The Rural Voice, 2001-09, Page 40Marketing together
Grey -Bruce Livestock Co-operative
still going in 50th year
By Keith Roulston
4,
„t many things in farming
remain the same as way back
in 1952, but the Grey -Bruce
Livestock Co-operative is preparing
to hold its fall stocker and calf sales
in Wiarton, just as it did nearly a
half -century ago.
Back then, says current co-op
president Ron Cunningham, cattle
producers across the two counties
were unhappy with the prices being
offered them by drovers who
travelled from farm to farm buying
cattle. They decided to form a co-
operative and pool their cattle for
sale to buyers.
Despite the effort to form the co-
op, some producers remained
skeptical about the sale, Cunningham
says. It wasn't until the 1960s and
1970s that the Wiarton Feeder Sale
really caught on. In those days, 4,000
head might be sold at each of the
sales.
When this year's feeder cattle
sales are held September 6 and 20,
the numbers won't likely be as large
36 THE RURAL VOICE
as those heady days of two or three
decades ago. In recent years 1500-
2000 head go through the feeder
sales and 1200 to 1500 through the
calf sale (to be held October 25 this
year) says Bert McLean, past
president of the co-op.
Today there are about 300
n embers of the co-op, though since a
member buys a lifetime membership,
Cunningham estimates about 150 of
these are active.
Members include both cow -calf
producers and backgrounders from
all over the two counties, though the
highest membership comes from the
Bruce Penninsula, he says. Up there
farmers generally keep their cattle on
grass and don't finish cattle because
of the high cost of bringing in feed.
Cunningham himself has been
involved as a director of the co-
operative for seven or eight years and
his father was a co-op member for 15
or 204ears before that.
A cow -calf operator as well as a
backgrounder, Cunningham sells 70-
80 head a year through the Wiarton
sale, usually keeping his calves to
sell as yearlings.
"I've always been satisfied with
the price," he says. "It's generally the
going price for that week (at other
sales) 'or better."
The other advantage he likes is
that there isn't as much shrink on
cattle sold through the Wiarton sales
ring because cattle are fed hay at 6
p.m. the night before the sale and
given water until midnight. When
they're sold at 10 a.m. the next day
they haven't lost as much weight as
if they were taken farther afield to an
auction barn, he says.
There were complaints years ago
that cattle at the Wiarton sale were
too full but Cunningham discounts
that theory, saying the same buyers
are at all the sales so they're going to
discount cattle that look artificially
heavy.
Buyers come from as far away as
Quebec with up to five potloads of
cattle travelling east. Still, most of
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