By Curtis Galbraith

Dawson Creek to host first big local agriculture event of 2019

Jan 10, 2019 | 2:21 PM

It is the first big agriculture event of 2019 in the Peace.
 
Close to 140 head of cattle will be on display Friday and Saturday at the 21st Peace Country Beef Congress.
 
It will be held at Dawson Creek’s Lakota Agri-Plex.
 
President Keegan Scorgie says part of the reason for the higher numbers the last couple of years is opening the event to producers from outside of the Peace Country.
 
“The show used to be just within the Peace Country. Last year was the first year we opened the borders and welcomed people from out of the Peace Country just because we weren’t getting the cattle numbers we needed. I think both outside entries and entries within the Peace Country have stepped up and people are wanting to come to the show.”
 
Scorgie says people from places like Quesnel, Sylvan Lake, and Westlock are bringing cattle to the Congress.
 
He adds the cattle market is “fairly strong” these days, and that has also helped boost entries.
 
“Markets (had) been down a little coming into (the) Christmas month, but I think there’s definitely some optimism coming into the New Year and we’re going to see some cull cow prices come up here in January I think. We’re actually fortunate for our neck of the woods, our producers have a lot of feed, so there’s been some retaining of animals .”
 
Scorgie does not expect a lot of buying and selling of livestock at the show.
 
“There will be some heifers that are on display that will definitely be for sale. (It will be ) mainly registered producers, purebred producers, displaying bulls that they’re going to sell in their upcoming bull sales. Definitely some self-marketing, even selling out of the stalls for sure, but more just showcasing the upcoming bull sales that are going to come starting the end of February into early March.”
 
A complete schedule can be found here.