Reigning Supreme

WORDS BY JEFF GAYE

Two calves that were bought at Canadian Western Agribition in 2016 are the reigning RBC Beef Supreme Challenge Champions.

“Echo” (PM Echo 8'16) is the RBC Supreme Champion Female, a Bar-E-L Natural Law daughter owned by Blair’s Ag of Lanigan, Saskatchewan and Carlos Ojea Rullán from Argentina.

“We purchased her from Tanya Belsham [of Poplar Meadows Angus] as a heifer calf in the Power &Perfection Sale at CWA in 2016,” said Kevin Blair.

“We loved her maternal look and the fact that she was a little green,” he said. “Carlos was the one that found her first and then asked us to partner.”

DMM International 54D, a bull co-owned by Glen Gabel Angus and Miller Wilson Angus of Bashaw, Alberta, is the RBC Supreme Champion Bull. “International” was a child prodigy—he was shown as a calf alongside his mother in 2016,winning the Supreme Champion Female as a cow-calf pair.

He was a junior champion bull at Agribition in 2017 and was named Canadian Show Bull of the Year. “This year he won Farmfair in Edmonton, and he won Agribition Supreme. He was Show Bull of the Year again in Canada, and in December he was named World Champion Bull,” said co-owner Glen Gabel.

Agribition was Echo’s only show this year. She earned her way into the Supreme ring by winning the Champion Black Angus Female. Blair said they went into the Supreme event with no real expectations; just standing as a finalist was a proud moment.

“We knew the 2018 females were a very tough group to compete against,” he said. “It was exciting to be one of the top 10 finalists. ‘Pride’ likely describes my feeling as we waited for the final selection.”

PM Echo 8'16 owned by Blairs.Ag Cattle Co., Carlos Ojea Rullán, Don Romeo, Roque Perez and bred by Tanya Belsham.

Photo: Show Champions

Blair said that although the RBC Supreme is “the Super Bowl of the livestock industry,” the magnitude of the win didn’t set in right away.

“I don’t think you can fully comprehend how cool it is to be slapped RBC Champion for a few weeks,” he said. “It really sets in as you attend other events throughout the fall and you get to visit with breeders from all breeds. Then you realize that every single person in the beef industry knows you own the 2018 RBC Supreme Champion Female.”

The large number of breeders that stopped by their stall to admire Echo and her Desert Storm heifer calf helped make the win memorable for Blair. “Peer approval is always gratifying,” he said.

Echo will calve in March and will then enter the Blair’s Ag donor program. Blair said she will do well with a variety of sires. “You will have to wait and see which exciting new sires will be used to expand her genetic influence.”

Echo 8'16's genetics have been wildly popular this fall, with flushes selling in the Power and Perfection Sale to Six Mile Angus and in the inaugural Falls View sale to Werning Cattle.

Photo: Emily H Photography

Meanwhile, Gabel predicted that International will prove his value as a bull by the quality of daughters he is expected to produce.

“Obviously his mom was a standout and he brings some of that genetics forward,” he said. “She has a beautiful udder. She's great-footed. And he is exceptionally long. Beautiful hair coat and a lot of depth of body to him.

“The nice part now is that his first calves are showing this year. We showed one of his daughters and she was Reserve Senior Champion Heifer Calf. So not only is he a good show bull, he's a sire and he's producing. So that's the really exciting part.”

Gabel knew International was special from the time he first saw him. “I looked at him as a calf. I couldn't find a whole lot of flaw in him, and it only took me 20 minutes or so to from the time Lee [Wilson] and I started talking about him, and about how a partnership deal works, till I actually shook hands and bought the bull.”

The Wilson Family prepares International for his Farmfair Supreme win.

Photo: Emily H Photography

That was at Agribition in 2016. Two days later he was Champion Black Angus Bull Calf and Reserve Champion in the Semex Challenge. Two days after that, he was at his mother’s side when she became the Grand Champion Black Angus Female. And in a couple more days they won the Supreme.

With such winning ways, the owners could be forgiven if they felt a bit cocky going into the 2018 Supreme judging. But that was far from the case. As Gabel acknowledged, the other bulls earned their way into the ring too—nothing is a given.

DMM International 54D, owned by Glen Gabel Angus and Miller Wilson Angus.

Photo: ShowChampions

“You know he's good,” Gabel said. “It's just that there's a lot of good bulls out there and there's a lot of quality stock out there. We're just fortunate that he continued to develop as a yearling and into his two-year-old year, and just got stronger and stronger as the fall went on.”

And the winning moment?

“It's always a thrill. Anybody who says it isn't, they've either won too much or they don't have feelings and emotions. But to me it's always a thrill when you get slapped. There's a lot of great breeders from Western Canada and the United States that come up to Agribition and Farmfair, and to rise to the top of both those hills is pretty phenomenal.”

The success hasn’t inflated International’s ego either. “The nice part is he's a good bull to be around disposition-wise,” Gabel said. “He's phenomenal. To me he's the complete package.”

Above all, he is a productive sire whose progeny are carrying on his long, deep body type—the bottom line, as Gabel said, as that's where the meat is.

His experience co-owning International with Miller Wilson Angus has reinforced for him what he and most cattlemen already know: the real strength of the beef business is its people. Gabel has had some health issues that caused him to miss Farmfair, but he was able to attend Agribition in a wheelchair. “There's a lot of support among Angus breeders. It's quite remarkable, the friends that come and support you and that are there to congratulate you or whatever,” he said.

Glen Gabel and International share a moment after International's Supreme win.

Photo: ShowChampions

His partnership with Miller Wilson Angus, struck over the course of a20-minute major purchase decision, has become a close friendship.

“Lee and Don Wilson started out as partners. I had never had anydealings with them, or them with me, prior to this. And this turned into a friendship. They have just been a the most supportive friends that I could have ever asked for, the best partners that I could ever partner with. They've just been great, great people.

“It’s a partnership that turned into a great friendship. That's probably a nice way to say it.”