OLDS, Alta. – For 10-year-old Kathryn Dolliver, it was an opportunity to hone her cattle skills, while for 21-year-old Stacey Young, it was her last hurrah in the show ring.
They were among 98 people aged 10 to 21 from British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan who entered the first holding of Canada’s richest youth steer and heifer show in Olds May 10.
Showing more than 100 head, the youngsters competed for $22,000 in prize money, scholarships and draws at the event designed to give them a chance to show before a professional judge without adult interference.
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Dakota Wilson of Bashaw, Alta., who won the grand champion heifer and $4,000, has been showing cattle since before she started school. A 17-year-old with aspirations to become a model, she is home-schooled so she has time to work with her top flight Angus cattle. She entered the ring with confidence in her black bred heifer.
“She has been jackpotting everywhere and she won everywhere,” she said.
This heifer will also be shown at Farmfair and Canadian Western Agribition and “hopefully she’ll keep going forever,” Wilson said.
Most of the entrants brought their 4-H projects as rehearsal before achievement days.
For many, it was their first time showing. Dolliver of Stettler, Alta., started in 4-H showing rabbits at her parents’ ranch before she took on cattle. Besides showing her heifer, she won a $500 contribution to a registered education fund.
“My dad thought it would be a good experience and I could get confidence showing cattle,” she said.
Brodie Pierson won $1,000 for his essay about the advantages and disadvantages of living on the farm.
For this 11-year-old from Wardlow, Alta., the biggest disadvantage is living 45 minutes from town and away from friends, but his rural advantage is his own hockey rink that is converted to a water slide and swimming hole in summer.
“This is my first real show,” he said.
Pierson hasn’t decided if the prize money will go into his education fund.
“I might buy another heifer.”
The top steer places went to two experienced members of the show circuit.
Nikki Ross of Innisfail, Alta., showed steers for the first time, although she has won big money with heifers at Agribition.
Her two entries won their classes and her Charolais-Maine Anjou cross went on to be named supreme champion.
A busy 12-year-old with numerous activities, she did not have time for 4-H this year but was not prepared to back away from the barns.
“If I’m not going into 4-H we decided we should do something with our steers,” she said.
She won $5,000 for her grand champion and plans to enter her winner in the Calgary Stampede steer classic.
Young, who is already in the workforce as an events and education co-ordinator in Edmonton, was lured by the cash prizes.
“I had kind of retired but there was too much prize money,” she said of her reserve champion win.
She has been showing cattle since she was four years old and intends to take her Simmental to Drayton Valley, Alta., and the Calgary Stampede.
As a parent, Joe Lofthouse of Acme, Alta., was impressed with this show from start to finish. An English immigrant seven years ago, his two children adapted to ranch life immediately and joined 4-H and started looking for opportunities to show cattle, an experience not offered to youngsters in England.
“This is one of the best junior shows we have ever been to. It’s a good dry run to their achievement days,” he said. “All the kids are happy and there are good prizes.”
Judge Harlan Yocham of Oklahoma is no stranger to youth shows and was a strong junior showman himself. In the United States, steer shows are big business and he has raised his share of champion show steers and club calves.
He said the tradition goes back to the old days when farmers brought their cattle to the Chicago stockyards.
“People brought their steers to show what they were producing to market their fat cattle,” he said.
The event grew into major competitions but for him, the social aspect was equally important because he made lifelong friends in the show barns. A second show is already being planned by the five families who gathered in January to discuss the idea of premier youth event, said organizer Kim Lamb of Balzac, Alta.
“We’re supporting youth in agriculture,” she said. “We are losing kids at a terrible rate and we decided to shake things up.”