This past Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday spent at 4-H on Parade at the Calgary Stampede Grounds seemed to go by in a blur! But what a fun and successful four days it was! I kicked off my sleep deprived weekend by washing my cattle (which I mentioned in a previous post... two of them are awfully white and have an affinity for mud) until 1:00 am, made a stop at McDonald's for supper (more like a midnight snack!) and hit the hay!
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| Doing some last minute clipping touch ups on my 2 year old cow. |
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My homegrown Shorthorn X Saler 2 year old cow "Denali"
and her March 30th heifer calf "Annabelle". Grand Champion Commercial 2 Year Old Cow with Calf at Side |
Friday morning it was up bright and early at 5:30 am to head to the barns for the daily "push out" of dirty shavings and giving your cattle fresh shavings to stand and lay on. Feeding and watering of your cattle is the next priority and then you worry about feeding yourself! The beef female show began in the Big Top at 10:00 am with commercial and purebred rings running consecutively side by side. As I fit my yearling heifer, Global Television video taped and interviewed me for their evening news segment! The Commercial Show was judged by conformation judge Peter Boake, junior conformation judge Lindsey Douglas, and showmanship judges Quinn Hamilton and Myranda Stewart. In my first class, the second split of Senior Commercial Yearling Heifers I placed 3rd behind Andie Hadway of West Didsbury in 1st and Cody Coleman of our very own Sundre Multi in 2nd! My next class was Commercial 2 Year Old with Calf at Side... and I won it! Cody Coleman won the next split of Commercial 2 Year Old with Calf at Side so the two of us were pretty excited to both be getting into the Commercial 2 Year Old Championship class! I ended up coming out of the class leading my Commercial Grand Champion 2 Year Old, with a buckle in hand! =) Cody followed close behind me with the Commercial Reserve Champion 2 Year Old and a buckle as well! Cody and I also went back for the Senior Commercial Showmanship Championship in which I won Reserve Champion Senior Commercial Showman, and received a buckle and banner! Wow!! My cattle sure did me proud that day! Friday evening I competed in the multi judging competition, placing and giving reasons on classes of yearling heifers, market steers, horses, dairy heifers, market lambs, and a consumer decision making helmets class. I ended up 4th in the steers, 4th for overall reasons, and 4th place judge overall - yay for consistency haha! Friday night a few of us went out for supper at the Cheesecake Cafe (YUM!) and then headed back to the Best Western Hotel which was entirely taken over by 4-Her's... so of course we didn't exactly get to bed early! I capped off my night by putting the final touches on the team grooming list!
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| Reserve Champion Commercial Senior Showmanship |
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| Beef Female Team Grooming Competition |
Saturday morning was another early one, and after tending to the cattle, we got ourselves some pancakes and sausages at the awesome free Encana breakfast! I then busied myself for the rest of the morning organizing the beef female team grooming... shuffling teams around, setting chutes and blowers up, bringing in prizes, rounding up the competitors, etc.! We managed to get it all done and congratulations to Shallaine Daley and Coulton Zouppas for being the Grand Champion's in the Team Grooming and Halyea Jones and Taylor Konschuh for being the Reserve Champion team! Following the team grooming I finally had a chance to sit down and complete my work for the marketing competition. This year each senior member had to plan an event that would celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Calgary Stampede as well as youth in agriculture. I ended up getting Reserve Champion! The Lifeskills awards were presented Saturday afternoon and much to our amazement Sundre cleaned up! I won Grand Champion in the "Action" category with a picture of a high school rodeo member calf roping and Reserve Champion in the "Creative" category with a picture of steam coming out of the nose of one of our cows on a cold day! My friend Ashley Thompson of Sundre Multi won overall Grand Champion Photography with her "Portrait" picture and I took Reserve Champion Photography with my "Action" picture! Not too shabby for a little 4-H club in the sticks that just started the photography portion of our club this year! Saturday evening we tore down our beef female stalls and moved cattle out. We then had a great time at the tug-o-war before calling it another solid day of 4-H on Parade!
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| My Reserve Champion "Creative" Photo |
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| My Grand Caption "Action" Photo |
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| Tug-o-War!! |
Sunday was a bit more relaxing without the cattle there and in between shifts working at the photography showcase and silent auction I got to take in some of the horse show and steer sale (Grand Champion steer went for $9.80/lb.!!!). With the sale of two of my photographs in the lifeskills silent auction the weekend was sadly over for another year. Even sadder is that this was our AWESOME Calgary Regional Specialist Rob Smith's last year at 4-H on Parade before he hits the big time with the Canadian Angus Association! He has given 4-H so many years of hard work, dedication, and has made every event better with his presence! We'll miss you Rob!!
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| Rob Smith and myself after I won my trip to Denver at Provincial Judging last summer! |
Due to our scores in the heifer and steer portions of the multi judging competition I, along with my great team judging partner Travis Hunter of West Didsbury, qualified for the Western Canadian Team Judging Finals in Bashaw, Alberta August 10th - 13th during the All Breeds Junior Cattle Show! I also won the Grand Champion Senior Aggregate award for my overall scores in all of the competition areas and earned a spot to compete in the National Young Cattleman Competition also at All Breeds! Yahoo! I predict she's gonna be a good summer!
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| Travis Hunter and myself in the Western Canadian Team Judging Finals last August in Bashaw... time for round two this summer! |
I'd say a huge congratulations is in order for ALL of the 4-H members exhibiting beef females, steers, dairy cattle, horses, sheep, dogs, lifeskills projects, and everything in between! Particularly a shout out to the Mountain View 4-H District who I'd say really kicked the proverbial "butt"!! And of course to Sundre Multi who really cleaned up in the conformation, showmanship, multi judging, marketing, and lifeskills! Succeed? Yes, yes indeed I'd say we did succeed! =) Can't wait for next year!
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Unfortunately we are missing most of our horse members from both clubs and some of Sundre's photography members but here are the ones we could round up for the picture of Sundre Multi & Bergen Multi members with their 4-H on Parade winnings!
Congratulations everyone!!! |
