Two brother-sister teams showed their lambs to the champion and reserve champion honors at the 2022 Chelsea Community Fair on Wednesday night.
In the individual competition, it was Adalyn Gilbert, 11, and her older brother Braydon, 13, of Grass Lake who took the top honors. In the pairs competition, it was Bohdan Heller, 12, and his younger sister Annika, 10, of Chelsea who won the honors.
The Heller family also had a third individual class winner, Caleb Heller, 8, which meant that all three siblings made it to the “final drive” — the line-up of class winning lambs in the running for champion individual.
For the Hellers, fifth generation sheep farmers, these siblings make it the third generation of sheep showman to compete in Chelsea Community Fair and their motto for the fair was “Believe.”
And all of the lambs arrived at fair with names. In addition to Jerry, there was Alex and Spot, Fred and George.
The Heller siblings said that showing lambs is hard work but they spend a lot of time training their sheep, help with the lambing during the winter and spring have fun along the way.
When asked how they’d describe sheep they conferred and came up with “stubborn, smart and crazy.”
For the Gilbert siblings, it’s a group effort. “We work together,” Bohan said, “and we split the money we win at auction for college,” Adalyn added.
All four thought it was pretty fun that two pairs of siblings swept the sheep competition and all agreed that they spent a lot of time working with their animals prepping them for fair.
These young showmen are another example of the family traditions that make the livestock competitions at Chelsea Fair something that has continued for more than 80 years.
