Winning grand champion market lamb at the Calgary 4-H on Parade was the high note 12-year-old Sierra Wise needed before moving on to other interests.
A member of 4-H since she was 10, she has decided to move on to something bigger, that being a half-tonne steer in 2015.
“I didn’t want to do a steer because it is too much work,” she admitted but has decided next year to switch to steer and heifer projects.
Wise lives on a mixed farm near Irricana, north of Calgary where her family raise sheep and cattle.
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She sold her champion market lamb for $9 per pound to the Foothills Custom Meat Processors. The money will be invested in her university education and she sees animal agriculture as part of her future.
“I want to work hands on with animals,” she said.
She also won reserve grand pen of sheep and completed a photography project with 4-H.
Wise is not completely abandoning sheep. She will also be showing lambs at the Summer Synergy show, a major junior event held in July in conjunction with the Calgary Stampede and Olds Agriculture Society.
The reserve market lamb went to Colby Lebourdais of the Foothills 4-H club, which sold for $6.50 a pound to John Lockhart of Calgary.
In addition to the market lamb sale, a charity auction is held where a club raises an animal for the event.
This year, the Foothills 4-H Club raised the charity lamb and sold it for $31 a pound to KL Bobcat Service, of Rockyview, Alta. Proceeds are donated to Ronald McDonald House.
