Pinnacle View Limousin and KRS Simmentals hosted the second annual Continental Connection Bull Sale April 3 in Quesnel.
This year’s sale looked very different then last year’s event, however, as the auction was done completely online, with most buyers bidding over the Internet and phone, while a small handful bid in-person at Pinnacle View Limousin.
Prospective buyers were invited to schedule private viewings of the bulls in the weeks leading up to the sale in order to limit the amount of people wanting or needing to attend the sale-day event.
“We ran a virtual sale, which is different than what we have done in the past,” said Pinnacle View Limousin owner Erin Kishkan. “Sale day, we took all the necessary precautions, spaced out chairs, wiped down handles and gates, made sure that we had hand sanitizer in place and just tried to do everything we could to mitigate risk.”
Despite the change in format for the sale, Kishkan was encouraged by interest leading up to the auction and the amount of individuals who logged on for the sale.
“We definitely saw an increased presence online — when I looked through the list afterwards, there were quite a few people that logged on just to watch, which really shows support for us,” she said. “You want everybody to buy, but when people are logging on just to watch, they just want to be there to support you and let you know that they’re thinking about you, so even though everybody that was registered online didn’t buy, we still knew that there were people out there that had an interest in our program enough to watch it.”
When the auction was all said and done, a total of 23 Limousin and Simmental bulls, as well as six heifers, were sold, with an average sale price of $4,100.
The highest-selling bull was a 1,200-pound Limousin, which sold for $6,200 and is headed to a buyer in Ontario.
Kishkan is happy with how the sale went and is heartened by the positive response from the agricultural community in their ability to adapt quickly to ongoing changes having to be made due to COVID-19, as well as their ability to come together during difficult times.
“The agriculture community is always very well supported, and we are the type of community that likes to band together and help each other in times of need, and I think we really saw that here and I think everybody hosting a bull sale this spring saw that,” said Kishkan. “You know, agriculture is an essential service; everybody needs to eat. Even though a bull sale doesn’t seem like it should be essential, it is — it’s the very beginning of the food chain because if you can’t breed your cows, you can’t have a baby and that baby can’t grow to go become meat and that meat can’t go to the processor, and then that processed meat can’t go to the grocery store. It all sort of stems back to ‘life must go on,’ and cows still need to be bred regardless of what’s going on in the world.”
READ MORE: Quesnel’s second annual Continental Connection Bull Sale going ahead with more remote format
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