Welcome

Welcome to the 16th Annual Edie Creek Angus 2-Year Old Bull & Female Sale!

We are hoping to see many more of you back in-person for our 16th sale in Ashern now that the world is returning to a sense of normal! We hope that our friends & colleagues in the industry are able to join us for lunch & to have a look at another good set of bulls we have on offer. Of course, we’re always glad to host you back at the ranch just east of Winnipeg in Anola for a tour of the cowherd: being a firmly Maternal breeding program, the value of the cow cannot be overstated, and as such we encourage everyone to see the cows behind the bulls wherever you’re considering genetics!

Cattle markets have a ways to go before they account for the rising input costs & cost of debt. However, the increased calf and feeder prices and future outlook are fairly encouraging, which is welcome news after a (different kind of) challenging year weather-wise... Those of us hanging on & hoping for the best should hopefully start to see better returns soon. The nutritional value of beef is high enough to maintain strong demand, and more and more folks will see through the vegan agenda of “cow burps”. The truth about the many ecosystem benefits of cattle on the land will be discovered by anyone looking for facts. Delicious, nutritious food that comes from creatures that can up-cycle human non--edible food stuffs—what’s not to like about that!?! “Beyond Meat” has seen a 93% drop in the last 3.5 years in share value—the “Impossible to Eat” failures suggest that this fad won’t be around very long!

Cattle markets have a ways to go before they account for the rising input costs & cost of debt, but the increased calf and feeder prices and future outlook are fairly encouraging, which is welcome news after a (different kind of) challenging year weather-wise… Those of us hanging on & hoping for the best should hopefully start to see better returns soon, as the nutritional value of beef is high enough to maintain strong demand, and more and more folks will see through the vegan agenda of “cow burps” as the truth about the many ecosystem benefits of cattle on the land are discovered by anyone looking for facts… Delicious, nutritious food that comes from creatures that can up-cycle human non-edible food stuffs—what’s not to like about that!?! “Beyond Meat” has seen a 93% drop in the last 3.5yrs in share value—the “Impossible to Eat” failures are evidence that this fad won’t be around very long!

You’ll notice less pictures of the individual bulls this year, which is partly due to the fact that there will be videos online again of every bull with DVAuction.com, which gives you a better look at them & shows how they move and act, but also because Stefan and I took in the Ranching for Profit (ranchingforprofit.com) course Jan 29th-Feb 4th in Grand Forks, ND. It was a tremendous learning and networking experience which we recommend to all in the business of raising cattle with family & other folks. The time it took however, lessened our time for individual bull pictures.

Speaking of North Dakota, we have a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT to make! We expanded our breeding program by purchasing the Howrey Angus cow herd in ND. Monte Howrey has been a long-time mentor to us & his cattle have excelled in low-input operations across North America including our own. We are very grateful to Monte for offering us this opportunity & for his time & patience in mentoring us over the years, which shaped our breeding program. We are very excited that he has agreed to continue to work with us and give us guidance going forward. The Howrey Angus cowherd was built with the sole focus of creating profitable, low input Angus cattle, that excel in maternal performance traits & have always been required to work for a living, and we will continue that vision! We will be having a timed-online bull sale this Fall conducted from the Rath Ranch in Sterling, ND, as we look forward to working with the Rath family for many years to come!

Before the sale, come see the sale bulls and the cows behind the bulls: the cows will be out grazing corn or grazing a sorghum silage pile… Extensive grazing is an important tool in the Rancher’s toolbox of Reducing Costs, and we’d be glad to visit anytime year-round about grazing techniques and novel forage options we’ve learned to appreciate through our Union Forage experiences that suit your resources & environment!

Jonathan Bouw