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80/80 cattle penning and sorting event a success even with reduced participation

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Rounding up the cattle – Riders from all over western Canada competed all day Saturday to separate a select group of animals from the herd and usher them to the box in the allotted time of two minutes. Some who managed the feat took home handsome cheques.

Slightly over 300 teams of twos and threes converged in Stettler over the weekend for this summer’s last 80/80 cattle penning and sorting competition at the agriplex.

“There was a significant amount of other shows being booked and organized at the same time, I think that we have just had too many offerings,” said Jim Gilbert, who was the main organizer for last weekend’s event.

Gilbert was referring to the lower than expected participation at the competition, which attracted cowboys and cowgirls from all over western Canada.

“We were pleased at the end of the day that we were still significantly better than a lot of the other shows and competitions, however our numbers were down a little.”

Gilbert earlier had said their expectation was for a total of 400 teams taking part in the penning and sorting events over two days.

In the penning event on Saturday, 150 teams competed with a total of $29,000 being distributed to winning teams.

On Sunday, 160 teams took part in the sorting competition with a total of $20,000 being given away in prize money.

Gilbert said there were no teams coming from the eastern provinces or from the United States for last weekend’s competition.

He added that coming weekend’s penning and sorting event would gather a smaller number of contestants as that would be the finals of the Central Alberta Penning Association and that all teams would have to be members of the

association.