Beyond the chickens...show world

So I mentioned in my last post we were starting a new adventure with a show cow.  An adventure it most definitely is...

We started this adventure in May.  My boss (also my husbands boss at a different company) also owns a farm...Bear Creek Farm (busy man).  He raises registered Angus and Polled Hereferd cows.  He offered to sponsor Lauren and her friend Stephanie (whose Dad works at the Farm) with a couple of his calves he thought would make good show cows.  I will tell you more on this later but you can not just pick a calf and make it a show cow...there are MANY factors to look at when deciding if a calf is "Show" quality.  So Lauren and Stephanie are basically borrowing and caring for the cows for the year.
Lauren is working with the Polled Hereford this year and Stephanie the Angus (they have different ones so they don't compete against each other at shows).  Ready for some animal knowledge...Polled Hereford - It is a hornless breed which is a natural genetic mutation that was selected in a different breed in the late 1880's.  An Iowa rancher capitalized on the idea of breeding Polled Herefords and started the registry with 11 naturally polled herefords (otherwise they were born with the gene that grew horns and they could physically remove them later).  They originate from England (which you need to know for showing) and they are known for deep forequarters, depth and muscling, docile temperament, fast-growing calves, and good quality of beef.  

Back to the adventure...Here are some pictures of the first day the girls worked with the calves.  Now remember, these calves were born in a field, nursed from their moms and were weened off their Mama's like regular calves...these were not bottle babies that had always been around people.  These were wild calves when we started this.  We also had NO idea what we were jumping into...How hard can it be to walk a cow around a ring...we did know there was a little more to it than that but REALLY...some of this stuff just seams crazy...(you'll see).

We put the calves in the shoot so the girls could get close and start brushing.  Wild animals aren't to fond of being brushed at first...they begin to realize it's kind of nice:)

Meet Scarlet...

 Brushing and making friends

 The first attempt at walking her...she did not want to move

So all of this started while our fences were being worked on (I mentioned all that work in the catch up post) so we could not keep her at our house in the beginning.  We went to my bosses farm everyday and worked with the calf and brushed her and walked her.  As the days went on, Lauren and Scarlett became more comfortable with each other and Lauren learned more how to control her.  She also began to learn the basics of what she would need to do in a show ring and started working on the set up and all of that.

Dad watching on as Lauren learned how to make Scarlet do what she wanted her to do.

 Austin loves helping...Scarlet was so small when we first started:)

 Working on holding Scarlett's head up...not easy with a head that big

She has to get tied up to make her strengthen her neck muscles to hold up her head.  Cows don't naturally hold their heads up all the time.  You can see this is her "you're not my friend right now" face:)

 
  Scarlet set up like she would be for a show...

A little cattle judging knowledge so you know what and why the judges are looking for on show day...for beef criteria (which she would fall under) they are looking at the head and neck.  This should be broad and sit evenly on the shoulders and the base must be in line with the spine. The head size must be in proportion with the rest of the body.  The Topline (or the back of the cow) should be straight.  It will have a slight bend but mostly straight (this is why we do many things to grow hair...I will tell you more later).  The legs the judge will be looking at mainly the structure and for some muscle.  As the judge looks at the main body and ribs, they want to see as much rib extension as possible (large chest area).  They want to see the amount of muscle on the cow consistent throughout the animal from the head to the rear (Rump).  They don't want to see heavy muscles in the front half and not in the rump or visa versa.  They also judge the rump.  They will stand directly behind the cow and they are looking for a wide rump...they should see only the rump and none of the body.  They will also see if the legs are straight or point inwards or outwards.  There should be A Lot of muscle on the rump.  The judges will check out the cows hooves and their pasterns (the bones that run from the top of the hoof to the fetlock (kind of an ankle).  They will also watch the cow walk.  This is also checking their legs and their step.  All of this factors together and basically tells what kind of price it could sell for and how good a beef cow it could be (just in a show ring).  So as you can see...much more to show cows than just walking them around...also why you can't just grab any cow to show.  They have to have the right lines and structure to start with to build on.

 So once our fence got done at the house and we were ready to bring Scarlett home...Oh wait, remember the thing I said up there about some of the silly things...right...no sunlight.  WHAT??!!??  No, they can not be in a field in the sun.  If they are in the sun, they get hot and if they get hot they will lose their hair.  Yes, I said hair...No really, the hair is VERY important.  I know you thought we were talking about animals right...WRONG...we are talking about show cows here.  They fall under a completely different category as we have learned.  Oh, and our field we fenced for her is ALL sun...so, Scarlet needs a pen.  We got this one below from Mike's work (actually a horse stall but perfect for what we need).  So we got it home and with the help of the neighbor's tractor Mike and I did our first barn raising (well pen but we can think big:) ).

The wall's are up:)  Notice the big tree for shade.

 Well, the wall's are supposed to be wood slats that butt up against each other but we decided it would be entirely too hot to close her in.  So we got cattle panels and cut them to fit.  There is always a breeze at our house and we figured it would defiantly help keep her cool.

It kept the dogs in so should work for a cow...

 Next was the roof...Lauren helped fill holes...(and it's RED TIN...my favorite)

 So, we have a field for her (to put her out at night when there is no sun) and now we have a pen for her.  So it is finally the day for Scarlet to come home!!!

Arriving in the trailer

 Welcome home Scarlet!!

Her pink feed bucket...is anyone surprised it is pink?

