Why Show Cattle?

Today is show day in at Farmfair in Edmonton. Farmfair is the largest cattle show in Alberta, and because it is so close to the farm it is a great show for us to take out cattle into and market them.

I always get asked lots of questions on why we do this and what makes it so much fun, so here is my attempt as answering some of the most common questions I get asked:

Q: What does the judge look for?
A: Because these are breeding animals rather then animals for meat the judge looks for different things. The main things that these animals would be judged on would be how sound they are (what their feet and legs look like), how much muscle they have, and how long and deep they are.

Q: What do you do with them?
A: Cattle shows are very similar to a dog show. We groom and primp the animals before they go into their class. Once their class is called they are paraded in front of a judge to be placed. The judge will evaluate each animal compared to their ideal and place the class from first to last.

Q: What can you win?
A: While we do not show animals to win prizes, there can be some great benefits to doing well. For the grand champions (best overall) belt buckles, cash, gift certificates to industry business and banners are very common. A few shows still pay out prize money in the classes. The two biggest shows to win would be Farmfair and Agribition. Both shows have a supreme show and if you win those (which is very difficult) the prizes are large! For having Supreme champion at Farmfair you win a brand new Dodge Truck! At Agribition to have Supreme Champion you win $10,000 plus about $10,000 in prizes. So yes there can be some incentives to win!

Our Simmental show is today, and we will be showing 5 animals including these two girls! Stay tuned to see how they made out.

RJY First Time 18Y

This weekend we sold yet another bull out of the bull pen. This calf has a pretty neat story, and will have a great future both at High Country and with his new owners BS Ranch.

RJY First Time 18Y is an In Dew Time out of our future donor Joy's First Date 1W.

We were really wanting to use In Dew Time in our herd to get some replacement females. The semen we ordered was sexed female semen 90. This means that the semen will produce 90% heifers and 10% bulls. When AI was done we were to expect 5 calves out of this sire. Once the calves were all born, we were left with 4 heifers and 1 bull! Guess we learned our lesson that you cannot play around with science to much and just have to let mother nature take its course.



Joy's First Date and RJY First Time at Agribition


This fall we took First Time and his mother out on the show road. They placed 2nd in class at the National Show at Farmfair and 4th in class at Agribition. We were then able to connect with BS Ranch who ended up purchasing this bull out of our show string.

RJY First Time 18Y

  

Along with BS Ranch we will be using this new herdsire on our heifers this spring. We are excited to have such a maternal and calving ease sire to implement into our herd and can't wait to see the effect that he will have on our first calf heifers.

We will be selling semen on this young sire this spring. You can contact Rob Young at 780-514-0758 or show12win@yahoo.ca for more information.



Getting Beautified

While at Agribition we spend a lot of time grooming our animals. The reason we show is to promote our animals and our farm in hopes that people will want to buy either the ones in the stall or the ones back at home. To make this happen we need to have our cattle looking their very best. This means lots of brushing, washing, clipping and blowing (a blower is a large cow hair dryer).

On show day, we spend even more time with them and use some extra hair products to make them look their best for when they go into the ring. Hairspray, foams or mousses, paint and oils are all used on certain areas to enhance how the animal looks. I learned at a very young age that grooming is all about illusions. Cover up what is bad about the animal and make their faults disappear while enhancing what is good about them.

Here are a few shots from show day and getting the cattle all groomed for the show.

Agribition 2011: High Country Cattle

I realized that I had no shared all my Agribition photos with you, so my goal is to get through them this week. We had a great show at Agribition and were able to meet some new friends and see some old ones as well. It is the people and friendships in the Simmental breed that make it as strong as it is today.

Our stall

Dad doing some clipping on First Time

Once of First Time's last meals. He is now weaned from his mother

Agribition 2011: Supreme Show

It seems like year after year the RBC Supreme Show of Champions always has a hype that goes unmatched. The quality of cattle, the uncertainty of who is going to win, and the prestige that goes along with the title is unlike any other.

