FARM 2025: South Huron Sheep Club marks triumph at Royal Winter Fair

BY SCOTT STEPHENSON

On a cold day in early December, The Citizen followed a hot tip to the Gross family farm in Auburn. The word on the street was that Holly Gross and her Southdown lamb, Marlee, had just won Grand Champion Lamb in the Junior Sheep Show at Toronto’s Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. That tip turned out to be correct and, after a long trip down a snow-obscured laneway, The Citizen was rewarded with an exclusive interview with the reclusive young champion. 

 

Although Holly, and her sister, Loralei, turned out to be notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to sharing any of their sheep-showing secrets, they couldn’t say enough nice things about the 4-H Club that got them where they are today - specifically, the South Huron Sheep Club (SHSC). 

 

The Citizen may have gotten the scoop on Holly and Marlee, but it was clear that there was still much more to this story. There are a number of successful livestock clubs in South Huron’s 4-H program - the swine and beef clubs are both pretty popular right now. But, at the moment, there’s no hotter ticket in all of 4-H than the SHSC. Last year, when this team of 11 young ladies rolled up at the Royal Winter Fair (RWF) to represent Huron County, more than a few people took note of their unified front. Their sheep travelled in one trailer, penned together, and made one heck of a good showing.  

 

So, to hear the whole story of the SHSC, The Citizen headed back to the Gross family farm on a slightly less frigid but still very snowy day at the beginning of March. This time around, there were also a couple of Huron County 4-H’s notable figures seated at the kitchen table - SHSC alumni Evy Verschaeve and Rachel Gras.  

 

Verschaeve, a dairy farmer from Blyth, joined 4-H when she was nine years old, and is something of a legend in the Huron County sheep-showing scene - she’s been there since before it was cool. “It used to just be me and like, my mom,” she explained. “I was that weird kid that would tell people ‘I’m showing sheep!’ and nobody cared.” Three years ago, only two girls went to the RWF, then there were eight in 2023, and, in 2024, the team totalled 11. “It’s neat to see it taking off, and for it to finally culminate in my last year, with someone from our club actually winning, it was like, ‘finally! we got something accomplished for the county,’” she declared.

 

When she graduated from the 4-H program recently, Verschaeve received a plaque for completing over 25 clubs. “I did sheep the whole way through,” she told The Citizen. “And then I’ve done dairy, beef, swine, goat. I did a breadventure, and some sort of plant one, and I did square-dancing with Rachel. Those are the ones that stand out.”

 

Rachel, of course, is 2023-2024 Huron County Queen of the Furrow Rachel Gras - she’s kind of a big deal when it comes to agricultural advocacy, and she freely admits that hearing about Holly’s historic win made her cry. “Tears were shed,” she told The Citizen. Gras joined 4-H eight years ago, when she was 12 years old, and she’s discovered that entering the RWF every year can lead to some unique networking opportunities. “You can get out there, and you can see the different people who have no idea what’s going on in agriculture, and you can kind of give a good face for it…  I think it’s also a good way to get your name out there - when you go to the Royal, there’s people who are going to be there with the best of the best of each breed and everything… I came home from the Royal with a ram, which I wasn’t expecting to do, but you get to make these connections. The people I got the ram from are in Ottawa - I never would have ever met him without the RWF,” she explained.

 

Of course, creating such super sheep showers like Holly and Loralei starts at home. Their mother, Mary Ellen, registered them both in pre-4-H. They’ve only been showing sheep for three years, but they’ve been showing dairy calves since they were three and four years old. “I grew up on a dairy farm, and so I showed calves,” Mary Ellen explained. “So I was like, ‘oh, this could be fun! Let’s go do it, kids!’ And so they started showing little calves, and then it’s grown into 4-H, and so they’re still competing with calves and now they’re showing sheep as well… it’s just a great way for youth to get involved in agriculture!”

 

Their father, Bryan, was also active in 4-H when he was growing up, but he didn’t show livestock. “I was in the Vet Club, the Small Engine Club, and the Farm Safety Club,” he recalled. He thinks that one of the most valuable things about the 4-H program is the way it gives young people the opportunity to experience different aspects of the various agricultural vocations available in the area. “You don’t know until you try a job if you’ll like it or not like it,” he pointed out. 

 

Verschaeve highly recommends joining 4-H. “It gave me a lot of confidence. I learned a lot of public speaking and made lots of connections and friends which I wouldn’t have had otherwise. Otherwise, I kind of stay on the farm and do my own thing - it’s a good reason to get out and meet people,” Verschaeve explained. “Just from being part of 4-H, now I’m part of the Huron County Holstein Club… 4-H people that kind of know me invite me into all these other kinds of groups, because they know that I know how stuff works, a little bit.”

 

When The Citizen first stopped by the Gross family farm in December, Holly was kind enough to offer an overview of how sheep showing works. Basically, it comes down to Showmanship and Conformation. Conformation refers to how a lamb is structurally built - does it conform to the standards of the breed? Does it look as though it’s set to have a successful future? 

