Changes in the livestock industry combined with a province-wide cattle shortage have resulted in Western Pride Auction deciding to stop regular livestock sales.
“It is a combination of many things that brought us to this decision,” said Marc Jubinville, co-owner of Western Pride Auction.
"We are not saying that this place is closing. We are still going to be here. We still own our property and we are still in business.”
Jubinville says changes in industry technology, Internet cattle sales, soon-to-be-mandated cattle scanning systems, smaller cattle numbers in the region, a shortage of staff and age were all factors in the decision to pull the plug on local livestock auctions.
Locally the number of customers Western Pride deals with is down 30 per cent, as cattle numbers continue to decline across Alberta resulting in many producers leaving the business.
Along with seeing a drop in customers, smaller auction sites have to compete with Internet bidding, which has gained momentum over the years and is responsible for selling a large portion of cattle.
On top of this, auction marts across the country are going to have to shell out more money to upgrade their equipment to meet new scanning requirements from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) that are on the horizon.
“This (decision) was something that we kind of knew we would be dealing with at some time,” said Jubinville. “There are some personal reasons that brought this on a little quicker than we thought.”
While cattle auctions have been cut from their services, it doesn't mean Western Pride Auction is done working with cattle.
In order to continue serving customers in the Lakeland, Western Pride Auction is going to be offering load assembly services for cattle, combining local livestock and shipping them to auctions in larger markets.
Producers with only a few head to send to auction can combine their load with other producers through Western Pride Auction who will truck them down to the North Central Auction Exchange.
As part of the changes to their services, Western Pride Auction has entered into an agreement with the North Central Livestock Auction Exchange operating in Clyde and Vermillion.
Jubinville approached Len Hrehorets, owner of North Central Livestock Exchange, and was able to come up with an alliance to expand and join their livestock services.
“We are expanding out and are ready to help them any way we can,” said Hrehorets. “They have been doing this for a lot of years. They are respectable people and they are well known. I am happy to have them working with me.”
North Central Livestock Exchange runs regular weekly sales every Tuesday morning and offers feature Bred Cow sales, Purebred sales and special sales on Thursdays and Saturdays throughout the year. It is the largest cattle auction market in Canada and will be getting even bigger with the expansion out into the Lakeland.
“We are ready to help their customers,” added Hrehorets. “They are going to make an assembly yard and help all of their customers ship their cattle to us.”
The decision to eliminate livestock sales didn't come easily for Jubinville and his partner Andy Jubinville. The two attempted to try and find someone to help them make the necessary updates to remain competitive on the market but were unsuccessful.
“It was a tough decision,” said Jubinville. “In the last couple of years we have tried to find someone who would be willing to take over. We tried to create a succession plan, but that never happened.”
While a large component of their services have been removed, Western Pride Auction is still in business. The company will now focus their energy on auction services outside of cattle, such as farming equipment and regular horse sales.
“The livestock sales were a big part of our business, but we are going to make the necessary adjustments,” said Jubinville. “It is going to be an adjustment for us and an adjustment for our customers, but life will go on. We are still in a position to serve our customers.”
