Atlantic Stockyards has weathered the pandemic

Scott Dixon, co-owner of Atlantic Stockyards Ltd., can’t wait to socialize again with sale attendees. (Dan Woolley photo)

by Dan Woolley

Atlantic Stockyards Ltd. just outside Truro, N.S., has weathered three successive waves of the COVID-19 pandemic since early 2020.

 “We never faced a shutdown,” said stockyard co-owner Scott Dixon recently. “The only thing shut down was the April 2020 equipment sale. We still had our feeder sales and the breeding stock sales.”

 However, given pandemic restrictions, there was a noticeable decline in livestock buyers and sellers from New Brunswick and P.E.I. attending the sales.

“We haven’t seen many out-of-province livestock,” said Dixon, adding that the requirement to self-isolate at home after travelling to Nova Scotia made it tough on sales attendance. “The governments have got everybody so scared.”

 However, Dixon said Nova Scotia buyers of livestock for Central Canadian customers have remained with the Atlantic Stockyards sales.

He said he hasn’t noticed an appreciable impact on livestock prices because of the pandemic. “It has stayed pretty consistent,” he said.

Because of pandemic-imposed spacing requirements, Dixon said attendance on sales days has had to be limited “to just buyers only.” He said that’s been a big adjustment because many people liked to attend the sales as observers.

Last July, in response to the pandemic, he changed the sales day start time from 1 p.m. to 11 a.m. so that people didn’t have to stay longer than necessary at the stockyard.

 Dixon also had to remodel the business’s auction booth and office to meet distancing regulations. Adding that was the only significant extra expense he incurred due to the pandemic.

 He said he hopes to soon return things to the status quo after COVID-19 wanes.

“The biggest thing with the pandemic, I can’t visit with the farmers,” he said of his regular practice of socializing with livestock producers during the sales. “Once it is over, we hope to get out and meet the people face to face to see how everybody has weathered the storm.”

 In the meantime, said Dixon, “I am thankful for everybody who stayed with Atlantic Stockyards Ltd. as both producers and buyers.”