BASHAW, Alta. – When school shuts down in June, the education really starts for some Alberta 4-H members.
One of the highlights of this hectic season happens at the provincial show in Bashaw when 475 kids from ages nine to 20 turn up with their best beef animals.
The 4-H show is part of a two-week junior beef show marathon where young people from across Canada come to Bashaw for national breed shows and judging competitions.
Now in her sixth year at the Bashaw provincial show, Janice Arntzen of Sedgewick, Alta., oozes excitement as she talks about her busy summer schedule.
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“I love this show,” said the 17 year old. “It’s totally the busiest one you’re at and you have so much fun because everybody’s here.”
The show means more than just showing a prize heifer. It’s a social function for rural teenagers.
“All the people you meet at other provincial functions in the year seem to gather here,” she said.
This year Arntzen, along with her brother and sister, are showing 11 head. She already showed in the Angus youth competition a few days earlier and wants to take what she learned from this program and turn it into an agriculture career where she can promote beef.
She comes from the Iron Creek 4-H beef club and lives on a mixed farm where her parents, Raymond and Janice, have 80 head of purebred Angus.
During this marathon contest, Bashaw turns into an RV city where entire families camp out for two weeks.
The contest is a harried one as kids of all ages clip their prize animals’ hair, comb out snarled tails, polish hoofs, haul water and watch friends and family parade through the three rings for simultaneous junior, intermediate and senior shows.
The shows are handled by adult judges, who treat participants like professionals, although cattle are not placed in a winning order. Show placings are announced later.
Young people find the show enticing because no adults are allowed to interfere. A meeting before the shows finds jobs for adults who want to help but they have to stay away from their own kids or risk disqualification.
Ken Adair of Brownfield, Alta., one of the youngest judges at Bashaw, said adults realize children have to learn the art of showing by doing the work themselves.
Adair is no longer eligible for 4-H shows but at his last round at Bashaw, he and a friend won the show ring judging competition and picked up a few championship ribbons.
“We did pretty good that day,” he said.
Working on his family’s farm near Brownfield, Adair attended Vermilion Agriculture College and was on the college judging team. The week after this event, he will be back as a contestant at the Young Simmentalers national show. As a Simmental breeder, he sets aside his preferences for the brawny European cattle and assesses each breed on its own merits.
“You just look for good cattle, it doesn’t matter what breed they are,” said Adair.
