When 21-year-old Sara Parkinson accepted the inaugural Ron Wooddisse Award for most improved member of a Wellington County 4-H beef club, an honour bestowed on her by the Wellington County Cattlemen’s Association, she was poised, polished and wearing impossibly high four-inch heels.
She looked about as far from being a farm girl as anyone could get, yet Parkinson is the real deal. She is the future of agriculture.
“It is a great honour to win this award, and this is a great place for the award to be coming from,” Parkinson said, adding the cattlemen’s association has been a great supporter of 4-H clubs in her area, including her group, the Erin 4-H Beef Club #2.
Reflecting a month later on the award, Parkinson explains, “The award was a surprise. Not only was I being recognized by the Wellington cattlemen’s association, but it was my own club that nominated me, that thought I was deserving and that is very humbling.”
If 4-H Canada is looking for a spokesperson, Parkinson is it.
A 4-H leader, junior leader and former president, she embodies the spirit of the youth organization in every way.
She served as Erin Fall Fair Ambassador in 2010-11, is current a director on the fair’s board, and she is secretary of the Ontario Junior Limousine Association, as well as a Charolais breeder entrepreneur working towards her university degree.
As impressive as it all sounds, perhaps more incredible is Parkinson’s humble comment that,
“With the quality of the kids in my 4-H club, I would be just as proud of any of them if they’d won this honour … I am not in 4-H for myself.”
Membership in 4-H, like farming, is in Parkinson’s genes. Her father, Wayne, was also part of the organization in his youth. Together with Gary Leitch, he runs the Erin #2 club.
Wayne and his wife Gloria raised Sara and her two younger brothers on their 150-acre farm in Erin, but Wayne didn’t introduce Sara to the world of cattle farming until she was 11, when they inherited a herd from her grandfather.
“I didn’t grow up around cows … But when they came, I started to name the cows, which drove my father crazy, because he wanted me to know that beef cattle are not pets,” she said laughing.
At Wayne’s side, she learned how to care for the cow-calf operation of the business, including details about feed, how to assist in calving season, administering medications and a healthy respect for the basic everyday needs of large livestock.
With Wayne’s encouragement, Parkinson began showing cattle in the 4-H livestock competition ring at age 13. Her first calf was an Angus breed, generously provided to her by a local farmer. From that point on, she was hooked.
“I love show day,” Parkinson said. “ I love to get ready.”
It’s not just the spectacle Parkinson enjoys, it is the adrenaline of the competition and the “great sense of community in the show world.”
“The people I’ve met in 4-H are some of my best friends,” she said.
In the world of livestock competition, confirmation class requires the competitors to present an animal that is structurally sound, so to speak, through the legs, hips, hooves and back, as well as proper weight, and even overall physical appearance in colour and grooming.
It’s serious business to master with an unpredictable and large animal that is always capable of not performing according to plan.
“Cows are all about repetition,” she explains. “Consistency is the key. To get a cow ready to show you have to be prepared to work with them daily or weekly, whatever you can spare.”
Sometimes even that isn’t good enough, like when a competition official insists members switch animal classes. Parkinson, who traditionally shows yearling breeding heifers, steers, bulls and cow-calf pairs, has been thrown into shows with dairy cows, horses, sheep, goats and pigs.
Professional showmanship means being quick on one’s feet. It’s a good thing she loves a challenge.
While the competition is serious, Parkinson is clear that the intense moments in the ring are the beginning and end of any rivalry. In that moment it is all about the individual.
“In the ring, it’s me against the world,” Parkinson said, adding, “When you get in the ring, it’s pure panic.”
From 4-H Parkinson has learned self-improvement is about bettering oneself to contribute to the community.
“It’s really not about winning,” she said. “I get just as much out of it by losing as I do winning. It’s all about learning.”
That is why Parkinson is dedicated to her practice. “Showmanship is what I do best,” she said. “Showmanship is all about you and you can improve throughout the year.”
