Along with his 60 head of commercial cattle, Brady Moncrieff has 50 purebred horned Herefords on his farm half a mile west of Senlac, Saskatchewan. Some of those purebreds earned him five jackets and a belt buckle over the fall and winter.
The cattle show season for Moncrieff started with the Stockade Roundup in Lloydminster in early November 2015, where he came away with both the grand champion horned Hereford bull and reserve champion horned Hereford female titles.
His yearling bull, Ace Tracker Lad 21B, also won the People’s Choice Reserve Senior Champion award at the Hereford Genes Gala, held at Farmfair International in Edmonton Nov. 11, 2015. It costs $500 to enter but each entry allows the breeder to invite five customers to the exclusive event, so “the people” choosing the award winners are cattle people themselves. All together there were 33 bulls in the show ring.
The belt buckle won at the Hereford Genes Gala for People’s Choice Reserve Senior Champion at Farmfair International in Edmonton last year. Photo credit: Ace Herefords Facebook page
Winning the grand champion title at the Lloyd show qualified Ace Tracker and Moncrieff for the Alberta Supreme Cattle Show. This show, also part of Farmfair International in Edmonton, sees the grand champions of every breed from Farmfair, the Olds Fall Classic and the Lloydminister Stockade Round-up competing against each other.
Although they didn’t place in the top six, Moncrieff described the Alberta Supreme as a “pretty neat experience.”
Towards the end of November 2015, Moncrieff and Ace Tracker travelled to Regina for Agribition. At Agribition, only the top two head in each class are placed and Ace Tracker was not one of them. Again, however, Moncrieff was pleased to be able to participate in a “supreme” show, this one the RBC Beef Supreme Challenge.
Grand champions of all breeds from 16 major livestock shows across North America, including the Stockade Round-up, compete together. Moncrieff estimated they were in the ring with some 50 or 60 other bulls. Five experienced cattle producers act as judges in what Agribition describes as “one of the toughest tasks of their cattle judging careers.”
At the Canadian Bull Congress in Olds, Alta., Jan. 23 and 23, Ace Tracker was second in his class and Moncrieff had another bull come in second in a different class.
At the Fourth Annual Premier Hereford Bull Sale in Lloydminster Feb. 8, Ace Tracker Lad 21B brought in the highest sale price of the day, with full possession and a three-quarter interest going to an Alberta buyer for $9,000. Moncrieff also was happy with the prices on the other bulls he sold.
To top off his year, the North West Zone of the Saskatchewan Hereford Association named Ace Herefords/Moncrieff Breeder of the Year.
Potential future champions are just now being born on the Moncrieff farm. Photo credit: Ace Herefords Facebook page
Moncrieff has been a fan of horned Herefords ever since the age of nine, when his father bought him a horned Hereford calf as a 4-H prospect. This year, Brady and his father will be calving out some 280 cows between them. They grow all the feed for their cattle.