DERWENT - After years of selling their bulls and replacement heifers by private treaty, Ken and Josie Pashulka and family decided last year to instead hold a bull sale at their Rusylvia Cattle Co. farm in the Derwent area.
Ken says the approach “gives everybody equal opportunity to choose the animals they want,” rather than driving around looking at bulls on multiple farms. “And the problem with private treaty is that it’s first come, first served. It draws a lot of interest, but not enough.”
However, the family still wanted buyers to be able to see their stock in person, and decided that a bull sale was the answer.
The 2021 move to hosting a bull sale at the farm proved to be a success, and Ken says this year’s sale, held March 2, “was even better. The average price was up $200 a head,” with 50-plus yearling bulls averaging $6,875 and commercial replacement heifers averaging $1,710. This year, “at least 150 people were here, plus there was interest on line. We’re more than happy.”
Another sale is planned for next year, but this year’s success “will be a hard act to follow – the pressure is on.”
In the cattle business for around 30 years, the family raises and shows Black Angus, Simmental and Maine Amjou, and it was one of the Maine Anjous that topped the sale, bringing a whopping $22,600 from the We Deliver Syndicate. The top selling Angus went for $14,000 to Lorraine and Jeff Belland and the top Simmental for $10,750 to Les Pashulka. The top selling heifer brought $2,25o from Westman Farms, and the sale’s volume buyer was Deagle Cattle Co. of Consort.
The top two bulls were shown at recent livestock shows and bull congresses, and Ken says, “ It stirred up a lot of interest,” encouraging interested buyers to attend the sale.
While Angus and Simmental are very popular breeds these days, Maine Anjous “are hard to come by,” he noted. “There’s less availability and if people could see them more, they would be interested. Hopefully we’re helping the Maine breed here.” Many of their calves are the result of “a lot of embryo transplant work that gives them elite genetics. We have three full brothers and two full sisters here from embryos.”
The Pashulkas are also giving back to others through two auction purchases. A large wooden planter box, which will be filled with plants and delivered to the purchaser in May went to Howard and Sharon Jackson for $1,400, with all the proceeds going to Haying in the 30s, and 10 of the panels from Klassen Cattle Equipment used at their sale were auctioned off for $4,500, with $450 of that total being donated to a junior cattle association to encourage the future generation of livestock breeders.
