Feel bad for the kid

[Herefordcross]

Our county doesn't have a dairy beef catagory. There's a family, one of three, that still has a dairy here and to put it plain and simple they are so broke it ain't funny. Their grandson took an almost all black holstein steer to the fair in the market steer catagory and everyone knew he would get torn up in the class and he did, and the judge made him look like a real arss when he was doing his judging. When they sold the market steers at the end of the fair they couldn't even get a bid on it, It made me wanna cry. I felt bad for him I offered him a black steer for next years fair and I haven't heard anything back from him yet. People can be so cruel and mean. It's hard to compete at a county fair where doctors and lawyers are buying their kids $4,000 and $5,000 steers to fool with and then they are paying guys to secretely "implant" the living daylights out of them with ralgro. I won't even tell you where they implant some of these jokers at on their bodies because it works and nobody knows the difference!

 

[warpaint]

It is sad what some people will do to get a winner. While we don't deal so much with the injection problems, we face folks that are crossing beef cattle to get better bodies or lying about their ages.
I've always felt that there should be stricter guidelines, but until that happens, I'll show my purebreds with the date the actually hit the ground as their birthday and take my lumps and go home knowing I did the right thing. ;-)

 

[jkwilson]

In our small fair, we have had $10,000 steers. We cap the auction money that the seller gets at $750. The surplus goes to the animal committee for that species. Grand and reserve usually get $750 and $700. Run of the mill gets $400 and $50 extra for a breed champion. Really good ones don't sell so they are eligible for the State Fair.

A notorious wise-a$$ commented last year upon seeing the Grand Champion trophy at the winner's stall, that he had "never seen a $9000 trophy before." I snorted Mt. Dew out my nose when I heard about it later.

 

[jnowack]

In our small fair, we have had $10,000 steers. We cap the auction money that the seller gets at $750. The surplus goes to the animal committee for that species. Grand and reserve usually get $750 and $700. Run of the mill gets $400 and $50 extra for a breed champion. Really good ones don't sell so they are eligible for the State Fair.

A notorious wise-a$$ commented last year upon seeing the Grand Champion trophy at the winner's stall, that he had "never seen a $9000 trophy before." I snorted Mt. Dew out my nose when I heard about it later.

Are you sure about that amount? You can't make money selling fat steers for $750. Sorry, maybe I just don't get what you are saying.

 

[Gale Seddon]

Our county doesn't have a dairy beef catagory. There's a family, one of three, that still has a dairy here and to put it plain and simple they are so broke it ain't funny. Their grandson took an almost all black holstein steer to the fair in the market steer catagory and everyone knew he would get torn up in the class and he did, and the judge made him look like a real arss when he was doing his judging. When they sold the market steers at the end of the fair they couldn't even get a bid on it, It made me wanna cry. I felt bad for him I offered him a black steer for next years fair and I haven't heard anything back from him yet. People can be so cruel and mean. It's hard to compete at a county fair where doctors and lawyers are buying their kids $4,000 and $5,000 steers to fool with and then they are paying guys to secretely "implant" the living daylights out of them with ralgro. I won't even tell you where they implant some of these jokers at on their bodies because it works and nobody knows the difference!

Is this a 4H event you're talking about? I agree with you, I'd have been upset to see that too. I was never in 4H, but I thought it was about learning how to care for your animal, whatever animal it might be, and doing the best you could with it, showing progress from start to finish, etc. Shame on any judge who does that to a child in the ring. I think your offer of a steer is really, really nice...hope you'll hear from this kid and his family with a big YES!!! Good for you, Herefordcross! You could make a big difference in this kid's whole attitude about raising a steer (and life in general).

 

[jkwilson]

Are you sure about that amount? You can't make money selling fat steers for $750. Sorry, maybe I just don't get what you are saying.

Should have been clearer. That's over market.

 

[Grand Chaser]

People do some crazy stuff to win. There was one calf that this one kid had and it died so he bought another one that looked identical to him and tried to get through final weigh in with him! it was horrible. And i know a few kids who don't have great calves but when you see them you know they've been taken care of and i always seem to be the one giving them confidence at fair time because some of the people can be so rude making fun of the calf just because they went out and bought theirs from some state 1/2 way across the country. And i have been that kid before so i know what they feel(we hit a rough patch one year).

 

[d6cattleman]

About the cheating:
We had a girl who not only showed for a nearby ranch(did not own the calf, which is against the rules at our county shows) but changed the calfs registrey. What i mean by this is at one show she was and angus, the next a limousin, and the next a lim-flex. It made her and her family look so dumb. I salute you warpaint, I do the same thing. The judge can tell when people lie about age.

 

[mystery74]

at our 4H fair I have been told by some big time people in there that its all about the politics and they are right, the more well known name the more of a chance they have to win, we had a first a #1425 beautiful, nothing even close, well by god that judge picked a #1125 ayrshire to win grand champion and then it struck me as to the last name, very well known, people boo'd that judge that night,. people that didnt even know us came up to my daughter and said she should have won,,
as for selling price grand champion sold for $16,000 and reserve was $10,000 last year grand was $24,000 so thats what kind of support we get here, if you get the support group yourself. I wish the county fair was more fair, we live by the rules, but most people dont, at least when my daughter wins, she can say she did it fair and square, no implants, no lying on registration or birth dates, just alot of hard work which she is great at and never complains she is 11 so hopefully that dont change, this year one calf just died we did everything we could and she spent almost all her hard earned money trying, we will have to see in august what she is able to pull off

 

[circlee]

way to go herefordcross!!!!!!!

