REGINA – There was considerable excitement around Murray and Bridget Andrews’ stalls after five judges agreed their Horned Hereford bull was the best of the best at this year’s RBC Beef Supreme Challenge.
This was the first time a Hereford has won the Canadian Western Agribition supreme championship. The event invites the best bulls and females from across Canada to a final showdown event offering $10,000 plus a broad assortment of farm and ranch supplies from sponsors.
The supreme female award went to a Maine Anjou pair entered by Barry and Patty Hall of Craven, Sask.
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The Andrews own Triple A Herefords at Moose Jaw, Sask., where the family has been running purebreds for three generations.
Seeing a traditional breed like a Horned Hereford win was a delight for Russell, Faye, Murray and Bridget Andrews.
“I was quite surprised actually. There were some pretty good bulls there. Maybe it was our turn,” said Murray later. “It was quite refreshing.”
The young bull named Triple-A 87J Maximus 4M was born in 2002 and has already bred cows in the summer.
Besides winning at Agribition, it also won grand champion at the Manitoba Livestock Exposition in Brandon this fall and was calf champion at Regina and Brandon last year. The Andrews also had the grand champion Horned Hereford female at Agribition.
The family owns the bull outright but received plenty of offers to buy. So far, it remains Andrews property.
The family runs about 100 purebred Herefords and another 100 commercial cows with a Hereford base. Their steers have already been sold for better than expected prices and the family is looking forward to a joint bull sale this spring with a Manitoba Charolais breeder.
“The response at Brandon and Agribition was good. People are looking for bulls,” said Murray.
“People seem upbeat and positive about it. Maybe guys will come and see how good these bulls are standing in our pens,” he said.
For Maine Anjou breeders Barry and Patty Hall, this year’s win was the icing on the cake for a cow that has been a winner wherever it appeared.
“It’s something you dream about when you’ve got a good one, but you’ve got to get five judges to agree,” Barry said.
Hall’s Miss Lisa 121L and its calf Lisa Marie were the big winners at this year’s Saskatoon Fall Fair. The two-year-old mother cow has also won championships and reserve awards at the Cinderella Classic in Saskatoon and First Lady Classic at Agribition.
The Halls own the cow outright but have received offers for flushing from international buyers.
For them, the closed border may have had a silver lining.
“If the border had been open, the calf would have been at a sale in Nebraska so maybe that was a good thing,” he said.
With this win they have to decide if Miss Lisa will return to the show ring again or retire as a champion among their other 180 black Maine Anjous. Their main customers are commercial bull buyers who value the animals’ cross-breeding abilities for better than average beef carcass production.
