2018 Nationals

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

We just completed our National show for the juniors, and had a great time. It was in Minnesota, and very cool compared to what we are used to. With the Simmental Nationals, juniors have to compete in at least 4 of the 5 educational contests in order to be able to show a heifer or bred and owned bull. Our kids like the educational contests the best, and just do the cattle show for fun. For them, it more about the friendships made than winning the show!
So, here are some pictures from our week:
This is my group. I am the junior advisor for the Missouri Junior Simmental Association. Shoal Creek sponsored the kids this year, so we took a picture of all the kids in their new shirts and wash pants:

We had 23 juniors from our state with 50 head of cattle head to Minnesota to compete. I am not sure about the total, but there were over 500 juniors competing there.
The 5 educational contests include the Cattlemen's Quiz, Genetic Evaluation Quiz, Sales Talk, Public Speaking, and Showmanship. One of my favorites, and the kids, is the Sales Talk. In Sales Talk, you take your animal out to two judges, and you have 7 minutes to sell your heifer. To prepare, juniors need to know what their heifer can offer a potential buyer and why their heifer would work well in the program, price her fairly, and close the deal. It is great at training juniors how to sell something, and teaching them a better understanding of the industry. This is my daughter attempting to sell her heifer to the judges:

And my son:

Here are the heifers they took up and competed with.
This is FSSR Upperclass Dotty. She is a September heifer, sired by Upperclass and out of Simmi Valley Zsa Zsa (Jeanne owned the cow originally). We purchased 3 embryos and had two bulls and this heifer.

This is FSSR Letti. She is sired by Cut Above (better known as Fat Butt) and out of a half blood Beef Maker x Pioneer cow. She is a November 3/4 blood. She is Bred and Owned for my son.

This was his other heifer, BRSF Elevated Princess. This is the heifer we bought from Ron in the fall. She is a September Elevate by an Uno Mass first calf heifer.

Our daughter always does well in the educational contests and came home with some great awards for her effort.

Overall, it was a good week. It was painful to come back home to this miserable weather; no rain and stupid high heats! Now comes the panic of finding hay for the cattle, since the grass is fried up and has not grown in more than 30 days! A big shout out goes to Ron (Bright Raven) for watching over our place while we were gone for 9 days. He covers in for the last AI stuff going on, and moves my cows as needed to the next fried pasture... lol :lol2:

 

[holm25]

I was so hoping to make it there to see some cattle but never had time. We have a pretty nice arena and barn here in MN... Spend a lot of time there.. Your cattle look great!

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Congratulations to all the kids.
It is a fun/work packed event. So many super great kids.
I do hate to see all the "fitters" that show up instead of the kids doing the work, but they are allowed to. That is why the event/competitions are most important to me, also.
Thanks for promoting my pedigree!!!

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Holm, it would have been great to meet you! That is how I met Bright Raven for the first time, when our national show was in KY.
Jeanne, we just love this heifer! She was a bit hard to break at first, but once we earned her trust she became your best friend! For instance, OF COURSE, she came into heat on showmanship day! She tried riding my daughter when we brought them in from tie outs, then while we were waiting for her showmanship heat that darned heifer tried to ride me TWICE! We all got a good laugh, since they were little hops and when she was not trying to ride someone she licked everyone to death! Showmanship was a fail because she kept turning her head to my daughter's hand and wrapping her tongue around the hand and lead!!!! She was not mean or nasty, she just wanted to love on everything!!!! :heart: :banana:

I agree about the fitters. Our kids fit their own, and you can tell! :lol: But they have fun doing it and know that they are trying their best. All three of our heifers were in the middle to bottom end of the classes; why? Because we were out horsed by at least 250 to 400 pounds! Our heifers were the smallest in the classes. Are we disappointed? No,because we know our girls will go back home, get bred, and become great cows no matter how they did in a class at a show. For us, it is more about the experience the kids get and the lifelong friendships that are made.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

When you get to the "big" shows, we are totally out-horsed also - especially with calves. We think our calves look great until they stand next to another one their age, and ours look like a calf, theirs looks like a young cow. No comparison.
And, as yearlings, I let my heifers get a little layer on for show ring, but do not and will not let them get fat. Mine have to make me a living by being turned out on pasture & raise me a calf. More and more heifers are ready for harvest.
Your kids did awesome. Proud for you.
I'm glad my "grand daughter" has worked out so well for you.

 

[jscunn]

FS,
You said you got out horsed, what are the ages of your heifers and what do they weigh approx.? They sure look big enough to me if I guessed their ages correctly

Edit : I see the months they were born now, but what do you think they weigh.. They sure look big enough.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I love the show ring - I am very competitive (it turns out).
But, when you walk your heifer calf in the ring - and she looks like a calf and her competition looks like a young cow, you know you are in trouble. They are out horsed. Whether it's creep feeding right away, or finding them after they were born for awhile - who knows. I know I find them when they are born, and I let Mom raise them.

 

[Bright Raven]

I love the show ring - I am very competitive (it turns out).
But, when you walk your heifer calf in the ring - and she looks like a calf and her competition looks like a young cow, you know you are in trouble. They are out horsed. Whether it's creep feeding right away, or finding them after they were born for awhile - who knows. I know I find them when they are born, and I let Mom raise them.

Jeanne: I think some of those heifers that look like 2 year old cows are cheating on their ages.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I love the show ring - I am very competitive (it turns out).
But, when you walk your heifer calf in the ring - and she looks like a calf and her competition looks like a young cow, you know you are in trouble. They are out horsed. Whether it's creep feeding right away, or finding them after they were born for awhile - who knows. I know I find them when they are born, and I let Mom raise them.

Jeanne: I think some of those heifers that look like 2 year old cows are cheating on their ages.

LOL - ya think????

 

[Ky hills]

I love the show ring - I am very competitive (it turns out).
But, when you walk your heifer calf in the ring - and she looks like a calf and her competition looks like a young cow, you know you are in trouble. They are out horsed. Whether it's creep feeding right away, or finding them after they were born for awhile - who knows. I know I find them when they are born, and I let Mom raise them.

Jeanne: I think some of those heifers that look like 2 year old cows are cheating on their ages.

LOL - ya think????

While I don't know much about cattle shows, used to go to quite a few, State Fair, NAILE, and county fairs.
My only personal experience showing was many many years ago as a teen with a long sway backed Charolais heifer that was a kicking machine. Bought her from a somewhat local breeder, cause mine weren't good enough and she was just what I needed. I realized pretty quickly that I was not going to be able to compete successfully at shows with any size. I have always wondered how some of the calves at shows or sales are so big for their age. I can push some of mine along if I wanted to and still couldn't attain the size of some. However, at maturity I have had some pretty darn big cattle comparable to some of those, so it does make me wonder. Surely, there wouldn't be much fudging of birthdates, I would have thought there would be a point where the teeth of a calf could tell the tale so to speak.
I will also add that some of the folks on this board that have posted their animals have some top notch cattle, whether they win at the highest levels of the big shows or not. :tiphat:

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

They never mouth beef cattle.
They "may" mouth the steers in the huge $60,000+ sale shows. I know they test the winners for drugs = but not breeding stock.
Most of the cattle that are bigger, more volume than mine - are through genetics & feeding. We all like to "blame" cheaters or judges - but there are just some fa-nominal (sp?) cattle out there they make me drool!!! At the smaller shows, I'm sure there are people talking behind my back accusing me of cheating. It's in the nature of things.