Parview Stock Farms / Radcliffe Simmentals Dispersal Sale
Our Welcome notes… This is not a day I had been planning for nor even thinking about, but as they say life happens and life changes. Parview Stock Farms started in 1981 when I was 7 yrs old back in Nova Scotia. I remember buying my first animal at Dundas Stock Farms in PEI. My dad, Murray Parker, started Radcliffe Simmentals back in 1970 and was one of the first people to import Simmentals into Nova Scotia. After Dad's passing in 2000, his member number and prefix sat idle until my boys, Gavin and Thane, started raising their own cattle 10 yrs ago. I left Nova Scotia in 1994 and move to Alberta to attend Olds College. From there it took a few years and we settled permanently in our present location of High River. As most people know I’ve had some health issues over the last few years, so that combined with a busy landscape business in Calgary and with the boys getting older and going off to university, the decision was made to disperse the cattle herd and let these animals work for other outfits. We have always taken great pride in raising cattle that would create bulls for the commercial bull market. In saying that, we generally stayed with the tried and true pedigrees and focused on cattle that would survive and thrive in Southern Alberta. Most of our red and black cattle come from a Fleckvieh base, and we always preferred cattle with some leather on them. As our main source of income has always been our landscape business, our cattle program was designed to fit that schedule. We calved in December and January when things in the city were slower and we used our herd bulls extensively as we didn’t have time for AI'ing come breeding season. To that note we have always selected top notch herd bulls, with proven pedigrees and cow families behind them. As you go through the catalogue you will still see the influence of our walking herd bulls such as Klyber, JB CDN Wind Walker 1102, YR Heavweight, and AEDJ Copper 218C. These bulls were all selected based on proven pedigrees and solid cow families. In anticipation of this sale the bulls didn’t go out till April 1 this year to allow them to fit into most people's program and to allow for safe delivery after the sale. The cows were ultra sounded on July 1 for breeding timelines and will be re-evaluated before sale day. The mature bulls will sell semen tested and the yearling bulls will sell as they did in the past where we will take them home and develop them for the winter and then arrange delivery in the spring. All breeding females will be vaccinated and receive their first shot of scour guard. It should be noted that due to the overall amount of cattle selling on sale day, we have culled very hard. This goes for cow and calves. Due to the current world situation, I realize that not everyone will be in attendance on sale day so feel free to stop by for a visit and see the cattle or call myself or any of the Transcon staff for information. All sale lots will be videoed towards the last part of November, so feel free to request videos of the animals. A special thanks to the Round-Up Group for initially welcoming us into this sale back in 2006 and for allowing us to have our dispersal sale with them as well. This is fantastic group of consignors and an even better group of people to be associated with. A special thank you goes to Dr. Ted Shacklady who has always answered mine or my family's call when an emergency was unfolding and has always been there for a simple question when needed. As I’ve said to many this is not a complete goodbye to the industry or the breed as I'm sure you will continue to see myself and the boys at events and maybe one day Gavin or Thane will be active breeders again. In the meantime, thank you for allowing us to be a part of this great breed and industry and we look forward to seeing people on sale day. Brad
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