Glacier FarmMedia – When James Blenkiron and his family, owners and operators of Blenview Farms, showed one of their cows at the Junior Shorthorn Show in Erin, Ont., they never expected to sell her. But Darnell Fornwald with First Class Cattle Marketing convinced them to consign her for Canadian Western Agribition in Regina.
“At that point, we had no inclination of selling this cow because we knew how valuable she was and her pedigree is second to none,” Blenkiron said. “So it took us about a week before we agreed that we would do it.”
Darnell Fornwald is the owner of First Class Cattle Marketing and was a consigner at the Shorthorn sale at Agribition. When he saw the Blenkiron’s cow at the Erin show, he knew it would be a great addition to the sale.
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“She’s as good of a Shorthorn cow as we’ve ever come across in Canada,” Fornwald said. “Her pedigree is basically as good as it gets on paper, and her calf is excellent too.”
Blenview Farms’ cow sold for $45,000 at the November event, easily the highest price.
“I didn’t think she was going to go that high,” Blenkiron said. “But I thought she would go fairly high just because of her family track record.”
Fornwald said he expected a good price due to the amount of interest shown beforehand.
After the cow’s success at the sale, the Blenkirons decided not to put her in the Agribition Shorthorn show. They decided the success of the sale was enough.
The cow sold to Cornerstone Farms of Weyburn, Sask., and is Blenview Farms’ first sale to that operation. Blenview still holds one-third of the embryos.
The grand champion female in the Agribition Shorthorn show was exhibited by Millbrook Farms of Brome, Que. The grand champion bull was shown by Foxtail Livestock of Elrose, Sask.
The only bull in the event sold for $16,000 and one bull calf went for $2,250. Of four bred heifers sold, the average was $6,063. The average for five heifer calves was $7,750.
Of 17 semen lots, the average was $1,122. Six embryo lots averaged $2,917, and the only flush lot sold for $6,000. The sale grossed $168,835.
This article was originally published at The Western Producer.