Back to the fun of show cattle.  It is A LOT of work.  As all the factors above are judged there are different things to work on to better the look of the cow.  As I said, the hair. I will try to get a good picture soon of one of these cows that is a really hairy breed (you talk about fluffy).  So you want the hair long so that it make the illusion they are bigger in spots and straighter lines in spots...so it is a challenge to get cow hair to grow just right.  Cold water and cold air promote hair growth.  So everyday the cow is to be wet down with cold water, again, no sun and cold air.  Some people that do show cattle actually have a cooler room they put their cow in.  You read that right...it is an air conditioned room the cow lives in so it will grow hair.  We DO NOT have a cooler room, just no sun and a fan:)

 Here is Lauren wetting down the cow (only water...soap is once a week or they will get dry skin)  are you beginning to notice they are a little high maintenance...

 Work , work, work...Scarlet is getting bigger...

Lauren is blow drying the cow. 

Oh, did I forget to mention that you blow dry the cow?  Why yes, you have to blow dry the cow after she is wet down.   Along with the cold water, you have to brush a lot to stimulate the hair growth and blow dry them so the hair grows the direction you want it to.  And if your cow happens to have kinky hair you must blow dry it so the hair lays straight (luckily we do not have that problem).

Let me interrupt our post here for a moment...in the process of all this cow "fun" our life has gone on otherwise...in the mean time...the kids have started school...Lauren is in 7th grade this year and Austin is in 1st...WHERE DID THE TIME GO...as always, Austin is full of energy and always wanting to help...good for Mom (as you will soon see) Lauren keeps us busy and has her hands full.  Along with a show cow she has to...let's just say pamper...she is in band..plays the flute, and plays volleyball.  So a cow she has to feed and walk twice a day, bathe and brush. a flute she has to practice 100 minutes a week (for a grade) and volleyball...practice at 6:30am every morning and a game on Monday nights (she has to be there for all 4 team games played) and homework.  How does a girl have enough time to do all of this?  Luckily we all pitch in to help.  

A typical day around our house...So mornings start around 5:30am...get up get dressed ready for school/work...take Lauren to practice...come back home, Austin and I go out and feed the cow, take her to her pen make sure she has water and hay then feed and water all the chickens and turkeys.  Go to work/school...kids go home in the afternoon and do homework, Mike and I get home from work and dinner gets made (Lauren practices flute)...eat, go outside to wash, brush, dry, walk and feed the cow.  Put her up for the night and do chicken/turkey duty...and when Lauren has conflicting schedules...we work it out:)  Sometimes it is crazy but mostly fun!  Just wanted you to know life isn't all cow...but quite a bit...

Back to our regularly scheduled post...So, after months of the girls hard work it was time to go to our first show...it was a Alumni FFA show and thought it would be a good one for the girls to work out their nerves and do a lot more learning...So we meet at 5am and loaded the cows and were off to our first ever show...

The cows when we first got to the show...

 And a bath...you must be pretty for show day...

 The girls blow drying their cows.

This was a cow across the isle from us (Lauren competed against these two...that's Lauren's cow closest) As you can see it is VERY hard work to be a cow on show day...

In the show ring...Stephanie showing...

Lauren getting her cow's feet right...

 Lauren is in the middle...she was up against some big cows...

Sorry, that's about all the pictures I got of the first show...think my dad got more but I haven't seen them yet;)  The girl's learned a lot from their first show as did we all.  We needed to beef our cow up and grow more hair.  Lauren had some more handling to work on and she has been daily working on them.  Overall the girls did great for their first show.  They both got first place in their class and Stephanie's cow won breed champion in one of the rings.

 The girls with their ribbons

As of now, we are about two weeks out from our big county show the girls will be in and we wanted to make sure they had a little more practice.  This weekend we are going to a show in Paris Texas.  Now all the hard work we have done leading up to this there has still been more to do.  Remember all the hair growing...well on Tuesday we had to go get her hair trimmed to even everything out.  Yes, grow the hair to cut the hair.  We get the news that Tuesday is trimming day...be at the school by 6:30 am to wet her and dry her so she is ready by 8am to clip.  This means she has to be clean and dry (Soap bath) Monday night (Soap twice to get all the dirt out or it will tear up the clippers) and she must be fully blow dried to cut down on any dirt that might stick to the wet hair, and she needs to be wet down Tuesday morning to wash of any dust she might have picked up over night and fully dry to be clipped.  If you recall in my interruption earlier...Lauren has volleyball games Monday night and practice in the mornings...Yay for parents and little brother.  So after we watched Lauren play Monday night (her team won) Mike & Austin and I went home and washed and dried the cow.  Next morning...everyone up early, load up the cow and off we go, Lauren to practice us to the ag barn...

To the ag barn for hair cuts....

 

 Getting her hair cut...

  

Can you tell by the look she is not excited...

With much time left in the show season we all look forward to more adventures with the cow.  I will update everyone on this weekends show and how it goes.

It has been fun to watch Lauren learn about the handling of the cow and see her step up to the responsibility of caring for her.  Learning about how to feed and what portions to feed and why to feed and all kinds of extra knowledge about cows is a big reason for Lauren doing FFA.  As her parents, we hope she is learning there is more to "show day" and cows then being in the ring and winning.  The daily care, responsibility and eventually reproduction of livestock is all a part of this adventure and we can't wait to learn more. It has also been fun to see the personality of the cow...she has her days that she just does not want to walk or do anything and she has her days where she gets into everything...

Here is one of her days she reminded me of a little kid letting us know without words she was NOT happy with us...She was mad we brought her in one morning and she dumped her water bucket over...she then rolled it all around her pen and as you can see rolled it through the mud and rubbed her face in it.  Defiantly a bath day after that...

 We are excited to continue showing and hopefully Austin will have an animal in the next couple years (he is too young right now).  It is a lot of work but we enjoy the family time we get to spend outside making memories with our first show cow and all the other animals and activities around the farm.
Gotta get stuff ready for the show this weekend...Good Luck to the girls and their cows:)