It’s a positive outlook she has adopted from her father.
Every year, from April to Thanksgiving, 4-H clubs work towards their Achievement Day, the most important show of their season.
“It’s kind of like our final exam,” she said. “The day a year of lessons pays off.”
“I’ve gotten so much out of 4-H; even the littlest things, like ‘don’t procrastinate.’ You need to start ahead,” she said. “Or, you need to take responsibility if [for instance] a calf doesn’t behave in the show ring. It’s up to you to handle it.”
Independence is important, but team work is another important component of 4-H.
“If you have problems, there are people you can lean on to help,” she explained, citing examples of club members sharing advice on showmanship or helping new members learn skills.
“With our club we aren’t competitive. We don’t compete until the minute we step into the ring. When we leave the ring, it’s over.”
Leadership is an important aspect of 4-H, and while Parkinson strives for a future in that role, it is the example set by Wayne and Leitch that she feels sets the tone of their Erin #2 club.
“Dad and Gary really encourage us to show honestly, so we win honestly,” she explains. “It’s about winning or losing appropriately, being a good winner or a good loser, either way.”
That involves guidance and Wayne is a quiet supporter.
“My Dad comes to every show. He is always there and he watches the show from a different perspective,” she explains, saying his advice after the competition is one of positive but constructive criticism.
“He always lets me make my own mistakes, but he lets me learn … I rely heavily on him.”
To her credit, Parkinson has successfully won the Wellington County Champion of Champions award, several reserve champions at various regional fairs and the Grand Championship at the Caledon Fall Fair.
“My biggest achievement was helping my 11-year-old cousin, who had never shown [cattle] before and went on to win two titles,” she said, blushing with pride, as she related how emotional it was to watch a new 4-H member learn the ropes.
“I won’t be in 4-H much longer, but teaching her was probably my biggest achievement … everyone starts at the bottom and works their way up.”
Now it’s Parkinson’s turn to lead by example and she’s doing so as an entrepreneur. She is the owner of Red Ribbon Livestock, a Charolais production company.
“The Charolais breeders are great people,” she said. “They go above and beyond, and the Charolais people got to know me. They accepted me as a young woman who was serious about the business and respected me.”
The inspiration for the business came in 2008, when Wayne purchased a Charolais cow for his daughter.
“I wanted to own cows, and it’s a great way to earn money,” she said, adding with a laugh, “Besides, beef cows aren’t that bad for work.”
Two years later, Parkinson bought her first two animals of the French cattle breed with her own money and began the Red Ribbon Livestock company.
The first calf was born last year and she has already entered it into competition. Two more calves are on the way this spring.
Her goal is to expand the herd to 10 by the time she graduates from the University of Guelph’s history program, and then grow to 50 head of cattle after that, all for the sake of production.
At a time when most university students are thinking about parties and uncertain futures, Parkinson has a clear plan: to build a herd that focuses on good nutrition and genetics, for a beef farm of her own.
Of course, she still wants to show, but by then, she hopes to be the leader of her own 4-H club, to carry on the tradition that her father passed to her.
“People go to fairs and see the sheep and goats, but they don’t see that 4-H is about more than that,” she explained, including a commitment for clubs to work to better their community.
“4-H is so positive and it reaches so many groups. It encompasses so many interests and hobbies. It is such a positive experience.”
Best of all, Parkinson says 4-H is inclusive for anyone aged 8 to 21 and youths can join any group that interest them.
The overall goal isn’t ribbons or shows; it is about hands-on learning, community and leadership skills.
It’s about building a future and planting one’s roots. It’s figuring out who you are, and for Parkinson, 4-H chartered her course as a young woman in agriculture.
“You don’t have to be born in the country to be a farmer. You do it because it’s who you are,” Parkinson states.
“Other professions are things you do. But when you have a sick steer or calves being born and you have to wake up in the night to go to work, you get up and go, you cancel your plans, because farming comes first.”
