By Tom Collins
Seventeen-year-old Morgan MacIntyre pulled off an improbable feat. She won a beef show without showing any cattle. Morgan, whose family runs Xcel Livestock at Metcalfe, was named grand aggregate at the national Simmental junior show in Olds, Alberta in August.
But the show was too far from home to travel with livestock so she had no animal to show. She had strategy. She knew that the competition scored in 11 areas and judges dropped the lowest score. She got a big, fat zero for showing but had prepared to do well in other areas, such as public speaking, herdsman and sire summary quizzes, photography, an interview, essay writing, scrapbooking, designing a print ad, judging and making a sales pitch for your animal.
“The success at the shows is done at home,” she said, adding she has judged for years and studies example quizzes online. “(Selling an animal) is something I do on a daily basis, talking to potential customers, so I’m really confident in that.”
Her prize for winning in Alberta is a paid-trip to the American Simmental show in Louisville, Kentucky next summer. She doesn’t plan on taking an animal to that show either.