 

Showmanship is all about how well both lamb and human handle the act of showing together. “You have to guide them with one hand,” Holly explained. “And your other hand is kind of just there in case.” Judges are looking to see if the handler is both highlighting the lamb’s best features and correcting its faults. Did both lamb and human do a good job going around the ring.
The Gross sisters both prefer the diminutive Southdown sheep, as they find the breed to be very docile, which makes them easier to train. They normally take possession of their lambs early in the summer, and spend the next few months getting them used to being handled and led around. Apparently, the little lambs can get pretty wild when they start the training process. Holly likes to spend a little extra time with her woolly ward every day. “They say to spend 10 minutes, but I want to work with them for at least 15 minutes of training a day… you always have to spend time with them, and be around them.”

 

Verschaeve does things a little bit differently. “They’re all breeding ewe people here,” she explained. But I show market lambs - they’re born in the spring, and they get sold at the Thanksgiving sale in Brussels.” She also always preferred to pick her sheep from her family’s flock. If she was still in the sheep-showing game, she would already be sizing up this year’s lambs in search of a contender. “I would usually be starting to see the start of the lambs, and kind of picking out which ones you think would be nice, to maybe have potential for show lambs.” Her family favours the meaty Charollais sheep over the short-legged Southdown. “We think they grow really well - they make a really nice market lamb, compared to the Southdown, which is more of a breeding ewe type breed… I also have my own little flock of North Country Cheviots. They don’t do much, but I love their ears, and they’re just hilarious. Which is not really good for making money or being productive, but you got to have fun with it, too.”

 

The Verschaeve family flock has grown considerably since she first started showing sheep. “At first, we just bought a couple of lambs and said ‘oh, I guess we’ll take that one - the friendliest one or whatever. And then you start to kind of figure out what the judge likes, and we've been improving our flock based off of that… Basically breeding for a better market sheep, looking for a fast-growing lamb that has a lot of length to it.”

 

While Gras has a deep appreciation for Verschaeve’s homegrown approach, she knows firsthand that there’s more than one way to select a sheep for showing. “We always buy-in our show lambs,” she explained. “If you’re buying in, there’s so many options: Do you want breeding ewes? Do you want market lambs? What breed do you want? Do you want to get one from a known breeder, or do you want to try and find something that someone doesn’t have?”

 

While it’s always fun to compete against their friends and neighbours, the SHSC knows that the RWF is the big one to show up for. “At the end of the day, when you compete in the same fairs, you’re going against the same 30 lambs, every single show,” Gras explained. “It’s cool to actually see how you compete against 150 lambs instead.” 

 

It’s easy to see why sheep-showing is gaining popularity amongst the youth of Huron-Bruce - sheep are a great starter animal for newcomers to the craft. “They’re more manageable - you’re not going to get trampled,” Gras pointed out.

 

One of the reasons Verschaeve likes showing sheep best is the laid-back vibe. “With a sheep, you pick one out and you give it a name - because it’s just a sheep,” she explained. “But with cows, there’s so much more money in the industry, it’s a lot more of an advanced type of thing. When they’re born, they’re registered, so that you can identify them, so they would have all been named and everything.”

 

Gras advises not being overly cocky when choosing the name for a show sheep. “I named one of mine Rockstar,” she explained. “and I said, ‘this is my year. I’ve got a good name, I’m going in with good energy.’ And she was the worst shower of my whole entire life.” Rockstar didn’t even make it to the RWF - Gras had to swap sheep mid-way through the showing season. Don’t worry - everything worked out for Rockstar in the end. “She’s a happy, healthy mom,” Gras promised.

 

Gras also pointed out that being a senior member of 4-H comes with responsibilities beyond the animals in their care - it’s also up to them to lead by example and assist the club’s younger members with their projects. “We have such a big club, and our leaders can only do so much. When there’s 40 or 30 little kids, and only two leaders, I think just having the older 4-H members gives an extra helping hand.”

 

Verschaeve concurred with her compatriot. “There’s so many people in the club, it’s kind of hard to keep track of everyone,” she said. “It’s fun to see the little kids that are trying their hardest - the ones that are going to stay at it for the long run. You just have to give them any type of motivation that you can. You kind of think back at the ways that people helped me when I was just starting out - the people that kind of stood back and said ‘oh, this is what you did.’ Because I was the first one from my family to start with sheep 4-H too. Just giving little tips for the younger people, to motivate them to keep coming back…. We started from the bottom, too. It can be kind of discouraging when you go to a show, and you always get dead last.”

 

This year, when the SHSC heads to the RWF, they’ll be showing up to the competition a sheep shy, as Holly is barred from competition this year, in order to give another young person the chance to win. Holly is currently assessing what her next move in the world of livestock-showing will be. “Last year, somebody told me you’re supposed to save winning until you’re in your last year of 4-H,” she told The Citizen, “because I had this all planned, right?”