Skip to content

Estevan bull was sold for $150,000 at R Plus 20 for 20 anniversary sale

Marlin and Lucille LeBlanc held their annual R Plus Simmental bull and female sale on March 8, and it went better than they could expect. “The sale went very good, the best sale we’ve ever had,” said Marlin LeBlanc in an interview with Lifestyles.
LeBlanc bull
The bull named R Plus 9087G was sold to LaBatte Simmentals and Circle 7 Simmentals for $150,000. Photo submitted

Marlin and Lucille LeBlanc held their annual R Plus Simmental bull and female sale on March 8, and it went better than they could expect.

“The sale went very good, the best sale we’ve ever had,” said Marlin LeBlanc in an interview with Lifestyles.

It was their anniversary sale, and both the turnout, which brought the biggest crowd they’ve had in quite a few years, and the sale prices left the family pretty happy.

“2020 is a special year for us at R Plus as we celebrate the 20th rendition of our sale. Much has changed over the past two decades. However we strive every day to maintain our mission, which is to be the brand of consistency and confidence,” said LeBlanc in the sale opening statement in the catalogue.

A black bull named R Plus 9087G was sold to Gladmar’s LaBatte Simmentals and Shaunavon’s Circle 7 Simmentals for $150,000, which was the highest-priced one that they’ve ever sold. LeBlanc said it was a really good big-footed bull with lots of hip and muscle.

“Just everything about him was lined up right,” noted LeBlanc. “He was sired by a high-selling bull that we sold in 2016. We AIed (artificial insemination) a cow to that bull. And the mother is the cow we raised here, and she is sired by our high-selling bull from 2011. So it’s a combination of all of our genetics. That’s the part that makes us the happiest.”

A red highest-selling bull went for $27,000.

To celebrate their 20th sale in the year 2020 they also offered 20 heifer calves off the top end of their replacement pen. The animals were born in 2018. One pick of the female lot brought $30,000 at the sale, and a one-year-old heifer calf was sold for $13,000.

There were 105 lots offered for sale this year altogether.

T Bar C Cattle Co Ltd.’s Chris Poley was the auctioneer for the day.

The family started the operation in 1992 as one of the original breeders of red and black Simmentals. Their operation went from small private sales to full-scale bull sales by 2000 and kept developing and adapting, influencing the purebred and commercial herds across Canada and the U.S.

Now they run a herd of 550 cows. Their bulls are sound, fed for longevity and providing calving ease bulls.

“We strongly believe that our customers are number one at R Plus. Our goal through genetics, strength and positioning is that we develop animals that will produce profit for you and your operation,” said LeBlanc.

And while the sale was the main focus over the last weekend, the calving season, which has started a while ago, has been keeping the ranchers busy lately. They already have over 360 calves on the ground. But with the weather co-operating this year, LeBlanc said that so far calving went much easier.