Wayne Libke has a black and white photo of his father showing a bull at the first Saskatoon Fall Fair, published inThe Western Producer45 years ago.
This year, Wayne’s daughter, Amanda, won the supreme champion female title with a Simmental heifer. It was a first for the family.
“Over the years entering, we’ve done very well. Champion Simmental lots of times, but not supreme,” said Wayne after the show Nov. 12.
Amanda admits she was surprised at the big win in a class of top-notch grand champion females.
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“It felt good to win. It was exciting,” she said.
“That was the first time we won the supreme here. It should get more people looking. It should help. It won’t hurt.”
The three-generation family operation near Hanley, Sask., runs about 100 cows.
Kelly Feige of Parkside, Sask., was equally pleased to win this year’s title for supreme champion bull. This was a first supreme win for the animal, nicknamed Trevor, a 2 1/2-year-old, 2,400 pound horned Hereford.
“We knew he’s a good bull, but you never know. There’s so many good bulls out there. It’s just kind of a crapshoot. Today was his day,” said Feige.
He and wife, Angie, operate a farm with 40 to 45 purebred horned Hereford cows, 100 purebred Black Angus cows and 100 commercial cows. He
said the win in Saskatoon will help in a few weeks at Regina’s Canadian Western Agribition.
“Guys will hear about it, they’ll come to Agribition and they might buy progeny off of him – opens all kinds of doors.”
Wayne Lipke said the real job of advertising starts after a big win.
“You have to promote it after it happens too, otherwise nobody knows about it except the people that were here.”
The number of commercial cattle at the show was down, attendance was up and the purebreds numbered similar to last year.
The fall fair was held Nov. 10-13 in Saskatoon.