This year was no different. The quality of cattle was there, the panel of judges were all capable of the chanllenge ahead, and in the end there would only be 2 winners. With nearly 100 entries it seems like the show gets larger each year as the competition is so strong at all of these shows.

One of my favorite parts of the show is watching the champions getting slapped letting them know that they are the Supreme Champion of the year. This years reactions from the winners were great. I particularly loved the bull winner as she jumped up and down and just hugged her bulls neck.

The Supreme Champion Female went to Soo Line Angus with an Annie K cow. This female was actually the calf on her mother when she was crowned World Champion just 2 years ago and is co-owned by SSS Angus and Froelich.

Supreme Champion Female

The Supreme Champion bull went to the entry from CSS Charolais, Char-Mo Farms, and Cedarlea Farms

Supreme Champion Bull

It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

No it's not back to school, nor is it Christmas......... It's Agribition!

For purebred cattlemen there is not other time in Western Canada like Agribition. It is the combination of the best seedstock genetics in the country, mixed with some of the best people in our industry. Nothing can ever be like Agribition!

This year we are taking cattle out to show. We will have my heifer calf Southern Elle and our red bull calf Rival along for the ride as well as a cow/calf pair or two. Since we will be in Regina, and the barns are not the best place to be writing blogs, I will try my best to update on how the show is going.

In the meantime you can watch all of the shows and sales at www.cattleinmotion.com. Thanks to Cattle In Motion and Blairs.Ag for this opportunity to show what caliber of animals will be at this great show!

Fall Pictures

Along with the picture of Rival, we also pictured the bred heifer, Prom Date, and the black bull calf, First Time.

We are selling Prom Date in Checkers as a lot where we will sell 2/3 animals offered. She is being offered along with her mother, Dream Date, and her sister Play Date.

The bull calf will be sold either this fall, or in the spring through a sale. We sure like him, and he will be shown with his mother both at Agribition and Farmfair this year.

This Is It 32X

Yesterday we made an addition to the High Country bull line up. We were in need of a new bull to do some clean up work on the cows after AI and Embryo implanting was done. 

You might notice a recent trend that we are loving the baldy cattle right now. It is a nice added touch to add a little white to the face, as long as it is staying off the belly and legs.

This Is It was a class winner at Agribition a few weeks ago, and comes out of a really strong donor cow from the McIntosh Livestock program.

Agribition Part 5- Making New Friends

Each year at Agribition you always meet new people. This year I have the pleasure of meeting 2 really great people, as well as getting to see lots of old friends.

Emma Burpee met my family when they were in Australia for the World Simmental Congress. She was there working for another breeder, and got visiting with my family. Emma won a trip anywhere she wanted to go as part of a cattle scholarship. She decided to come to Canada to see Red Angus cattle.

Emma stayed with us for 2 weeks when she got to Canada. Her first week here happened to be the same week as Agribition. It was perfect timing for her to come as she would get to experience all that is Agribition as well as getting to meet many cattle breeders.

The other person that I really got to get to know well was Greg Goudy. Greg is a fellow Simmental breeder from Saskatchewan. A few weeks earlier we had taken a trip to see some Simmental cattle together. He had 3 animals of his own at the show.

I event got to show his bull calf for him.

It seems like there is always lots of people to meet at the shows, and new friendships formed no matter where you turn!

Agribition- Part 4.... Way

So it is taking me a little bit to get through all my Agribition blogs. It is a long week, and it seems like so much happens during this time.

For the last few years it has become a mini family reunion for us. Crystal has been able to join us at the show, and mom gets to make it out for a few days as well. Each year I notice that Crystal becomes  more "Americanized" when she comes back to the Great White North.

This year is was not so much an American thing as just a word thing that I really noticed. She has a habit of saying the word "way". Now this does not sound to weird yet, until she uses it all the time and most of the time it makes her sentences become improper English!

