REGINA – Agribition 2005 may have been the best of times and the worst of times for sheep producer Courtney MacDougall and her family.
The 21 year old from Regina won the supreme championship over all other breeds at the Canadian Western Agribition sheep show with her North Country Cheviot ram on Nov. 24.
But she wasn’t able to relish the moment because she spent the evening of Nov. 25 in the hospital having surgery after nicking her left index finger with a pair of shears. She was clipping her champion ram and barely felt the cut, but a few hours later went to a local medical emergency room with a case of blood poisoning.
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With 33 stitches in her finger and her hand swathed in bandages, she was back at the show the next day promoting her sheep while her father showed on her behalf.
“It was tough to watch Dad show; it was very emotional,” she said, adding that she has been coming to Agribition since she was three years old.
“Agribition is my favourite time of year.”
Her family raises five breeds of sheep and her father Kim MacDougall keeps about 170 ewes while she has 34 North Country Cheviots that have earned the supreme champion ram banner in 2000 and 2003.
The MacDougalls had 28 sheep at the show and won most of the classes and championships in five breeds. They sold the Suffolk champion for $500 and a ram lamb for $750 and earned $550 for Courtney’s supreme ram.
Kim said the family considers showing sheep at four shows a year to be a good marketing tool for its purebred genetics. However, there are always extra lambs to sell and they are sold mostly to the Regina area’s growing Moslem population.
“I sell everything I raise and I have to buy some,” he said.
