S.A.A.C. holds well-attended Field Day

By Tim Kalinowski

K Lazy T Angus near Seven Persons hosted an extremely successful Southern Alberta Angus Club Field Day on August 19. Kody Traxel, owner of K Lazy T, said about 250 producers and cattle industry representatives came out for the event, making this year’s annual Field Day the most successful on record. He credits the enthusiasm to strong cattle markets and genuine interest in the prospects of the Angus breed.
“It’s a really busy time of year, and it’s really hard for people to get away (from the field),” said Traxel. “But people are getting excited about cattle prices and what the markets are doing right now. We actually had the highest attendance this year than we have ever had before. It was exciting. A lot of combines shut down for the day to come out.
“There is a lot of confidence in the Angus industry right now, and more people are getting involved in it.”
The event featured several keynote speakers, comments from special guests and the day capped off with, what else, an Angus steak supper.
“The Field Day is a day for commercial producers who are into the Angus breed,” explained Traxel. “This year we had three guest speakers. Bruce Johnson of Ag-Plus Mechanical was one. He talked about feed efficiency. Another was Karen Murray from Karen Murray Ag Services Ltd. She talked about feed forages. And the final speaker was from Bow Valley Vet Clinic in Bassano. His name was Travis Marfleet, and he was talking about herd health and bull management.”
Southern Alberta Angus Club president Doug Allen also spoke about this year’s club events and activities around southern Alberta and Brian Good from the Canadian Angus Association gave the national update for local members.
Traxel said he was proud of how the day came together, and believed the format changes made this year made a real difference.
“We were prepared for a big turnout, but we kind of banked on 120 people,” said Traxel. “But once the RSVPs started coming in, we really had to step it up to make sure it was a day well worth coming out to. We actually changed it up to make it flow better.
“We had three guest speakers and three sessions for all of them all running at the same time; so people actually rotated around rather than sitting in a room listening to one person. That worked really well because there was a lot more interaction. We had about 45 people per group. It worked better that way because anyone who was really into the presentations they could ask more questions and have more one on one time with the speakers.”
Traxel reported they served 195 steaks altogether at the supper held in one of his farm’s quonsets.