The Rural Voice, 1989-10, Page 32CATTLEMEN SHAKE UP THEIR FALL SALE SYSTEM
Rainy River cattlemen have made big changes
for their fall feeder sale on October 21
Rainy River Cattlemen's Association director Tom Morrish says the 1989 sale will
expand satellite coverage to offer Rainy River cattle to the western market.
by Darene Yavorsky
Cattlemen in the Rainy River
District of northwestern Ontario will
throw their hats into the national ring
on October 21, when their 30th annual
fall feeder sale is sent east and west by
satellite.
The Cattlemen's Association in
Rainy River was the first in Ontario to
offer cattle for sale via satellite when,
in 1985, their sales yard in Stratton
was linked to the Kitchener -Waterloo
livestock exchange. This year, the
RRCA has planned a major campaign
to capture wider attention: additional
satellite link -ups will be made be-
tween Stratton and Toronto, as well as
Lloydminister, Saskatchewan near the
Alberta border.
"Our major innovation this year is
that we're satelliting to the west," says
RRCA director Tom Morrish. "Three
delegations came up to Stratton —
representatives from the Toronto sales
yards, from OLEX in Waterloo, and
from the Ashern sale near Winnipeg
— and all these people expressed the
opinion that the cattle market is going
to shift west. We're changing our sale
to head in that direction and try to
attract western buyers."
But that's not the only change the
RRCA has planned. The Stratton sale
is in the midst of a massive revamping
which includes renovations to the
sales yard and an updated system of
sorting and selling.
One of the motives behind the
changes is to reduce operating
expenses, Morrish explains.
"In the past, we ran on a volunteer
system that worked very well, but due
to changing times we've been running
into too -high expenses. This year
we're going to trim out a lot of
expenses and streamline our sale."
To assist in organizing the
streamlining campaign — and to
conduct the auction on sale day — the
RRCA has secured the service of Joe
O'Donnell of the Regina Livestock
Marketing Centre. O'Donnell visited
the Stratton sales yard this summer to
offer suggestions and help plan a
sorting system for delivery day.
Rather than tag and weigh cattle
individually as in previous years,
O'Donnell will pre-sort the cattle as
they arrive and follow the pencil -
shrink method of weighing.
"Some groups will be combined
according to weight into the final sale
lot," Morrish adds.
Gary Sliworsky, red meat advisor
with the Ontario Ministry of Agri -
30 THE RURAL VOICE