RFID demonstration set for Stratton

The Rainy River Cattlemen’s Association will be holding an RFID demonstration this Saturday (April 19) at 7 p.m. at the sales barns in Stratton.
The supplier of the equipment, Yancy Crosier from Champion, Alta., will be on hand to demonstrate the equipment and show producers how they can use the technology on their own farms.
The RRCA is installing the Boontech Multi-Animal Reader, from Australia, to help identify the cattle as they move through the yards and apply each animal’s unique identification number to the buyers’ and sellers’ invoices.
The reader will allow the RRCA to verify the age of each animal sold.
The RRCA also is purchasing three hand-held readers for managing cattle upon arrival, and when they are being sorted or leaving the yards.
These readers will be available to RRCA members to help track the cattle from pasture to feedlot to slaughter.
Along with the RFID equipment, Crosier will be installing a new LED reading panel that will make it possible for buyers to see the verified age and vaccination records of the animals as they come into the sales ring.
Sales barn manager Clayton Teeple expects the reader panel to be ready for the spring sale on Saturday, April 26—if everything goes well.
With funding from FedNor, the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, the RFID program, and the RRCA, and with a great deal of volunteer labour, the nearly $350,000 worth of upgrades to the sales barns are 50 percent complete.
Projects still in the works include replacement of all outdoor wooden penning with steel; the roof over the sales ring will get new steel and insulation will be installed in the ceiling; and some siding on the barn will be replaced.
“This project would not be possible without the funding agencies and all of the volunteers,” stressed RRCA president Ken McKinnon.
“We have had good community support with over 20 volunteers on some days,” he noted. “The facility was built by volunteer labour and that is how it will continue.
“People have to get behind it and support it,” he remarked.
The RRCA board of directors is planning to hold a grand re-opening in the fall.
The new crowding tub and squeeze, and the new alleyway and steel pens, along with the new electronic equipment, should help make the spring sale on April 26 run smoothly.
The sale begins at 9:30 a.m., with the breeding bull sale at 1 p.m.
Stuart McSherry once again will be the auctioneer, and Teeple said all of the usual buyers are planning to be on hand.
Teeple has been visiting farmers and said the numbers are looking good, with well over 900 animals expected.
Other Stratton sales dates this year are Sept. 6 (yearling sale), Oct. 4 (calf sale), and Oct. 25 (final sale).