A Delia area rancher has been rewarded for his hard work in producing commercial cattle.
The Canadian Speckle Park Association awarded 86-year-old rancher Fred Courtney as the Commercial Breeder of the Year, the first time they presented the award, at the Canadian Western Agribition in Regina November 27.
As a commercial breeder, he uses purebred Speckle Park bulls, and a variety of heifers including Angus. Courtney says in the 86 years of his life, he has been raising cattle for 76 of them. He bought his own place when he was 21 next door to where he was born and raised, and built his herd.
He said about 20 years ago, he had about 30-40 heifers to breed and his nephew Cal Hansen suggested he try using Speckle Park.
Speckle Park is a relatively new breed developed in Saskatchewan. The Speckle Park Breeder Association was formed in 1985, and in 2006 it received full breed status.
“They were developed in Northern Saskatchewan about 30 or 40 years ago,” explains Courtney.
He said prior to Hansen introducing them to him, he knew virtually nothing about Speckle Park.
“They are medium-sized and they (grade) AAA pretty good. The next spring when I was calving out their heifers, I couldn’t believe it they were trouble-free, and I just decided that was the way to go on my whole herd and changed my whole battery of bulls,” he said.
He said it took a while, but he researched breeders and their stock. He buys a lot of bulls from Summit 3 in Ardrossan, as well as his first bulls from Saskatchewan.
“They weren’t too plentiful then, but they are getting really popular now. You drive through the county you see a few speckles in just about every herd,” he said.
He explains he is not a member of the Association, however, he has made an impression in the community. About a dozen years ago they started a Speckle Park sale in Ponoka and the results were very good. He was the biggest commercial breeder with 200 calves in the sale.
“At that time the steer calves were top of the market and the heifer calves brought 30 cents more than the steer calves. The next day there was a sale in Burnt Lake, and that sale was the talk of the countryside,” he said.
After more than seven decades he still loves ranching.
“Feeding cows, that’s my holiday. I don’t take holidays, until wintertime when I start feeding cows, that’s my holiday,” he said.
After all of these years, his motto is “Don’t neglect your wife at calving time, buy a registered Speckle bull,” he laughs.