YDP takes a trip to Canada to learn from some of the best

YDP co-ordinator Gayle Bersey recently got the chance to head out to Canada for the Canadian Junior Association’s “Showdown” event. Here’s what she thought of her time out there

After seven hours of recycled air on a plane I was really looking forward to some fresh air when we landed. I was in for a rude awakening. As I stepped off the plane into 84 degrees, the humidity in Montreal hit me like a brick wall!

I met Jess Denning, last year’s YDP winner and we headed to Saint- Hyacinthe, Quebec the location of the Canadian Junior Associations “Showdown”. I had known that we were going to the French speaking part of Canada but I was a bit naive to the fact that they actually don’t speak much English. I started to wish my GCSE French hadn’t been quite so long ago as we went to a restaurant and it was all in French with no translation. By the end of the showdown we were saying ‘Bonjour’ to everyone.

Showdown was the main reason for my visit. Jess had been invited to compete after she picked Canada as the place for her prize, a study trip abroad and I took the opportunity of tagging along to take a look at what makes their programme so successful. I wanted to know how they get and keep 600 members.

The Canadians run a very different programme to ours and it’s much along the same lines as our Young Farmers Clubs. The juniors are under 21, need to own cattle and they pay to belong to the Junior Association. Just like our Young Farmers Club’s they run both provincially and nationally and both are run by the Juniors themselves, with an adult advisor like we have in the form of YFC club leaders.

Each province then votes for members to go forward to the National Board of Directors that run the national programme. The main event at both levels is the Showdowns, where junior members come together to compete at all manner of character building activities, as well as many cattle competitions. Building great agricultural leaders for the future is the other national initiative that takes the form of a conference style weekend usually held in February.

Showdown was everything I expected it to be, although no adult participation at any level left me somewhat frustrated as I would’ve loved to have got involved. There is no lower age limit so if the “pee wees” or juniors need help then they ask an older participant to help and that is great to watch. The Showdown programme was all about healthy competition and the activities are designed to create confident well rounded individuals.

Some competitions are completed before the Showdown, such as photography, art, literature (essays or poetry) scrap booking and graphic design. Activities that took place during the three days were: team grooming (two people with 10 mins to dress an animal); stockjudging (written reasons, with top from each age group being chosen for team judging); showmanship, public speaking, sales talk (bit like an interview); print marketing (cut and stick a poster) and a cook off (teams of six preparing two steaks, loads of effort with everyone dressing up in their chosen theme).

Then there are the confirmation classes for those who brought their cattle along. As the national Showdown moves location each year, junior members get the chance to bring their own cattle when it’s close to them. There are lots of prizes on offer but the main trophy for each age group is the aggregate award, a fantastic silver buckle. It’s all about buckles in Canada!

Canadian Junior Coordinator, Belinda Wagner and the Board of Directors were great at encouraging Jess to join in and she ended up entering 8 of the 11 competitions and doing pretty well at that! As we had only arrived in Canada the day before, the art was done in the hotel room, the literature was done in the bar and public speaking was done with me timing Jess in the restaurant to check she was within the time scale.

First competition was team grooming where Jess and the American Red Angus Ambassador, Montgomery Dempsey, made up an international team. Neither Canada nor America clip bellies as they want cattle with depth of body and I really wanted to see their faces if Jess did it, but whilst borrowing someone else’s animal it wouldn’t have been the right time to make a point! Jess came away from Showdown with Champion in Print Marketing and Literature and reserve champ in art and public speaking.

I think the biggest thing that struck me about the Junior Association was how well the Canadian Angus Breeders as a whole support this initiative. Each provincial association is responsible for their own fund raising, which usually involves heifer or embryo raffles and silent auctions. The national programme is funded by auctions and even things like golf tournaments. One of their biggest fundraising ideas is a calendar, at the presentation dinner after showdown, breeders paid between $1000 – $1600 to have a page in it! That truly is great support for the future of the breed.

The next part of Jess’ trip took her to Calgary and as the Stampede was on the temptation of Rodeo and cowboys it was more than I could bear so I went too! It also gave me a great opportunity to meet and chat with the Canadian Association employees and I got the chance to find out more about their Ambassador programme from Assistant Manager, Michael Latimar.

The Canadian Association picks an Ambassador each year that represents the Association on a trip abroad. This is run as a separate programme to the Junior Association but the applicants need to be Junior Members. The applicants must send their CV, write an essay, go through an interview, give a speech to the Angus Association Presidents reception and take an agricultural knowledge quiz. All this is to make sure they select someone who will give the best possible impression at international level.

The first home stay for Jess was with the Hamilton family of Belvin Angus and they very kindly put up with me too. Gavin and Mabel Hamilton are driving forces in Canadian agriculture and have both sat on many of the important industry boards and committees. They have obviously passed their enthusiasm onto their children as both Colton and Quinn have already had leading roles in the Junior Associations.

Quinn has just finished as President of the National Junior Association and currently holds the same position in the Alberta Juniors too. I was able to attend the first part of the Alberta Showdown where Jess was again encouraged to take part and we also got to see the 4H show too. That was a real eye opener in terms of the cattle in Canada and how meat grading systems affect the kind of cattle we all keep. From an Angus breeders point of view you have to admire a country where every breed looks like an Angus. The black Simmentals were some of the best I’ve ever seen, especially with those lovely Angus heads and I was almost tempted to bring some home.

I left Jess in the capable hands of the Hamilton’s and I think she’s going to work there for the next few weeks. I was very grateful for the hospitality shown to me at Belvin and I thoroughly enjoyed talking about and looking at cattle for three days. A big thank you to Gavin, Mabel, Colt and Quinn and the Canadian Angus Association who all made my trip really enjoyable, everyone I met was really friendly and I have certainly come home with a few ideas that will move the YDP forward.