From July 27 to 30, seven members of the Shawville 4H Club went to Ayers Cliff, Que., about five hours from Shawville.
It was the 42nd Provincial Rally hosted by the Hatley 4H Club and the theme was Canada 150.
Other clubs included Howick, Ormstown, Sawyerville, Lachute, Richmond, Brome and one club from Rimbey, Alberta.
Amy Sheppard took Lifeskills. Willis Egan, Annabelle Lamontagne, Alex Mayhew and Rebecca Nugent had Holstein heifers. Ryan Lang and Tyler Tubman had beef heifers. Nugent also participated with Lifeskills and Mayhew had a chicken too.

On Thursday we arrived with our animals and set up the barn display. Later, we had the opening ceremonies and the Farmer’s Olympics.
On Friday morning we washed our calves and Sheppard and Nugent participating with Lifeskills made totem poles out of recycled materials.
In their age category Sheppard finished 10th and Nugent was 12th.
In the afternoon was the judging competition. We judged turkeys, tomatoes, beef heifers, dairy cows, maple syrup, pickled beets, had to identify tree leaves and the mystery class was identifying provincial flags.
In the evening we had the costume class and we placed eighth out of nine.
Up next was the beef and dairy clipping competition. Dairy included Egan, Mayhew and Nugent, and the beef team was Lamontagne, Lang and Tubman. The beef team placed fifth out of six and the dairy team was sixth out of seven teams.
On Saturday, the showday was really busy. In conformation for poultry, Mayhew was Honourable Mention.
In showmanship there was a three-way tie for first place for the Intermediate age category (12-15), Mayhew was one. The judge had to pick an overall Grand, Reserve and Honourable Mention showman, and Mayhew finished as Honourable Mention.
Lang placed first with his Angus heifer, Tubman placed third with his Simmental heifer.
In beef showmanship Lang was second in his intermediate heat and finished fifth overall in the intermediate group.
Tubman won the senior beef showmanship and went on to be named Grand Champion Beef Showman for the 2017 Rally!
In the Holstein ring, Nugent placed fifth with her junior calf. Egan placed sixth for intermediate heifer and Mayhew 13th.
In the Senior Calf class, Lamontange finished fifth.
For dairy showmanship, Egan just missed the intermediate finals with sixth, Mayhew was ninth and Lamontagne was eleventh, with all three being in heat one.
Nugent came eleventh out of her intermediate heat. The showday ended with the Overall Champion Showperson competition with the top two showman for each breed having to show all the animals.
The results were kept secret until later that evening.
Saturday night was the closing banquet. A delicious mechoui, a traditional roast of pork, chicken and beef slow cooked all day, was served.
After dinner the results of the weekend were announced.
Tubman placed ninth in the overall showmanship, ninth for the senior judging competition and tenth overall. He placed fifth in Senior Aggregate and ninth overall aggregate.
Mayhew placed ninth aggregate for the Intermediate age category.
In the barn display, Shawville placed seventh, and our sample selection of maple syrup, we placed third. The top five aggregates for our club were Tubman, Mayhew, Nugent, Egan and Sheppard.
The evening ended with a dirt dance on the race track of the Fairgrounds to a live band. Everyone had a great time.
Sunday was time to clean up and go home after a long and busy weekend.
Tubman and Lang did a great job of taking down the display before everyone else arrived at the barn.
Thank you so much to Amy Sheppard for taking care of the animals, Jennifer Davies, chaperone, Sophie Morin and Nancy Pirie for trucking equipment. Special thanks to Sandy Hamilton for transporting the animals, to Rita Sheppard for her work on the costume class and barn display and to all the parents who helped out as well.