EDMONTON — The two families from Forestburg, Alta., spend summers travelling to cattle shows together. They host a Red Angus bull sale and consider themselves to be close friends .
This fall, they’ve been winning together too.
They won supreme champion cow and bull at the Lloydminster Stockade Roundup held Nov. 4-7 and now they have won supreme champion cow and bull at Farmfair.
A Red Angus cow and bull calf, from Ter-Ron Farms of Forestburg, Alta., won supreme champion female and a Red Angus bull owned by Redrich Farms, of Forestburg, Alta., and Wood Coulee Red Angus won supreme champion bull at Farmfair, Nov. 14.
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For the central Alberta friends, winning the supreme champion show was the reward for a life of hard work.
“It is overwhelming honestly,” said Bailey Dietrich of Redrich Farms.
“You never know, coming in to different shows, different people, different judges, different bulls and when you win a title like this, it never leaves your mind. It is always very exciting to win a title like this,” said Dietrich after the bull was selected champion bull of the 20 in the Farmfair supreme champion show.
“We heard from a lot of family and friends that he did look good. He came along real nice in the last little bit. We were pretty happy with him and pretty excited about having him in the supreme this year,” said Dietrich.
The family raised the bull, which as a calf won Farmfair’s Legends of the Fall champion calf show.
A week before Farmfair, the bull was named supreme champion at the Lloydminster event.
“It has been a really good path watching him grow up and become this strong of calf. You never know if people will like the bull,” said Dietrich.
For the Adams family of Ter-Ron Farms, winning supreme champion female at Farmfair with their Red Angus cow and calf is an acknowledgement of the years of work building a herd.
“It means a lot. My kids and family, we just put our heart and soul into it. It really means a lot to us,” said Rob Adams.
The cow actually belongs to his daughter, Halley Adams, 16, who bought the heifer calf from a relative for a 4-H project.
“I was looking for a 4-H heifer and I kind of liked her,” said Halley, who showed the heifer for three years as a 4-H project.
Winning at Farmfair isn’t just a matter of preparing for a four-day show. It takes months to train the cattle and get them ready for the circuit and her 4-H shows, she said.
“We go to quite a few shows. It takes a lot of preparation for a show. We have been working on the string of calves since August and the calf since May. Every second day or every day almost after school.”
As the owner of the cow, Halley is now the owner of a new Dodge Ram truck, which is even more encouragement to stay in the cattle business.
“I think even if I didn’t win I would still want to stay in the cattle business.”
The same cow was shown with its bull calf last year and they were top five finishers at Farmfair and one of the top 10 qualifiers at the Canadian Western Agribition.
The winning cow next travels to this year’s Agribition and then will retire to the farm. She is bred to calve in January.
It’s not easy finding the combination for a winning cow and calf, said Rob.
“It is very tough, especially with a cow-calf pair. First of all you have to start with a heifer, then she has to have a good udder then she has to have good calf and everything has to fall together.
As for winning the truck, Adams said he and his daughter would have to chat.
“She just turned 16. I guess she will have a truck to drive, I guess. We’ll have to talk.”
