Alberta beef takes centre stage at Farmfair International

Animals were the star of the show this weekend, with Alberta beef cattle getting pampered and paraded at one of Canada's top agricultural shows.

Farmfair International is Alberta's largest beef cattle show, and it kicked off Wednesday at the Edmonton Expo Centre.

This year's event is the largest since 2017, with more than 1,400 cattle competing over the four-day agricultural fair and more than $310,000 in prize money up for grabs.

“We’re very excited with the growth of Farmfair International this year,” said director of Farmfair International, Leah Jones. “We’re so proud to present one of the top three premier agriculture events in Canada."

The fair, in part, aims to help connect farmers with buyers looking for Alberta beef cattle genetics. But, while cattle are the stars of the show, the weekend also included a rabbit show, a honey competition and a barbecue pitmaster sampling and demonstration.

Friday the event wrapped up with a youth career fair, where around 100 kids had the chance to connect with 15 post-secondaries and employers who are recruiting young people into different sectors of the agriculture industry.

Patty Milligan, Explore Edmonton's agriculture education specialist, said the career fair is a chance to show kids that not all agriculture jobs are farming or ranching.

"We have many kids who have wide interests, but they don't necessarily know what the scope of jobs are," Milligan said. "And I think what we get to do today, aside from making the connections between employers and kids, is actually show them the wide array."

"We're trying to create awareness about the breadth and depth and variety of jobs that are in the agriculture industry."

One of the young people at the event said she is already set on being a vet, but was happy to see what other options were on offer.

"Not all of it's agriculture, like there was some iron trades and horseracing and stuff, some cool stuff in there," said Cassidy Fenske. "I think it's great. Like even the people I came with are not quite sure what they want to do, so to see all the different trades, that'll give them a good idea."