Ivy Livestock

A fantastic few days spent with the Hertz family of Ivy Livestock Duchess, AB, and i must admit i didnt really want to leave. Thank you to Rick and Mary and family for your wonderful hospitality it truly was fantastic. Seen some awesome cattle with some real commercial relevance, but more then that it was the recreational activities such as sorting cattle, selling bulls, butchering venison, making 30 liters of bbq marinade, going to a hockey game, and visiting a massive local feedlot. Thankyou once again.
http://ivylivestock.com/

Harvie Ranching, Highland Stock Farm

Over the last few days I have been staying with the Harvies of Harvie Ranching, Olds AB. it was definitely a positive to experience how a family work together to aid in the growth and development of their enterprise. The Harvies breed Poll Herefords, Charolais, and Simmentals and do a fantastic job of keeping all three breeds with a pint f difference and relevant to the beef industry. Whilst stay at Harvie Ranching i had the opportunity to visit with Limousin breeders Tim and Kim Matthews of Highland Stock Farms, their enterprise is very interesting having a high percentage of black breeders and also an extensive limflex program.
http://www.harvieranching.com/
http://www.highlandstockfarms.com/

RBC Beef Supreme

Saturday 16th November seen the conclusion of Agribition and the Canadian show season with the RBC beef supreme where not only the champions from Agribitin compete but champions from 18 shows across North America are invited to compete. The spectifcal is truly amazing with 36 cow calf pairs and 36 bulls all competing for the title. The female section was won by CK Charolais, Texas, and the bull was won by Redrich Farms, Alberta. Agribition results can be found http://www.agribition.com/livestock-2/2013-results/

Agribiton

Agribition is a great event with lots of things on other then the cattle show, there is a rodeo, a display of farm and ranching equipment, and a massive learning opportunity for city folk to learn about agriculture and how important it is. The cattle side of things is jam packed with excitement with judging and sales running from Wednesday until Friday. Agribition's showing of cattle is greater in terms of both quanitity and quality when compared with Farmfair. i have spent the last 3 days watching a lot of high quality judging across a range of breeds and attending breed sales which have been strong offerings and receiving a lot of support.

Greenwood Limousin, Rancier Farms, Sparrow Farms

Over the last two days traveling from Edmonton to Regina for Agribition I visited three seedstock enterprises. These being Greenwood Limousin, Rancier Farms, and Sparrow Farms.
The first visit was to Rancier Farms a purebred Simmental operation, by who's cattle were very impressive. Rancier show quite extensively and use AI and ET a great deal. the quality of some of their cows was quite amazing to be honest. Rancier market their cattle via multi-vendor sales. http://rancierfarms.com/

Greenwood Limousin was very interesting they run approx 150 purebred cows they AI extensively and do some ET. Their young cow herd was great to see. There was definitely a lot of potential in the bull and heifer calves, as well as sale and show stock. Greenwood sell bulk of their bulls private treaty with select bulls and females sold at multi-vendor sales. https://www.facebook.com/greenwoodlimousin

Sparrow Farms is a purebred Charolais enterprise running approx 180 cows, they utilize AI however this is generally to bulls that are herd sires at Sparrow. They do a small amount of ET work with donors that have proven themselves over many years. Sparrow do not show and run an annual bull sale in march selling 60 bulls. http://www.asparrowfarms.com/

Thankyou to Garth and Ang, Scott and Jackie, and Cam and Kerrie for the opportunity to tour your herds and your fantastic hospitality.

West Edmonton Mall

Today i spent the day at West Edmonton Mall, and you definitely need a whole day to see this mall. with over 800 shops, an ice rink, an amusement park, a water park, and a fantasy hotel it is the most comprehensive retail, hospitality, and entertainment complex in the world. The Mall is visited by 30.8 million people annually. http://www.wem.ca/