Stratton cattle sales barn is turning 50

By Jack Elliott
Correspondent

This year 2009 marks the 50th season the Rainy River Cattlemen’s has held cattle sales at its yard in Stratton, ON. The first sale was held October 1, 1960 when 975 head were sold to 29 buyers from Manitoba, Southern Ontario, and Minnesota as well as local producers. The first lot of 19 Hereford steers weighing 767 lbs went to Robert Carleton of Good Thunder, MN for $16.60/cwt.
The next sale is Saturday, October 3, 2009
The inspiration, realization, and longevity of this operation is an amazing saga of vision, cooperation, and a ‘can be done’ attitude that has served the District’s agricultural community for half a century and continues strong to this day.
The details of the genesis of the Stratton Cattle Sale as it is commonly known are a bit fuzzy as memories fade and many of the movers and shakers have passed from our community, but the recollections of some of the remaining are worth repeating.These are some of the recollections of but a few.
Dick Heard came to Emo as the Ag Rep in 1956. His familiarity with the feeder sales in Manitoulin and discussion with local producers like Bill Irvine, Elder Jack, and Russell Fisher, as well as encouragement from Harold Scotchmer who headed the Beef Bull Improvement Club for Ag Canada, set the wheels turning. Was there a better way to improve the marketing of cattle within the District? Scotchmer was instrumental in getting a group together to attend a large feeder sale at Ste. Rose, MB and from there the idea snowballed.
The Rainy River Cattlemen’s Association was formed to run the sale with Stratton designated as the location said Heard. Money had to be raised to fund the sale through loans, memberships, and mainly ‘in kind’ donations.
“A bunch of us had to sign a bond for a thousand dollars each to finance the start up of the operation. A thousand bucks was a lot of money back then. That was scary,” remembered Lawrence Desserre of Fort Frances who then farmed north of Pinewood.
“It was a day in February when Carson McQuaker met us at our pulpwood strips up in Dewart and we had to go down and meet the MNR at the swamp where the poles were to be cut. They gave us the go ahead and Raymond Brown and I used our little cats to skid the logs out to the landing,” said Gerald Brown now of Fort Frances. Brown still has his original $5.00 lifetime membership receipt issued to him by Keith Neilson. He farmed north Stratton and patronized the Stratton sale until he retired in 1987
Alvin Alexander of Emo, formerly Stratton, recalled volunteers cut and packed out the black spruce poles, used in the initial construction of the pens, from that swamp a few miles north and east of his farm. Cedar posts were cut in another swamp north of the McNabb farm
“I know I’m missing many of them, but there was Frank Advent, Gerald Brown, Carson McQuaker, myself, and others,” he recalled as he stoked up his old pipe at the Emo Fair.
“They got hauled down to Stratton where Gib Gustafson from Pinewood set up his portable sawmill and we slabbed off the butts to make rails,” he added, drawing mightily on the old briar.
“My brother Alphonse trucked some of those poles to town,” says Lawrence Desserre.
We got the scale from an old grain elevator out west being dismantled, and had a fellow come in and help us set it up, recalled Dick Heard. The initial sales ring and yard was completed using almost totally volunteered labour and materials.
“Frank Advent was a tower of strength in organizing the work parties,” Heard recalled.
Sorting and weighing cattle initially was a tough job. Each animal was identified with a tags glued on its back. “Buster Brown put the glue on the tags and I slapped them on the animals back. I think I got every toe trampled and broken that first year,” recalled Lawrence Desserre.
Since then the sale has operated every year with sales up to 3900 head putting millions of dollars into the local economy. Nor has the event been without its drama and humour. At an early sale the auctioneer ‘forgot’ about the sale and had to be tracked down and rescued from an all night party. A float plane was hired and dropped him on the Rainy River a few hours late, but the sale was still completed. Acting Ag Rep at the time George Arnold aged a few years that day, remembered Heard.
The last fifty years have seen many changes at the Stratton Sale. Technology unimagined at its inception is now commonplace and the impact on the District cattle industry is undeniable. Perhaps the greatest impact has been the transparency introduced. Cattle pricing became visible to the whole community, and the premium quality cattle such as the then Charolais exotics introduced to the District by Russell Fisher, commanded over scruffy, horned, plain stock, has led to dramatic improvements in District herds. The shrink factor cattle suffered when shipped to distant markets was recognized as a major benefit accrued from a local sale.
Perhaps the greatest lasting benefit is the demonstrated sense of community achieved when a group of dedicated individuals all strive and move forward together.
This Saturday, September 19 in honour of the 50th season of the Stratton Sales Sale yard the RRCA will be offering tours of the facility starting at 1:00 p.m. The public is invited to come and view some of the latest technology now used in marketing and handling cattle. A BBQ will follow beginning at 2:00 p.m. with added attractions of a silent auction and a ‘Guess the Weight’ contest. Come and see the current results wrought by those visionaries of fifty years past. Congratulations to the Rainy River Cattlemen’s Association.