the competition part of the beef cattle.” Latimer added.
(CJWW)