This year's Canadian Western Agribition (CWA) was very successful on all fronts, according to executives.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, the last day of the event, President Michael Latimer said the weather cooperated, which doesn't happen often at this time of year.
"Generally, we don't worry too much about it because I know the people of Saskatchewan are resilient and they're going to come out regardless of the weather, but the logistics are just easier when you have nice weather." Latimer said.
Latimer noted attendance at the Maple Leaf Finals Rodeo – held at the Brandt Centre Wednesday through Saturday – was great with the free night on Wednesday proving to be popular, Thursday almost sold-out, then sell-outs for Friday and Saturday.
The trade show was also well attended and Latimer said it's all part of their effort to attract not only livestock producers but also the general public.
"We know that we need to make sure that we're connecting with the urban folk, not just the rural folk. We want to be more than just a cow show, so if we're going to be that place where new families or families of all shapes, sizes, and forms want to come down and experience agriculture, do some shopping, and be entertained, we want to be that place. I think we've accomplished that quite well." he said.
Latimer believes overall attendance numbers are going to be "right up there with the best years that we've ever had."
CEO Shaun Kindopp said on Saturday they were within striking distance from a new record.
"Unofficially, we need to hit at least 13,204 people through the gate today to set another attendance record. That's before factoring in any rodeo and whatnot."
Asked if there was one particular event or a combination of things that contributed to the uptick in attendance, Kindopp wasn't sure but said they want to give people a reason to come to Agribition every year.
"What I don't want to get and what our team doesn't want is complacency. I don't want one Agribition to be the same as the next one. If you've been to one, I don't want it to feel like you've been to them all. We want to continue to have new trade show exhibitors. We're going have different conversations with the venue for next year."
As for what worked, Kindopp pointed to live musical performances around REAL District as part of a partnership with the Saskatchewan Country Music Awards (SCMA) as well as re-iterating the quality of the trade show and quality of cattle as other positives.
"The only thing we (wish we) could change is more parking, but we can't do that, but we can push more people to the buses." he added.
Lots of students packed the halls of REAL District throughout the week. Latimer notes they were tracking how many came.
"I think we've had just about 15-thousand kids through the Agri-Ed pavilion, which is kind of a new number that we've tracked. To us, that's pretty neat," he said.
The total number of school groups registered for this year's event was around seven thousand, an increase from last year's five thousand, Latimer said.
"But we also know there's a lot of other families that aren't part of that or school groups that hop on the city bus and come down. We wanted to track that number because we were thinking it was a lot higher, and it's double what that is, so there are a lot of families that aren't part of the school groups that are bringing their kids and going through to experience a wide variety of agriculture sectors."
Commercial livestock sales were part of Agribition. There's word of a calf selling for about $130-thousand but Latimer said they're tracking down who bought it and confirm the amount it sold for. Overall, he felt the sales were great.
"We haven't had as many sales this year, like in terms of just physical sales. The cattle market has changed a little bit, but the sales that have been here have been very well," he said. "With just the cattle market, we expect it to beat last year's sale numbers in terms of total gross volume and gross dollars."
Latimer believes the presence of international delegations – about 260 registered as guests abroad – likely helped the sale numbers. Producers from Mexico, Australia, Uruguay, among others, were at the show.
But the number of Americans at Agribition were down but Latimer says that could be due to a few factors, such as the event happening the same time as American Thanksgiving, established relationships with Canadian producers so instead of registering, they would head straight to the barns, or concern over the current state of trade relations between Canada and the U.S.
"I don't think there'd be a lot of problem with them getting across the border into Canada, but sometimes if it's perceived that there's going to be a challenge, they just won't, so we'll see how that plays out. But there's still a lot of Canadian genetics going to the States, and there's still a lot coming to Canada, whether it's at Agribition or just through regular channels, so it's not something we're concerned about; it's more just something that we've noticed this year."
Statistics on the show are expected to come out sometime this week. In the meantime, Kindopp said they're already thinking about next year.
"I think Agribition is in great shape. I think we've got great momentum and we're ready to start planning 2026."
