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Hi,
I'm Tyson Birmingham - from Brandon, Manitoba. I come from a family
farm consisting of 3500 acres of grain land and we calve out 120 cows.
I started raising purebred Simmental cattle five years ago, and also
started raising purebred Black Angus at the same time. We go under the
name T.S.N Livestock. It was one year after I got my first purebred
cattle that I joined the Manitoba Young Canadian Simmental Association,
and I’ve been hooked since. Over the years I’ve become more involved in
the MYSCA program as a director on the MYCSA board. It was a great
opportunity and challenge for me to help organize the National show that
we hosted in Roblin, Manitoba this past summer. I think it was a great
success and fun was had by all.
Being its spring time, people are wrapping up calving, bull sales,
starting to breed again, and getting the seeding equipment in top shape
to go to work. It’s looking promising with lots of moisture, and its
warming up quick. And you know another thing about spring is that
college is out! I’m wrapping up my two year diploma at Olds College.
I’m taking Agriculture Production and majoring in Livestock. My plan’s
for after college is that I’m working for East-Man Feeds in Brandon, and
also helping out on the family farm.
So
when we all get our spring work done, we can look forward to summer
fun. We are moving the Manitoba summer show back to Neepawa, and the
thing that all ycs’ers are talking about is the National show in Castor,
Nova Scotia. This show is going to be quite the experience for myself,
it’s going to be a different part of Canada I haven’t ventured off into
yet, I’m sure Andrew Godfrey and his crew will put on an outstanding
show for us!
Well as we all know what’s going on in the beef business, I think we
need to keep are hopes up and just keep raising our good Simmental
beef. With the aid that is supposed to be coming for us beef producers,
its going to give us a bit of help for our cattle on feed. If you’re
one of those persons like myself that thought that the border was going
to open sometime this spring, this aid will be very beneficial for our
feeders in the yard. The second case of BSE that happened in the United
States is truly sad. I strongly feel that if the second case of BSE
didn’t happen, we would be shipping our calves down to the U.S. With
that being I feel that the prices would have been very strong due to the
shortage of feeder cattle in the U.S. Plans have changed since the
second case and I’m wondering what to do with last year’s calf crop. I
was at the auction mart the other day here in Olds, and 1000-1100lb
steers were going for 62-63 cents, heifers were going for the 60-61
cents. Well if you do a little math it’s obvious that we should have
sold our calves in the fall. So what do we do now? When it comes down
to this I feel that you need to watch the cattle markets very closely.
If you can find a trend that is happening with feeder cattle I think
that you should try to pick a high and sell your calves. I know that’s
what my plan is, we might not be happy for what we sell our calves for,
but you have to look at the future and start getting prepared for the
next year’s calf crop sale. I’m certain that if there are no more cases
of BSE “lets hope” that we’ll be moving cattle to the U.S. Here at the
College we recently set up a small video with Olds College students that
have their stories about BSE, and how it has effected their cattle
operation. We are going to send this video down to the U.S. for them to
see how it’s effecting us hands on. It’s a small gesture but I think
everything we can do will help.
Before I go I would like to take this chance to thank some people, first
of all Egan Brockoff, for giving me the chance to write this article.
Also Elton Simmental’s for helping me get involved in this great breed.
We’ll be seeing you all at the National!
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