Grand champion female | The ‘awesome’ cow family has good udders, good feet and bones and solid bodies, says owner
EDMONTON — A winning cow family kept on winning at Farmfair International.
A black Simmental cow, owned by Rancier Farms and Westman Land and Cattle, won grand champion female at the Supreme Champions show.
In 2008, the cow’s grandmother won the same competition and two years later the calf at its side went on to win supreme female.
“It’s a great cow family,” Garth Rancier said moments after being declared the winner. It was the third truck won by the same family of cows.
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Half interest in the cow was sold to the Westman Land and Cattle Co. two years ago for $25,000, and cows from the Flirtin lineage continue to be the main cow family for both families. Embryos from the cow have been sent to the United States and Australia.
“It’s a cow family we focused on,” said Rancier. “We’re just going to build on the cow family herd.”
The cow was flushed a week earlier for embryos, he added.
Rancier said the cows all have good udders, good feet and bones and solid bodies.
“They’ve been an awesome cow family. They never miss.”
Rancier had confidence in the cow, but it’s never easy winning the supreme champion title against top cows from all breeds as well as the Olds Fall Classic Supreme Show and the Lloydminster Stockade Round-up.
“You hope to make the Top 5, and it’s a crap shoot after that. There is a lot of good cattle.”
The cow and its calf will go on to Canadian Western Agribition in Regina, where the same cow family has brought home top honours twice.
Derek Westman said he believed the cow’s genetics would fit into his commercial cow herd when he bought half ownership of it.
“I like the type of cow and the people involved with the cow,” he said.
Robert Latimer of Remintall Cattle Co. in Olds, Alta., won supreme champion bull at Farmfair with a home raised two-year-old bull.
The bull was an eye catcher from the beginning, he said.
“We knew he was special right off the start and have been grooming him for the show. You just kind of know. You see calves born every day, and you see the special ones. He looked like something that could carry on the genetics that his parents had.”
The winning bull also comes from a long line of champions. Its sire was champion Angus bull at Farmfair, and its grandsire on its maternal side was supreme champion.
“We won a truck with his great-grand sire.”
Latimer has won four trucks at Farmfair with his winning bulls.
He said genetics from the bull have been sold to the U.S. and South America and throughout Western Canada.
Here are some video clips from Farmfair, 2014.
