LEA-White Farms Registered Highland Cattle

 We had an incredible week at the NWSS in Denver, January 2013.  Neither of us ever dreamed we would have the incredible good luck and absolutely incredible good help to pull off a win like this.  LEA Hedy was awarded Grand Champion Female by Judge Ben Hawkins.  He basically liked everything about Hedy, and much to my amazement, that included her condition (i.e. she was not fat).  He commented several times about the shape of our cattle, complementing their fit but not fat condition.  Hedy's big win capped a day that started out on the right foot.  LEA Ingenue, one of our March 2012 calf entries, took a first in a large class and then went on to become Division Champion. LEA Halcyon, an April 2011 heifer, took reserve champion to Skye High Yellow Bird, who went on to become Reserve Grand Champion behind Hedy.  LEA Genevieve took a blue in a big class split for 2 year old heifers, but couldn't beat out her two herd mates, LEA Grusha, who took Division Champion, and LEA Gadabout, who took Reserve; both out of the second split in the 2 year old heifer classes. 

My help was absolutely amazing.  Derek Williams flew out from Vermont to help fit and handle cattle: Ginny Miller from Reed City Michigan, showed them faultlessly (Ginny was Champion Senior Showman during the Junior Highland Show) and Jake Larson fitted them to perfection.  When it came to the final Championship run we had a grand total of 5 entries (3 division winners, and 2 division reserves) and Jake had fitted another 2 heifers for Flatheads Farm and 1 heifer for traveling companion Skye High Farms all in the Female Champion run-off.  Quite a coup for Jake. 

Special thanks to Rick Milliman and Colin Demuth for taking one of the critters into the Championship for us.  I gave Ginny the option of taking back Hedy but she opted to hang on to Grusha for the final drive.  So Jake got to take her in and show off both his fine showmanship skills, as well as his expert fitting.  It was a joy to see both of them win the Grand in the ring.

Most photos captioned below were taken by the official show photographer.  Uncaptioned show photos were taken by Timothy Will.

Needless to say, we were flying high coming off the show Friday, and then went into the sale ring on Saturday morning. I went ahead and entered LEA Halcyon in the sale post show, as Division Champions and Reserves (as well as Grand Champions and Reserves) have the option to enter after the fact. LEA Genevieve, our blue ribbon winner, was the first female in the sale ring, and ended up being high selling female.  LEA Igraine, our heifer calf sale entry, and LEA Halcyon became 2nd and 3rd high selling females after Genevieve.  A week to remember.

LEA Genevieve 

 LEA Igraine