Red Bluff bull, gelding event winds down Saturday

The Red Bluff Bull and Gelding Sale winds down today.

Horses and dogs bought during the auctions on Friday are headed to their new homes, as will bulls bought during today's sale, which starts at 9:30 a.m. in the Don Smith Pavilion at the Tehama District Fairgrounds.

Visitors have enjoyed a lot of action during this year's event, with the working dog competitions and judging, the Western art show and auction, western trade show, horse conformation and working classes, dinners, food, clinics and workshops, all culminating with tonight's Buckin' Best Bull Riding event.

And while some things have remained the same, there was a significant difference during this year's 71st Annual Bull Sale.

After many, many years the Tehama County CattleWomen did not serve a Bull Sale luncheon.

"When the luncheon started, the only food available was the Lions Club trailer that sold hot dogs and hamburgers," said Tehama County CattleWoman Jean Barton. "Now there are lots of food vendors, limited parking and horses to watch, followed by the final working of the stock dogs at noon."

Taking a look back when the luncheon started, Waynette deBraga was the Tehama County CowBelle (now CattleWomen) president in 1977-78, and the club made beef stew.

"We peeled hundreds of potatoes and carrots in her kitchen at Dye Creek Ranch. I don't remember who peeled the onions but it was a delicious beef luncheon," Barton said.

Red Bluff cattleman and long time member of the Tehama County Cattlemen's Association also remembers the past years in, "A Brief Glimpse of the Last 44 Years with the Red Bluff Bull Sale."

In his "brief glimpse," deBraga recalls the times before the CattleWomen held the luncheon, and trying to take sale judges to the Green Barn and the Elks, although it was a real struggle because both places were so busy.

"Then the CowBelles started a lunch over at the cafeteria on Friday. They'd set up a table in the back room, which worked out good for that day," he says. "Those little gals really put on a good meal. It really worked well for the crew."

He said the Cowbelles meal "beat the heck out of having to go get in cars, go eat and get everybody gathered up and back to work. Waynette and I camped in our trailer, which was nice — then we didn't have to drive back and forth."

DeBraga remembers the uproar when letters were sent out to the consignors telling them sale judges were going to sift any bull that was too fat.

"We were getting lots of show bulls consigned and they were really fat — not just fleshy, but really fat," he says. "We decided if they didn't need to be sifted because they were foundered or couldn't travel we'd put a big F on them. It took a couple of years but eventually we thinned the over fat bulls out."

Even though the Red Bluff sale started getting competition with bigger consignors having their own production sales, which took bulls away from the Red Bluff event, deBraga says, they still had their buyers who expected top notch quality, and "we felt we couldn't ease up on our sifting or grading or we would lose them also."

"Quite a few of the bull sales failed through the years, and the consignors learned they had to get their bulls out where the buyers could see what they had before they drove hundreds of miles to their sales. So, Red Bluff has kept alive," deBraga states.

His words couldn't ring more true, as this year more high quality horses and bulls were consigned and bought than last year. The trade show keeps getting bigger, and the art show grows.

Sale President Adam Owens said even the poor economy hasn't impacted sale prices and livestock quality as the agriculture industry continues to hold strong and hold its own.