REGINA – When Kerrie Sparrow slapped the supreme champion female at this year’s Canadian Western Agribition, she was almost as nervous as the winners.
Rob and Gail Hamilton of Cochrane, Alta., won the supreme champion female for an Angus, while the supreme bull award went to co-owners Grant and Annette Hirsche of High River, Alta., Brad Dallas of Bowden, Alta., and Greg Peters of British Columbia for their Horned Hereford bull.
This show is in its seventh year and is a showcase of high quality Canadian purebred genetics.
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“All of the animals are out there for a reason. They earned their way there,” said Sparrow, a Charolais breeder and commercial producer.
The final reward for the winners is a $10,000 cheque for the bull and cow, as well as an array of agricultural products.
Each of the five judges works individually, ranking their preferences on the basis of one to 15. All other cattle they do not rank receive a number 16. The results are tabulated and the supreme female and bull are picked from a selection of more than 40 bulls and 40 cows, many with a calf at side.
“Every judge has their own set of priorities as to what they feel is most important and what they value,” Sparrow said. “Another person might reverse the priorities.”
The Hamiltons have been in the supreme circle before, with their Angus cattle winning the top bull twice and the cow championship once before. The thrill remains.
“It doesn’t get any less exciting. It is quite an honour,” said Rob Hamilton. “She is probably the best animal that we have ever raised and I felt it was important for her to win that.”
The winning cow named HF Echo 112R was also supreme at the Calgary Stampede and grand champion throughout the fall at other shows including Farmfair in Edmonton.
“We have had more compliments from other breeders from all breeds saying that cow is just about flawless in her structure,” he said.
The cow will be placed in an embryo donor program this coming year and could return to the show circuit in two years’ time. Its calf sold for $19,500 in the Masterpiece sale.
The winners come from a cow bloodline named Echo.
“The first time we won with a female, this cow’s mother won in 2000,” he said.
The Hamiltons also hold a December bull and female sale where cattle related to the Echo family will be on offer.
As bull producers, most of the Hamiltons’ customers come from the commercial sector. They showed 10 bulls in the commercial barn and won supreme champion pen of three bulls born in early 2005.
“That was more to bring out our product to the commercial cattlemen. Our showing in the show barn really increases the stock value of our females,” he said.
Longtime Hereford breeder Grant Hirsche has only taken his champion, BCD140L Dom Lad 326 N, to a few shows this year and ended up with the supreme champion at the Calgary Stampede as well as Agribition between breeding seasons. Hirsche calves twice a year so this bull was breeding cows in the spring and just before Agribition.
“He bred 40 cows between Stampede and Agribition,” said Hirsche, who plans to send the champ to a semen stud this winter. The first calves are expected in January.
“We believe that show bulls have to be working bulls as well. We use our bulls. That’s what they’re for,” he said.
For him, such a win is a tribute to the Hereford breed and Canadian cattle overall but he never expected to personally top the show.
“This was an experience I never had. When the judge came at us and slapped the bull, I was in shock. There were so many good bulls out there,” Hirsche said.
This is the third consecutive year a Hereford has won the Agribition supreme show.
