EDMONTON — Harvie Ranching is an innovative operation where adopting new ideas is old hat.
Now the family can add winning a supreme championship to their list of accomplishments after getting the slap at FarmFair International, which was held in Edmonton Nov. 9-13.
Owned in partnership with Australians, Hobbs Livestock and Round Em Up Livestock, the big red bull named Harvie Red Summit 54B had already won at the Olds Fall Fair in October.
The Alberta supreme show is the culmination of the Olds show, Lloydminster Stockade Roundup and Farmfair.
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Champion cattle gather in Edmonton for the final leg of the show circuit. The supreme winners receive a Dodge Ram truck and other prizes.
This bull was named grand champion at the Farmfair Simmental show, while another Harvie bull won reserve grand champion.
The family also had the grand champion Hereford female at Farmfair.
The winning Simmental and some of its daughters will appear at Canadian Western Agribition at the end of November.
The family owned operation near Olds includes parents Tim and Marlene and brothers Scott and his wife, Kerrie, and Cole and his wife, Jill.
Purebred cattle are the mainstay of this ranch, where the Harvies raise Hereford, Charolais, Simmental and Angus.
Farmfair offered a percentage show this year, and the Harvies are keen to get in on the newest trend offering Simmental Angus cross bulls for sale.
“It has become a nice all-around combination. You get the super maternal from the Angus with a little more performance that the Simmentals bring. You get that nice doability that the Angus offer,” said Scott Harvie.
“There are a lot of straight Angus herds commercially that are not ready to make that transition from an Angus to Simmental, but if they can take that small step with a SimAngus bull, that is where it might fit in.”
They have decided to breed their Angus cows to Simmental bulls to create a hybrid mix that is gaining considerable attention in the Unites States.
The American Simmental Association has trademarked the name SimAngus and set out specific criteria for what is expected.
The animal needs to be at least one-quarter Simmental and one-quarter Angus or Red Angus and no more than three-quarters of either breed.
Harvie Red Summit 54B’s parents are both registered in the database of the American Simmental Association, and the sum of Simmental and Angus or Red Angus blood in the animal is at least three-quarters.
For information on the genetics, visit simmental.org/site/index.php/simangus.
