It used to be a way to showcase his product, then it became a way to raise awareness, but a regular volunteer with the Calgary Stampede is unsure whether he wants to continue.
“I have seen Stampede evolve from an opportunity for individuals to market and educate people, to a situation where it is all recreation driven, and it has to be understood that that is where the money comes from.”
Grant Hirsche has been at the Calgary Stampede every July for the past 35 years. The southern Alberta cattle farmer turned meat shop owner has been on several committees with the Stampede and currently works with the Agri Food Comittee.
The Hirsches volunteer to run the meat showcase in the Nutrien Western Event Centre and have seen history made in Calgary.
“Back when they had a lot of beef cattle here, I was a member of the Supreme Beef Committee… nowadays they have a lot of these beef shows and they have a ‘supreme’ at the end where they bring in the champions of all the different breeds and compete for overall supreme champion, and they compete. Well that started here. “
But the beef livestock competition days are no longer at the Calgary Stampede — a point of contention for the cattle families in Alberta who historically used the Stampede as a place to showcase their stock, network, and sometimes even win some money.
The beef cattle events evolved from having thousands of heads of cattle come through stampede, to having different breeds showcased and judged, to today — where there are just a few handfuls of head on site for demonstration.
Sitting beside a refrigerator display showcasing different cuts of meat, Hirsche says he would like to see the pendulum swing back the other way,
“It was a good way to promote our product… our main business is to sell purebred breeding stock around the world,” he says. “We would use the Calgary Stampede as a marketing tool and when you would advertise that you won the Calgary Stampede…it would put a lot of credibility to it.”
Hirsche says as it evolved away from active competition he was happy to stay on for the education side of it. To tell the story of beef production and tied history to Alberta.
And besides, people are asking for it.
“Before, we used to have a pen of our cattle, and other purebred people would bring cattle here and we would have four, or five, or six pens… as I visit with people, everybody wants to still see cattle,” he says.
“I would like to see more cattle here because I think that is what the public wants.”
Whether Hirsche will be back for year 36, he says it is still up in the air.
And it is not just beef, other families echo Hirsche’s concerns about agriculture representation at the Stampede.
Michael Haeni is a dairy farmer with Lone Pine Jerseys and Creamery.
“Farming is becoming 1 per cent of the population and it is our week to showcase what we do,” he says. “We are starting to see more performance, we understand that too.”
“Entertainment is entertainment, but at the end of the day, though this is an agricultural event, it was started as an agricultural event and if it is one week a year I still think the agriculture portion of it is really necessary.”
But not all are dissatisfied.
Christina Quinn is with Alberta Pork, she says the chance to meet the public and answer questions directly is invaluable,
“I think the struggle for Calgary Stampede is they still have to run a business so, you know you always have to find a compromise there.” She calls working with Stampede a good experience for pork and swine this year.