EDMONTON – Time off school for Brandon Hertz to attend Farmfair International is no vacation.
The 13-year-old gets up at 4 a.m. to be at the show grounds by 5 a.m. to wash, dry, clip, groom and show the family’s Ivy Livestock Limousin cattle.
Time spent in the show barn paid off for the Grade 8 student. Hertz’s cow produced the reserve grand champion bull calf and the grand champion cow-calf pair at Farmfair.
“It was a good female,” he said during a break at Farmfair.
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Getting up early isn’t a hardship, said Hertz, who has shown cattle since he was four or five.
“I enjoy it.”
He came to the show with his mother, Mary, and brother Tyson. His father stays home and does chores at their ranch near Duchess, Alta.
“I like the people you meet here and how much fun it is. There’s lots of people I know that come every year and they’re very friendly.”
Hertz is given more responsibility every year as he gains more confi-dence and ability under the tutoring of his family.
He said he started off leading small calves and graduated to larger yearling animals. He has started to learn the finer points of clipping the show calves.
He’s amazed by how much he knows about animals compared to visitors to the show barn who stop and ask questions.
“They don’t know anything. I don’t know how that’s possible.”
Hertz’s goal is to own his own farm with 150 to 200 head of cattle and a successful show career.
The family raises 100 purebred and 50 commercial cattle on its southern Alberta ranch.
