Grand champion to become harvest dinner

Those attending this year’s Harvest Dinner next month will be eating the very best Rainy River District has to offer.
At the ever-popular 4-H market steer auction at the fall fair in Emo on Saturday afternoon, four bidders wanted the grand champion. In the end, however, Rainy River Future Development Corp. chairman Russ Fortier walked away with the prized animal.
“We are planning to use most of it for the harvest dinner,” noted Fortier. “The rest of the meat will either be raffled off at the Harvest Dinner or given to charities for their fall suppers.”
The annual harvest dinner, which features a menu of all local foods, is set for Sept. 27 at the Devlin Hall. Kerry Hyatt, who raised the grand champion, plans to be there.
“I’m excited because I’ve never tasted my own finished beef before,” said Hyatt, 21, who has been raising 4-H market steers for the past 12 years.
“I didn’t expect him to get grand champion, but my steer was very good. He sets up well and was easy to show,” added Hyatt, who also had the grand champion last year.
“This is my last year and it’s a good way to go out,” she enthused.
Hyatt also was pleased with the $2.41/pound she received for her 1,260-pound animal. Last year she received slightly less at $2.345/pound.
Hyatt grew up in Devlin and graduated this past spring with an agri-business diploma from Assiniboine community college in Brandon, Man. She currently is employed on the Ross Anderson farm north of Emo, helping look after a herd of 90 cow/calf pairs and 200 yearlings.
Fortier speculated the stiff competition he faced to get the grand champion may have set the tone for the prices on Saturday. Auction organizer and announcer Kim Jo Bliss agreed.
“I was pleasantly surprised with how the sale went because things are tough,” she admitted. “It was one of our better auctions. There wasn’t a big spread in prices. The range was from $2.18 to $2.45 per pound.
“We appreciate every buyer out there,” she added.
Bliss noted with the dramatic rise in grain prices, the cost of raising an animal has climbed substantially since last year.
After the sale, all 26 market steers were shipped to the abattoir in Thunder Bay.
“If the abattoir was here, we could have seen more of the process,” said Hyatt, who, while not squeamish about eating an animal she has raised, did not think she would want to be around when it was slaughtered.
It is up to the buyers to decide where their carcasses are processed, and almost all of them are being taken to Sunrise Meat and Sausage in Barwick to be aged, cut, and wrapped.
Hyatt expects her animal will grade ‘AA’ or ‘AAA.’
Fortier said the RRFDC strongly supports local foods and building an abattoir, and recognizes they are good for the district. He also views the purchase as an opportunity to show support for the 4-H program.
“If we are going to be encouraging people to eat local food, what better way to do it than with the very best—the grand champion!” Fortier concluded.
“It was a great weekend,” Bliss said in summing up the 108th edition of the fall fair.
Meanwhile, district ag co-ordinator Jeannette Cawston said details about the harvest dinner will be coming out soon.
The event is a co-operative effort of the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce, Clover Valley Farmers’ Market, and the RRFDC’s ag initiative program.