After I pointed this out, Jon and I decided that we would use it just as much as her to make fun of her. These were some of out favorite phrases, and most of them were her's originally:

Way Cool

Way Good

Way  Awesome

I can promise you one thing, it is not a phrase that I will be picking up anytime soon!

Agribition 2010- Part 3

Each year one of my favorite cattle events is the RBC Supreme show at Agribition. This event truly showcases the best of the cattle show throughout the year. It is always fun to try and guess what the dollar value is of the animals in the ring. Without a doubt it is in the millions!

This year in the supreme show there were over 40 bulls and 40 females that competed. In each the bulls and females a top 10 is selected. From those 1 bull and 1 female go on to be selected the Supreme Champion! The winner of this prize wins $10,000, but the money is really a bonus. It is the prestige of winning this title.

The winners this year were of excellent quality. I think that it is the strongest top 10 females I have ever seen. While I did not agree with all of the top 10 bulls, the one that one, I can definitely agree on.

Supreme Champion Bull went to Big Gully Herefords, the Leachman family of Maidstone, SK. He was a Horned Hereford bull that they had raised. The Leachman family have been friends of ours for years, dad having known them from back in his Hereford days, and Crystal going to school with their son Lance at Kansas State University.

The Supreme Champion Female was also an excellent choice. It was a cow/calf pair owned by the Serhienko family of Maymont, SK. The heifer calf on this cow is probably the best heifer calf I have seen in a long time. She is flat out good! Dennis has had lots of contenders in the best, so it was great to see him final win the Supreme title.

The show was really fun to watch yet again this year. Congrats to everyone for qualifying.

Agribition 2010- Part 2

So the whole point of us going to Agribition each year is to promote our cattle. We do this through talking to interested cattlemen that come by the stall, connecting with fellow breeders, and also by putting them in the show, as this gives that cattlemen the best opportunity to look at the cattle and evaluate them for themselves

As kids, and it still holds true today, we were told that the show was a show. It was one person's opinion on the day. Sometimes you agree, and other times not to much, but you take it all in stride.

This year we had a fairly good show. The quality of cattle was the strongest we had even seen in the Simmental barn. It was great to see the largest show in a few years, yet top to bottom a really great group of cattle.

Last week I featured our string of cattle that we would have at the show. We then got pictures of all of them after they had completed showing. Not all of the pictures are the greatest, but it will give you an idea of how they looked there!

RJY First Date 1W- Class Winner

IPU Revolution 172U- 2nd in class and Res. Sr. Bull

CDY Front Runner- Sold out of the stall for $5000.00

Lil Bit of Paradise- 2nd in class

RJY Signature Move 4X- Sold for $6250 to Nova Scotia

SLY Sweet Thing 12X

Anchor D Viper- 3rd in Class

Agribition 2010- Part 1

We got back from Agribition last night after being out there for over a week. As usual the show never disappointed and our crew at High Country had a great time.

Because there was so much that happened, and there is a lot to catch up on, I have broke it down into a few different parts to keep you all informed.

The first part that I am going to talk about is probably the one that most of you are the most interested in... Jon. Crystal's boyfriend came up with her this year to help us out. None of the family had ever met him before, so it was a great opportunity to spend some time with him and get to know him.

I had a few people ask me what I thought of Jon throughout the week. My answer usually consisted of that he is a great guy, really funny, and they seem to really be in love. As long as she is happy and we don't hate the guy, i'm happy!

Jon comes from a Hereford background so we were not to worried about him helping out in the morning if needed. Most mornings this was how he contributed to morning chores.

And mornings that we was not doing that, he would do this in the afternoon....

He even missed out on shaving some ear's out because of all his afternoon napping... Oh well guess that will have to wait until next time!

Revolution

Well we saved the best for last!

