Cattle judges found their champion during the First Lady Classic at Canadian Western Agribition last week in Regina.
Eleven animals made it to the final round with every major breed represented.
In the end, Black Gold Ms Hayleigh, a 2022-born Simmental, stood head and flanks above the rest.
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Toby Noble showed the animal on behalf of Bar SK Cattle Company and Shannon, Kim, and Kehler Eaton out of Lloydminster. With so much stiff competition and some beautiful animals in the Simmental class, Noble was happy enough just taking that top spot in his class before heading into the finals.
He said the partnership with the Eaton family has been a successful one since purchasing the heifer last year, especially now with an award winning animal.
“To do it with a heifer that we raised and then sold through our sale, we’re really excited but pretty excited for our partners… happy to see them have some success.”
Noble had a strong crew going into the competition, including talented friends from the United States who helped get the heifer ready for show.
Ms Hayleigh was a strong contender with Noble seeing a combination of attributes that are sometimes hard to breed into Simmentals. However, this heifer has that, he added, with femininity, structural integrity, body, mass and power. The judges saw that as well.
Kirsten Fornwald from Lampman, Sask,. one of four judges in the ring, said the Simmental was the whole package of what they were looking for.
“She’s got style, presence, body, balance, she’s just an incredible female and so it was just really exciting.”
Some of the 11 classes had clear winners, she said, with some incredible females coming into the final. When it came to the final round, the reserve champion female from Merit Cattle was also one of presence, beauty, depth and length, she said.
Trent Liebreich has been showing cattle since 2013 and was happy with what the judges saw in his 2022-born Black Angus heifer, Merit Socialite.
“They found good cattle all day in all breeds. This heifer is really sound, really correct, really attractive fronted, and got enough volume and body… apparently they liked her that way.”
Liebreich’s award-winning heifer is the sixth generation in his herd near Radville, Sask., and is the embryo daughter of a cow he showed in 2016. Before she won reserve champion, Merit Socialite and calf, Merit Big Deal, also took home reserve champion in the First Lady Classic Futurity prize.
Taking home top honours for prize winning cow-calf pair was Red Angus heifer, Blairswest Erica, and calf, Rainbow TKA Bonanza, from Rainbow Red Angus from Cherhill, Alta.
A lot of things had to go right for this pair to show well, said Kolby Agaben, manager of Rainbow Red Angus. Blairswest Erica was bought two years ago and the strong pedigree was something they were looking for.
“You buy a heifer calf, you never know exactly what you’re gonna get, but we felt like we could trust the pedigree, and the bred-in consistency was definitely there and something that we were after.”
Agaben hopes the accolades will help the owners go out on a high note when they sell their cattle at the herd dispersal sale Dec. 4. The cattle are the best they’ve ever been, he said, so now is as good a time as any to look into some new ventures and offer something strong to the industry.
