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Starting with showcattle

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OldDog/NewTricks

Well-known member
Joined
May 24, 2005
Messages
3,443
Location
The Dam End of Silicon Valley
FYI
A great site for beginning Cattle Showpersons

http://www.nalf.org/programs/juniors.html

Go down to:

NALJA Library
*Create a Winner
http://www.nalf.org/programs/nalja/createwinnerfinal2003.pdf

*Feed a Winner
http://www.nalf.org/programs/nalja/feedwinnerfinalJune2003.pdf
 
I just have to vent a little bit on my opinion of showing. First I will say it has to be the number one way to get youth involved in the industry. I started out joining 4-H with a pair of working steers then transitioned to showing beef and dairy until I was too old. I learned a ton and it motivated me to get my degree in Animal Science.
A lot changed when I was in college I was exposed to the commercial side of the industry. There are around 300 dairy farms left in my state. What is left is either "commercial" or "registered". Not much in between. The beef cattle population is increasing, replacing the dairy cattle.
I have always thought of showing as a way to take the best of your herd and show what your genetics program is doing. One big problem, the animals are pampered and fed a diet that the commercial farm is not going to produce. The best of these animals are going to be purchased by the bull studs for breeding. Now these EPD's are from a total different system. In my opinion, kids don't learn about profitability when raising an animal to get the "edge" in the show ring. Fortunately there are "commercial" producers selling genetics.
I wish they would give awards, awards promoted as being worth more, to kids who have the least cost of gain of those animals that placed in the show ring. It would also be nice to see animals in the ring that were trained, but kept with the herd on a "reality" diet.
One big problem with these crazy ideas, enforcement. There are all kinds of unethical things done to animals to get the edge, good luck enforcing something like this.
 
Ben H,
Don't dispair......there are alot of kids out there that are in 4H and FFA that are involved in the Commercial Pen of 3 Heifer raising program. They hafta feed them and breed them. At show time they must be wellfed, but not overly fat like most show cattle look. They are to be what a commercial cattleman would want to buy and put out in his herd. "Real world cattle"
They hafta do a record book that puts it all out there for the world to see what they fed, how much they fed, what kinda daily gains they got, and how much it cost them to do it per head over a 6 mo period of time. Their record book counts as 30% of their total score. Then they have an interview with 2 judges, and they will be asked all aspects of things that went into raising them, from vaccines to feed, to what breed the cattle are and why that breed was chosen. It's a great program.
Lil Lilly is on her third set of heifers this year.
 
V¬ posted this - - she needs to log me out and log in under her name!

I agree - FFA and 4H in my clubs paid up-wards of $1500 for feeder steers - I was taught to Judge Cattle and bought my Feeders at the Auction Yard - I was allowed to sort out calfs and for that I paid $00.01 per lb over what the lot brought.

I was taught "Feeds and Feeding" - at Fair Time I had less in two steers than most others had in One and in most cases BEAT THEM in the show ring.

I was taught "The Bottom Line Is Where It's At" with my Sheep, Goats, Cattle, Horse, Hay and Vickey's CATCHPEN Gasette Projects

I have sold or quit all my Projects BUT THEY HAVE PAID FOR MY COLLEGE EDUCATION - - I still own Vickey's CATCH PEN Gazette but it HAS and WILL TURN A PROFIT

See: 500+ photos

http://imageevent.com/v_key/
 
Jersey Lilly, do you have a set of rules for this project you're talking about, I'm not aware of anyone doing it in my state, but then again I haven't done any showing since 1999. Wow, has it really been that long.
 
Even with a pen cattle deal, the people participating have to be honest and that doesn't always happen either (ie in my county).

Thanks for the link, I'm going to put it on cattletoday, there are a lot of jrs. that need some help there.
 
Ben H....this is a link to the rule book, it's a pdf file. The pen of 3 commercial heifer rules are on page 55. so just scroll down until you find it. It won't let me copy and paste or I would have.

http://www.grimescountyfair.com/2007/Fair%20Rule%20Book2007.pdf
 
Glad to see the pdf for the pen class. I work with 4-H in our county and my kids show quite a bit. Hopefully I have taught them that winning isn't everything and that their education comes from the work they put into it. People ask me why we do it, being on the road so much and I tell them that I can't put a price on the friendships and experiences that I have given my kids. We spend vacations at our state fair with several others that we've gotten to know over the last 4 years and couldn't ask for better people to spend time with. Yes there some that are questionable and we see a lot of things happening that shouldn't , but my kids feel that if they have to do those things to win it isn't worth winning. My son has had very good luck the past 2 years but his time is up with the calves that we saw weighed in Jan.
 
Thanks for the link, I'm going to bring that idea up at a Maine Beef Producers Association, maybe we can implement it at our Maine New England Livestock Expo in the future.

here is a link to a program that you can used to edit PDF files, such as removing or adding a page. Also creating them. It's free if you don't mind viewing their add when you use it.
http://www.pdf995.com/
 

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