Harvie Ranching cleans up at National Western Stock Show

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If Denver’s National Western Stock Show is the Super Bowl of cattle shows, then Harvie Ranching at Olds, Alta is coming home with a Super Bowl ring.

As Jill Harvie discusses in the interview below, the ranch’s Hereford bulls took the National Champion Carload honours at the show held this week, after coming in as runners up last year.

The Carload class is a group of eight bulls from one breeding compared head to head to a “carload” of others. To win the class is to have really made it as a breeder, says Harvie.

But why is it called a carload class? Well, it all goes back to in the early days of the stock show, when bulls literally were brought in by railcar.

Harvie says that winning the class with eight bulls requires putting together a group of consistent quality animals — type, kind, size, and colour all matter.  These bulls represent your entire breeding program, she says, and its key that the “carload” have consistent EPDs, functionality, and breeding soundness traits, too.

The show also featured some great Canadian cattle in other breed categories, she adds.

The winning carload (Harvie Ranching, 2025)

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