REGINA – It is fitting that a family with as much grit as the Hereford breed should win the supreme championship at Canadian Western Agribition during the 150th anniversary of the red and white breed in Canada.
It was a happy but tearful moment for Buddy and Frances Leachman of Big Gully Farm near Maidstone, Sask., after they won grand champion Hereford and later premier breeder at the national show held Nov. 22-27.
Buddy is in a wheelchair due to illness but was able to share in the moment with his wife from the sidelines as they watched son Lance lead out their big horned Hereford bull, Big Gully 611 Bounty 517U, among 39 other champions from across Canada.
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Their other son, Tyler, was back at the farm.
On the female side, Dennis and Lisa Serhienko triumphed to win the supreme beef female championship.
Their five-year-old Charolais cow and calf were among the more than 40 other pairs in the show. All were either Agribition grand champions or were the best from more than a dozen other shows across Canada.
“The competition is so tough it is just nice to be honoured,” Dennis Serhienko said after the show.
Five judges independently scored the cattle and named the top 10 males and top 10 females and selected the best of the best after nearly two hours of watching and second guessing from the capacity crowd.
Serhienko, who lives near Maymont, Sask., works for genetics company Semex and raises Charolais along with Angus partnerships, including this year’s grand champion Angus female at Agribition.
It and its owner, Shane Michelson, stood a couple of cows away from Serhienko in the ring. Michelson also owned shares in the big Charolais female.
The mature cow has never let them down, winning championships from the time it was a yearling. It was also shown at the supreme as a two-year-old. SVY Starstruck 559R will retire after this show.
“Her calf will hopefully continue her legacy,” he said.
For the Leachmans, the win comes with $10,000 in cash and other prizes, which they vowed to share with members of their farm crew.
The Leachmans have raised Herefords for three generations. They had a prize winning bull named Woodstock in the early 1980s and from there they began to build a reputation herd.
“We took it to a more serious level in the last 15 years,” Buddy said.
The family raises horned and polled cattle.
“I am very open minded when it comes to horned and polled. They are all Herefords and I love them,” he said.
Buddy attended the first Agribition in 1971, arriving by rail car from Toronto following the Royal Winter Fair, where he helped show cattle.
“It was 30 plus below and everybody said that this was going to be one of the biggest shows in Western Canada,” he said.
“Forty years later it is the largest show in the world.”
