Thursday, October 14, 2010

Show Calf

Every year about this time our daughter, Alex, gets her show calf for our county fair, which is in July.  Alex feeds the calf, gives him a bath, brushes him, and breaks him to lead.  Now she does get some help with the "breaking to lead" part as these calves can be fairly cantankerous at first.  Amazing how much more well behaved they are when my husband, the CEO of Down On The Farm, has the halter and lead rope in his hands.  He shows them who is BOSS.

This is what Alex will be showing next summer at the Miller County Fair:


This calf has no name yet.  Alex puts a lot of thought into the names of her steers.  Last year Alex named her steer "Ticket."   No word yet on what this year's steer will answer to.

The county fair is kind of a "beauty pageant" for steers.  You want the steer to be in good shape so this animal is well fed.  You want him to be very gentle in the ring.  The steers pose to show off their "shape."  These animals are styled and trimmed and blow dried and hair sprayed.  Really, it's quite a process.

Living Down On The Farm is different - some kids take out the trash - our daughter raises a show calf.  An excellent opportunity to teach responsibility and maturity, and have some fun too.

11 comments:

  1. Pretty calf! Our kids use to show calves at the Cole county fair, however they were bought from the Lawson farm at Tuscumbia. Bill Lawson (RIP) and his son Phil have beautiful herds.

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  2. I love this! When I was in 8th grade I raised a steer for the 4-H fair. Got a blue ribbon. :) Now that I'm a total city girl, my friends are always amazed that I did that.

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  3. Love the face! Looking forward to hearing what your daughter names him. I would much rather have raised a show calf than take out the trash! I enjoyed reading about Ticket.

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  4. At our fair to show a market animal (be it sheep, cows, pigs, chickens/turkeys, rabbits, whatever) you have to show a female too.

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  5. That's a handsome fella! Our son never did the show calf thing in 4-H. Now, I wonder why we didn't try that? He did horsemanship and a few other things instead. You're right - great life lessons learned! -Tammy

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  6. A lot of kids do that here too, even if they don't live on a farm. Someone is always willing to let them use a farm for fun!!My kids never did it, but my friend let my daughter work and show her Clydesdales one year during the fair...she loved it!!!
    Can't wait to hear what the name is!

    Cute Cow!!

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  7. That's great! What beautiful markings on his face! Good for her!

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  8. What striking markings on that calf - quite delightful! The country lifestyle sounds very wholesome to me - especially for kids.

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  9. Very cute calf. Yes....you have to show them whose boss as they really can give you a run for your money! :)

    Thanks so much for stopping by my blog a few posts back. I am slow to getting out to visit but I think I am back on track now! :) Oh and thanks for comment too...gotta love comments right? Hope you will come back soon. Have a great weekend. :)

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  10. Very cute! I hope she does really well next summer! Great pick.

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  11. What breed is it...looks good to me. Mary Jahn

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