Jared Hunter left Canada for a week in New Zealand last month as just your average farm boy from Didsbury but came home a world champion.
The 24-year-old young man was part of a 12-member Canadian delegation, split into three teams, that competed in the inaugural 2013 World Angus Forum Youth Programme in Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand.
“It was great. New Zealand is quite a green country. They do agriculture definitely different down there,” said Hunter of his experience at the forum.
He wasn't the only central Albertan to compete at the world championships.
Markerville's Chad Lorenz competed on another Canadian team that brought home honours for champion team presentation.
“It was definitely a great experience,” said the 20-year-old who is the current junior Angus ambassador for Canada. During the five-day event he gave a presentation at the World Angus Secretariat meeting as to what Canada is doing to promote youth in agriculture, and with the Angus breed.
“The two things I enjoyed most were touring the ranch operations there and making contacts with the people,” said Lorenz, whose family farm northwest of Markerville raises 100 purebred Angus cattle.
Hunter has been a passionate Angus breeder all his life. He currently owns about 150 cows at the family farm eight kilometres east of town. Hunter, who splits his life between the farm and his home in Penhold, raises about 20 of his own Angus cows at the farm.
“My grandparents raised red Angus breed, and my parents have had purebred Angus since the early 1980s,” said Hunter, who also works as a customer sales representative for a UFA farm store in Red Deer. “I am first a farm kid, then a cow breeder and I have a job to keep that addiction going.”
Last winter Hunter was attracted to a Canadian Angus Foundation notice that it was looking for worthy young cattlemen and cattlewomen to compete at the forum. The foundation received about 25 applicants.
“The selection committee was tasked to pick contestants for an all-expenses trip to New Zealand and we had to write an essay on what we wanted to achieve once we got there, and send in a list of accomplishments of what we had done with the Angus breed and how we wanted to be a part of it in the future,” said Hunter, who ultimately was one of 12 winners selected for the competition.
The applicants faced off against competitors from New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain. Hunter's team included Patrick Holland from Montague, P.E.I.; Melissa McRae from Brandon, Man. and Michael Hargrave from Maxwell, Ont. Hunter was named team caption. After arriving in New Zealand on Oct. 9, Hunter's team then immediately set off to compete in the five-section contest that was spread out over five days, with a different event each day with 40 heifers and 40 competitors.
The competition included scoring events for general knowledge, parading (presentation, showmanship and sportsmanship with an Angus animal), stock judging, animal preparation and agri-sports – a hands-on team challenge involving day-to-day tasks.
“We had lots of time to visit with other competitors,” said Hunter. “I was kind of surprised the Americans didn't come. Actually Argentina was supposed to send a team but they didn't come.”
Along with capturing the inaugural world championship title, Hunter's team also brought home $10,000 in prize money.
“We haven't decided what we are going to do with the money officially,” he said. “There was some comment we were going to put it towards the next team that's going to the next youth competition and that is in Mexico in 2015.”
The Canadian Angus Foundation was incorporated in 1993 and is the charitable arm of the Canadian Angus Association.
