EDMONTON – Tina Wagers couldn’t believe her eyes.
On the day of the Angus sale at Farmfair International she watched her two-year-old Charolais cow slowly turn black.
Aerosol spray paint used by Angus breeders to darken and shine their cattle drifted across the barns like a fog.
“We watched them turn from white to grey. The cattle were black by the end of the day,” said Wagers, of Innisfail, Alta.
For some cattle owners, the visible change in the colour of cattle was proof that cattle shows need aerosol-free zones.
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At Farmfair, there was a dramatic difference in air quality between the day of the Hereford show Nov. 7 and the day of the Angus show Nov. 9, said Leslie Richardson of Tlell, B.C. After the Angus show, she went home coughing from chemicals used in aerosol sprays.
“Everybody raises their kids in the cattle business because of the healthy lifestyle, but what are we doing with all these chemicals? Who knows what harm it’s doing,” said Richardson, who is a keen advocate of the aerosol-free zone implemented by the Hereford committee at Farmfair.
“We have the biggest balls of all the breeds,” she said.
Creating an aerosol-free show didn’t happen overnight, said Dennis Babiuk of Brosseau, Alta. In 1998 several people left sick after the 700-head national Hereford show, in which every breeder had several cans of spray in their beauty arsenal.
“The talk kept getting strong and stronger after that,” Babiuk said.
An improved ventilation system and a switch from straw to wood shavings helped improve air quality in the barns.
“This is one of the cleanest air quality barns in the world,” said Kevin Wirsta, a Hereford show committee member and professional cattle fitter. “There were just so many fumes in the air.”
Under the aerosol ban, fitters can use hair products in spray pump bottles, but more time must be spent manually working the hair.
With no aerosol products, Wirsta said, cattle fitters spend less time trimming, brushing and gluing the hair on the animals’ legs and more time on the animal’s body.
“With sprays you spend 45 minutes on the legs instead of concentrating on the body.”
Despite watching her white Charolais cow turn grey, Wagers doesn’t support banning aerosol products. She believes the process of preparing cattle for a show using hair products is a skill young people should be allowed to develop.
“I’m not against it, but it was an eye opener,” Wagers said.
Instead of implementing a blanket ban on aerosols, she added, maybe ventilation in the barns could be improved or the Charolais cattle housed in a different barn.
Several years ago Charolais breeders were banned from using baby powder on their cattle as a way to improve air quality in show barns.
Grant Hirsche of High River, Alta., has a foot in both camps, producing Hereford and Angus cattle. He was allowed to use hair products on his Angus cattle but not his Herefords, which he believes created a disadvantage for his Herefords.
“It needs to be with the whole show or nobody.”
Banning aerosol products at cattle shows is like not allowing women in a beauty pageant to use hair spray and makeup, he said.
“I’m trying to get my animals to look their very best as humanly possible,” he said. “We’re trying to market these animals.”
During the show Hirsche loads pictures of his cattle onto his website, which allows buyers from across North America to compare photos of his unprimped cattle from Farmfair with cattle from other shows where aerosol sprays are allowed.
“I would be very disappointed if the Herefords do it again and the others don’t,” he said.
Dawn Wilson with Miller Wilson Angus of Bashaw, Alta., said she is not in favour of a blanket aerosol ban. It’s up to individual exhibitors if they choose not to use aerosol products on their cattle, but it shouldn’t be mandatory.
“I’m sure there are other ways of getting around it without banning aerosols,” she said.
“We all want to look our best when we go to town and we want our cattle to look their best, too.”
Lance Johnson, agriculture director with Northlands, which hosts Farmfair, said it wasn’t hard to see the black aerosol paint moving through the barn during Angus show day.
“I saw evidence of some shading on the Charolais cattle.”
Any proposed changes to aerosol policies at Northlands will be reviewed during Farmfair’s beef breeds committee meeting in December.
Until more nonaerosol show products are developed for cattle, Johnson isn’t sure there will be unanimous agreement to ban aerosol sprays at Farmfair.
“I have my doubts if next year it would be nonaerosol.”
Northlands could consider improved ventilation in the barns and a filtration system that could remove chemicals in the air, he added.
“We will respond to the concerns of our exhibitors and by the public attending our shows.”
