Marlin and Lucille LeBlanc held their annual R Plus Simmental bull and female sale on March 8, and it went better than they could expect.
鈥淭he sale went very good, the best sale we鈥檝e ever had,鈥� said Marlin LeBlanc in an interview with Lifestyles.
It was their anniversary sale, and both the turnout, which brought the biggest crowd they鈥檝e had in quite a few years, and the sale prices left the family pretty happy.
鈥�2020 is a special year for us at R Plus as we celebrate the 20th rendition of our sale. Much has changed over the past two decades. However we strive every day to maintain our mission, which is to be the brand of consistency and confidence,鈥� said LeBlanc in the sale opening statement in the catalogue.
A black bull named R Plus 9087G was sold to Gladmar鈥檚 LaBatte Simmentals and Shaunavon鈥檚 Circle 7 Simmentals for $150,000, which was the highest-priced one that they鈥檝e ever sold. LeBlanc said it was a really good big-footed bull with lots of hip and muscle.
鈥淛ust everything about him was lined up right,鈥� noted LeBlanc. 鈥淗e was sired by a high-selling bull that we sold in 2016. We AIed (artificial insemination) a cow to that bull. And the mother is the cow we raised here, and she is sired by our high-selling bull from 2011. So it鈥檚 a combination of all of our genetics. That鈥檚 the part that makes us the happiest.鈥�
A red highest-selling bull went for $27,000.
To celebrate their 20th sale in the year 2020 they also offered 20 heifer calves off the top end of their replacement pen. The animals were born in 2018. One pick of the female lot brought $30,000 at the sale, and a one-year-old heifer calf was sold for $13,000.
There were 105 lots offered for sale this year altogether.
T Bar C Cattle Co Ltd.鈥檚 Chris Poley was the auctioneer for the day.
The family started the operation in 1992 as one of the original breeders of red and black Simmentals. Their operation went from small private sales to full-scale bull sales by 2000 and kept developing and adapting, influencing the purebred and commercial herds across Canada and the U.S.
Now they run a herd of 550 cows. Their bulls are sound, fed for longevity and providing calving ease bulls.
鈥淲e strongly believe that our customers are number one at R Plus. Our goal through genetics, strength and positioning is that we develop animals that will produce profit for you and your operation,鈥� said LeBlanc.
And while the sale was the main focus over the last weekend, the calving season, which has started a while ago, has been keeping the ranchers busy lately. They already have over 360 calves on the ground. But with the weather co-operating this year, LeBlanc said that so far calving went much easier.
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