Levi Kempter
Yellowhead 4-H reporter
The Provincial Winter Fair is the time all 4-H members have waited for. It is a time when they get their project ready to show and compete in shows to win. It is also where some of the members sell their project at an auction. Provincial Winter Fair in Barriere this year was from Sept. 22 - 26. There were beef, sheep, photography, goat, horse, dog, rabbit, and sewing projects being shown and displayed. Fifteen 4-H clubs participated from all over the province.
Here are some of the highlights of what happened at the fair. It started on Thursday, Sept. 22. There was a weigh-in for all animal projects. Animals had to be at or over a minimum weight to be entered in the fair. A little later, sheep members had to judge live carcass lambs that went to the butcher that evening.
On Friday morning, Sept. 23 all 4-H members showed up with their clipboard in hand, ready to judge. Also that day, Yellowhead 4-Hers Bradley Fennel, Samantha Jones and Kathleen Pilatzke from the beef side entered the grooming and fitting competition.
Afterward there was sheep trim and fit where our Bobby-Rae Farrow and Grace Kempter competed against seven teams from other clubs and placed third. This adds to Yellowheads Fall Fair success where Conner Farrow and Logan Jones won the Reserve Champion for sheep trim and fit. In the afternoon, beef female project classes were held in the beef show ring followed by the Round Robin event. In the Round Robin 16-year-old members have to show an animal for each projects attending the fair which include beef, horse, lamb, dog and rabbit. In the evening, we had opening ceremonies and the club parade (unfortunately there was no candy). After that we had the Twemlow Family, Fred Nichol and Boundary Dash Event where participants could win money towards next year’s projects.
On Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016 we started off with the sheep showmanship judge introduction. Showmanship for sheep started, and the beef weight class followed that. In the afternoon, goat 4-Hers were busy showing off their projects in the show ring as well as the sheep 4-Hers who had female projects. We soon had beef carcass judging as well as sheep carcass judging. All the junior members got to make the 4-H formation. It’s where all junior members line up to make the 4 and the H. Then we had market lamb group classes before beef market steer group classes and that ended another busy day.
Then on Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016, we had sheep market lamb classes. We had the beef showmanship judge introduction, followed by beef showmanship. Then the photography members had showmanship. In the evening, we had the banquet where all the hard earned awards were handed out. At the family dance that followed, many great prizes were given to dancers that night and everyone went to bed way too late.
Monday, Sept. 26, 2016. We were all treated to an awesome breakfast sponsored by RBC. Some members lined up some last minute buyers for their projects and the buyers enjoyed a delicious breakfast. The sale went by quickly and all members sold their projects at strong prices. Thank you to all buyers and bidders for your support. This brought a very successful fair to its finish. Much hard work made this fair possible and a big 4-H thanks goes out to all that made this fair happen.