ABOUT BSSA
Bow Slope Shipping Ltd is located in Brooks, Alberta "The heart of cattle
country". This region boasts the highest concentration of cow-calf
operations in all of
In 1934 farmers in the Rainier / Scandia area decided they'd be better off to ship and market hogs on their own rather than depend on a "fair" price from the drovers who would come to Brooks. They banded together and formed the Bow Slope Shipping Association. This was a very successful undertaking and during those depression years Bow Slope was also able to play the role of bank for some local producers. The manager of the bank in Brooks was a hard sell when it came to loaning money to farmers so the association often helped carry producers until their stock was ready for market.
In 1940 the members of the association decided to officially organize as a company. Each member of the old association was given one share in the new company for every thousand dollars of business they had conducted. Bow Slope Shipping Ltd. was born.
In 1943 Bow Slope Shipping got into the auction market business. The first sales were held in the open beside the train tracks in seven pens on days when the CPR was coming to town. Carl Anderson, who was the first manager of Bow Slope and held that position until 1970, remembered that during those early sales steers would sometimes escape and run through yards pulling laundry off the lines.
As the Bow Slope Shipping
Association grew over the years it's reputation as the "price setter''
market 
developed. A large part of that reputation has been built through the
innovative approach Bow Slope has taken in the marketing of cattle.
Perhaps the strongest example of that approach is "The Gather" - the
largest cattle sale of its kind in Canada. In 1987, the first Gather
consisted of 8,000 head and has grown steadily over the last eleven years to
numbers over 13,000 over the 4 day sale.
The market has also earned a reputation for fairness and for balancing the needs of buyers and sellers. The association buys no cattle so buyers are never competing against the house. It spends large amounts of time and money promoting its sales to insure good buyer representation on sale day.
Over the last 65 years the area around Brooks has changed and Bow Slope Shipping Association has changed along with it. From its roots as a tool to gather and transport hogs, Bow Slope has grown in to a major livestock marketing organization. Along with marketing tens of thousands of head of cattle, Bow Slope also holds spring horse sales that run March -September. It has done the job by identifying and filling the needs of the agriculture community. The current manager, Kim Hudec, works along with the 7 member board of directors to insure that Bow Slope continues to adapt to new and different demands.
Photo credit: Lee Gunderson, Alberta Beef Magazine