PAST EVENTS
Friends of the Canadian Charolais Foundation Breeders’ School
The second Friends of the Canadian Charolais Foundation Breeders’ School had rave reviews from the 60 plus breeders from across Canada who attended. Chairman of the Foundation Board, Kelly Howe, took charge of the event that was held near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
The day started with a tour of the newly built impressive BoviGen Genetic Centre located just northwest of Moose Jaw. This state-of-the-art custom semen collection and embryo transplant facility is tremendous. The international barn for export semen can house 32 bulls at one time as can the domestic collection pens with individual sheds.
Each of these, along with the on-farm collection area, have their own collection and lab set up as per CFIA regulations. The embryo barns can house up to 160 donor females where they do both conventional and in vitro flushing, freezing or implanting.
After the tour of BoviGen, we moved just down the road to Johnstone Auction Mart, where we had three excellent presentations and lunch.
Dr. Tyson Buyer, the owner of BoviGen was the first to present and gave a detailed overview of the cows estrous cycle and how it all works. The different hormones and how they interact and the different products to change the cycle and times of breeding were also explained.
Dr. Colin Palmer, from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, in Saskatoon, and a purebred Red Angus breeder, gave a great presentation on Optimizing Semen Testing for Your Bulls “The Breeding Soundness Exa m.” As a breeder, he brought his knowledge and experience in a grassroots fashion that was very informative and created a great question and answer session.
The final speaker of the day was Gary Brown, the Beef Sales Manager of Canada for Cargill Animal Nutrition. He talked about making sure you are feeding the right mineral mix and not doubling up if using more than one product as some minerals can block others if not in proper balance. Again, some good questions and answers were exchanged.
The very informative program that had some pertinent information was enjoyed by all who attended.
June 7, 2024 - Moose Jaw, SK
8:00 am FCCF Breeders School, BoviGen Genetic Services
4:30 pm FCCF AGM following the CCA AGM at the Moose Jaw Exhibition Convention Centre
7:00 pm FCCF Fundraising Auction at the Moose Jaw Exhibition Convention Centre
2023 Friends of Canadian Charolais Foundation Breeder School
50 breeders from across Canada were on hand for a very informative Breeders School. Starting on Thursday evening, PJ Budler, from Texas, analysed and sorted through a set of fat steers. With interaction from the crowd on which to leave in the ring and which to excuse, he ended up with what he considered the best two.
Friday morning started with Amie Peck, the program manager for the Public and Stakeholder engagement program, discussing ways to build public trust in the way beef cattle are raised in Canada. Under the Canadian Cattlemen Association, they have successful projects like Guardians of the Grassland and tools and resources available for producers to advocate on behalf of the industry.
Following was a very interesting discussion by Dr. Roy Lewis DVM on vaccines, vaccinations and protecting your cattle from disease. He talked about everything from calfhood vaccinations to fetal protection for your cowherd along with many other herd health tips.
Dr. John Campbell DVM talked about some of the emerging conditions that cause fertility problems in today’s cow herd. He also talked about nutritional deficiencies and several infections that cause abortions and calf deaths. On a different topic he talked about some of the common causes of lameness and how cattle producers should recognize and deal with them.
PJ Budler gave another very informative presentation before going through about 15 heifers and 15 bulls and sorting them down to his top two. There was great interaction with the participants which added to the exchange of knowledge among all who attended. Don’t pass up the opportunity if you can attend these in the future.
Garner Deobald introduced PJ budler as the first speaker
Amie Peck program director from the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association
Dr. John Campbell, DVM, talked about emerging conditions causing fertility problems
PJ Budler anayzing and sorting the live animals
Dr. Roy Lewis, DVM, spoke about vaccines and protecting your cowherd