Revolution has been a popular topic on my blog the last month, and for good reason. He is the 2010 National Champion Simmental Bull, the 2010 Grand Champion Bull at Farmfair International, was 2nd in the Farmfair Supreme Show, and is now a double qualifier to the RBC Supreme Show at Agribition.

IPU Revolution 172U

 This is a bull that we are really proud to own. He will have some tough competition at Agribition, but it will be great to see him standing there with 2 of his heifer calves in the stall/

Revolution is out of the AI Sire Crockett. This bull was not overly used, but the progeny are really picking up steam fast!

Crockett

Viper

This year we have a bull in our string that really sticks out. Its not because he is a bad animal, but rather that he is red and white and a Fleckvieh!

Our family does not have Flechvieh cattle, however, the people that we own our herd bulls with not only have red and black cattle, but a large herd of Fleckvieh's as well.

The bull that we are showing is Anchor D Viper. He was bought as the high selling bull as the 2010 Anchor D Bull Sale.

Anchor D Viper

 We have already taken Viper to one show this year. He was Res. Jr. Champion bull out in Brandon at our National Simmental Show. We will see how he makes out at Agribition. One thing is for sure, we will have lots of visitors to the stall as there are not many Fleckvieh cattle shown in Canada anymore!

First Date

First Date is a true favorite around our place! Just like Front Runner, she is out of the proven AI sire Black Joker.

Black Joker

Her mother, Dream Date, is our top black donor. Dream Date is out of the million dollar producing cow Ebony's Joy. She truly is the best black Simmental cow in the states. We were luck enough to buy this daughter a few years ago and have had nothing but great results so far.

Dream Date

First Date is just like her mother if not better! We have been asked many times why we have not shown this female heavily before now. To us we wanted to save her until she was a bred heifer and give her the shining moment that she deserved. Earlier this year she was named Res. Jr. Champion at the Drayton Valley Show, and Champion Female at the Mayerthorp Fair. This is defiantly the best female that we have ever raised. She is bred to In Dew Time to have a heifer calf in 2011.

RJY First Date 1W

Front Runner

Front Runner is a black bull calf of Crystal's. Each year it seems like this cow family never misses. Just like Signature Move, Front Runner is out of the CDY Signature Black 2N cow. 

CDY Signature Black 2N

Front Runner is her natural calf this year. He is a mid January calf, out of the proven AI Sire Joker. This is a calf that we are pretty excited about. He brings some really great things to the table.

Black Joker

Front Runner was also named Bull Calf Champion at the Drayton Valley Show this summer.

Signature Move

 The 3rd heifer calf that we have in our string is RJY Signature Move 4X. She will be selling at the Simmental Sale at Agribition on Thursday. The catalog can be found here.

RJY Signature Move 4X

This female is out of the powerhouse AI sire Wheatland 680S. This bull has really shown his mark on the breed in the last couple of years.

Wheatland 680S

 Her mother is one of our top donor cows CDY Signature 2N. This is a cow of Crystal's that has been used heavily as a donor at our place. We have a really strong set of young females coming out of this cow, and Signature Move is no exception

CDY Signature 2N

Sweet Thing

While we are on the roll of Revolution heifer calves, I mine as well feature the other one that we are showing.

SLY Sweet Thing is a heifer of my own. As I mentioned she is also out of our herdsire IPU Revolution 172U

IPU Revolution 172U

 Her dam is my baby, and the oldest cow on our farm WFL Miss Westway 669K, or Ruffles. Ruffles is one of our top producing cows. She now has 4 daughters in the herd, and has added #5 with Sweet Thing. Ruffles was purchased out of the Checkers sale as a heifer calf. She went on to be my 4-H heifer winning multiple titles all the way up to the Provincial level.

WFL Miss Westway 669K "Ruffles"

Sweet Thing has been to a few shows already this year. She was 3rd in her class at Drayton Valley in June, and recently was 4th in Class at the Simmental National in Brandon.