Ready to work: RoundUp Sale earns record sales

Now that the dust has settled on RoundUp 2023, this year’s committee is calling it the most successful sale in Lakeland College’s history.

“It was the highest averaging RoundUp Sale the college has ever had,” says William Bradford, RoundUp coordinator for the Student-Managed Farm – Powered by New Holland (SMF) purebred unit. “We’re pretty proud of it. Last year’s sales were down but they came back this year.”

He credits a strong selection of bulls, a committee that worked well together, and the luck of good weather on sale day for the success.

The RoundUp is an annual sale held on the SMF. It brings together the purebred, commercial and equine SMF units who are charged with organizing, advertising and hosting the event, as well as preparing animals for sale.

“We start working with the animals as soon as we get to school in September,” says Ty Mitchell, RoundUp coordinator for the SMF equine unit. “We try to give them as much real-life experience as possible. Our focus is that we need to get the horses ready to sell so they are ready to work for whoever buys them.”

This year, the RoundUp committee sold:

• eight AQHA geldings
• 13 angus bulls
• four angus heifers
• two pens of five replacement commercial heifers

The gross income for the sale was $194,220 with equine earning $88,900, purebred earning $82,195 and commercial earning $23,125.