Winning the supreme champion award at Canadian Western Agribition has a special meaning for Jason and Bev Kelly of Innisfail, Alta.
Their black Angus cow Prime Time’s Eileen 29-99 and its calf, also named Eileen, have won accolades wherever they were shown this year.
“We never halter broke her until last year and she has been either grand or reserve everywhere she was shown,” Bev Kelly said.
Born in 1999, this cow made it to the top 10 females category at the supreme championship last year.
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It was reserve at the Calgary Stampede and at the summer fair in Swift Current, Sask., where it stood second to its grand champion daughter. It was also supreme over all breeds at the Interior Provincial Exhibition in Armstrong, B.C., and reserve at the North American Beef Congress in London, Ont.
“She will retire because there is nothing you can get that is better than the RBC challenge,” Kelly said.
“Her daughter is due to calve in the middle of January and we’re hoping next year to bring her out. It’ll be exciting to see if she makes the top 10 next year.”
As well as this female, the Kellys also saw their Red Angus bull make it to this year’s top 10. It was grand champion at Farmfair in Edmonton and is owned jointly with Brash Creek Ranch.
In the past, the Kellys were not widely showing cattle but after selling embryos from Eileen in Eastern Canada, they decided to step up their promotions.
“It’s been such a crazy year as far as BSE goes but such a good year for us,” she said.
Winning competitions proved to them they were on the right track because all the top notch cattle have remained in Canada.
“In the past the good cattle have always gone south and this year the good cattle can’t go anywhere so they were all there,” she said.
“To come out on top of it is pretty exciting.”
The couple has had a lifelong involvement with cattle but they didn’t enter the purebred Angus business until 1991. Their herd stands at 500 purebred and commercial Angus cows.
They are holding their third annual production sale Feb. 26 in Olds, Alta., with guest consignors selling Angus and Charolais bulls as well as replacement females.
