Saturday marks the final day of the 51st annual Canadian Western Agribition.
And for one family, it also marks the 51st consecutive time they have attended the Agribition festivities in the Queen City.
The tradition spans four generations, and this year was no different as Duncan Lees and his family made the trip from Arcola, Saskatchewan.
The Blair Athol Farm was founded 140 years ago. They first registered their purebred Herefords in 1909.
Ever since then, raising cattle has been part of their DNA.
In 1968, Duncan’s father, Tom Lees, was very close with Agribition founder Chris Stutter.
“Chris Sutter, who was a very good friend of my dad, got the idea that they should have a cattle show in western Canada,” Duncan Lees said.
Two years later in 1970, the first-ever Agribition took place in Regina. Now 51 years later, the Lees family has participated in every single one.
“It is the highlight of the year for sure,” Duncan said.
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When you approach the Blair Athol stall, you can’t help but notice it is a family affair — you can always find around 10 different members of the family, from adults to grandchildren, helping out.
“It’s the biggest week of the year for us, for promoting our herd and product,” said Duncan’s son, Jeff, who is also a co-owner of the farm. “Our family has been to 51 of these and my grandpa was the first vice president of the show, so there’s a lot of history with our family and Agribition.”
On the final day of Agribition, the family was getting their star performer ready for the show, as Jeff’s nine-year-old daughter, Hannah, had a showing of her Hereford purebred, named Sassy.
“You gotta comb her and you gotta blow and you just gotta make her look nice,” said Hannah.
With the entire family watching Saturday, Hannah and Sassy won the Reserve Grand Champion Female.
For Jeff, introducing his daughter to the world of Agribition is something he is certainly proud of. And to see her have success is even better.
“Hannah has had a really good year this year,” Jeff said. “She’s done a lot of winning at other shows and it’s exciting to see.”
Now with the 51st annual Agribition wrapping up, there is only one thing left for the Lees family to do —- get ready for year 52…
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