Thats whats its about is the kids and Kids have feelings. Judges at county fairs shouldn't hammer on the animals. All in all showing teaches people responability and animal husbandry. it chaps my hide to see the wealthy kids do well when thay havent even seen the calf , you call tell the kids that actually work with their projects. sorry i got on my soapbox

 

[JDI]

It's the same in our county show. When I started raising show calves about 8 yrs. ago. I went to the county agent to get on the breeders list for the county born & raised list. They said I couldn't get on it. My phone # wasn't in the county. I explained I had lease land in the county. Took me 14 mon. to get on the list after aquiring a current list & showing them 6 other breeders that were not living in the county. The bottom line was they didn't want me on the list.
After getting on the list I let a girl have a steer for $500.00(exact $$ as her scramble certificate). Well, he was reserve in county born & raised. Both ag teachers came up after show & said man you got some ticked off people...your steer beat some 3000.00 steers today...I said SO!!!! come look at my calves next year...Politics are heavy in local shows...no getting around it...

 

[Australian Cattleman]

Nothing annoys me more than a judge that doesn't look at all the entrants and gives positive comments. Young people are our future and must be encouraged. I have been showing for 31 years and seen back in about 1978 a young Brahman exhibitor take his pride and joy to a fairly large show. She was a grey heifer,the only one in her class. The smart a.......ed judge gave her a third ribbon and made derisive comments about her to the exhibitor. That young man never ever showed again. His heifer was quite OK,if the judge had any brains he could have not let her progress through to a championship. No one would have been any wiser.
I have challenged judges that I have seen behaving unprofessionally,most especially when it has to do with young exhibitors.
Colin

 

[Bullbuyer]

Our friend from Down Under is on the money. Judges should look at these shows as an opportunity to educate not intimidate the kid. Some of these youngsters are just getting started and a few good insights might really make all the difference. Same as these little league coaches that are living through their teams - acting like total morons.

 

[aplusmnt]

About the cheating:
We had a girl who not only showed for a nearby ranch(did not own the calf, which is against the rules at our county shows) but changed the calfs registrey. What i mean by this is at one show she was and angus, the next a limousin, and the next a lim-flex. It made her and her family look so dumb. I salute you warpaint, I do the same thing. The judge can tell when people lie about age.

d6 You show in Ottawa County don't you? If so you also had a kid a couple years back that Won our County fair in KS and then took the same steer to your County fair and won breed champion with it. Making sale at both fairs. Guess parents are divorced and one lives in KS and one in OK.

 

[aplusmnt]

When they sold the market steers at the end of the fair they couldn't even get a bid on it, It made me wanna cry. I felt bad for him I offered him a black steer for next years fair and I haven't heard anything back from him yet. People can be so cruel and mean.

We always buy an animal at our County Fair and these are the types I look for. There is usually a few that do not get much bidding on them. Not always the animals fault but more times than not they are a family that is just not as well known or connected in the community. Seems like those kids appreciate it more than others also.

 

[Australian Cattleman]

Speaking of cheating and judges etc. Earlier this year at three of the local shows that I attended. A young lady showed a very nice Murray Grey cow with a robust male calf at foot supposed to be 8 months old (which is the calf age limit) The cow went onto win 2 interbreed awards and was way down the line at the other show. The astute judges (ha ha) remarked about the male calf going on to grow into a very nice bull. Ha ha the calf was a steer. The judge at the show where she was placed down the line knew how to judge (even if he only gave my good South Devon bull runner up in the interbreeds)
Hate cheats, I've known of breeders having calves every 6 months out of favourite cows.
Colin

 

[Angus Cattle Shower]

Thats what it's like here... ive only won with heifers and cows, but with steers, Its blacks, then solid reds, then other coloured calves, it seems. In the last steer show I exhibited in, the two guys ahead of me in the class had black steers (there were no solid reds) so they placed ahead of me... they were skin and bones... when the judge was reasoning he said, "theyre black, its what the market wants, these next 2 (mine and the brothers)are red, the market doesnt want that." I know lots of people that lie about ages, use grooming stuff in dry shows, implant, and bend and break nearly every rule in the book, but I refuse to go there.... If or when I win, Im going to say I did it honestly, and when I loose (quite often, actually) Im still gonna say I did it honestly, and that My best isn't what the judge was looking for that day.

 

[Bek]

I've never had anyone run down my animals, but something that did annoy me was a few years ago. I was showing an Angus steer for my friend, and the judge, who had judged the European breeds before hand, didn't even look at the steer I had, and didn't give any reason why. Every other animal in the class was a European animal, and he had a look at every othe steer. So that annoyed me a bit.

 

[TheBullLady]

Hereford.. a similar situation here quite a while back. I think the first county show I attended. One of the kids in a class of about 8 calves had a really sorry looking steer.. pigeon toed, bad top, etc. etc. But he had spent time just like all the other kids grooming, fitting, etc. and was really proud in the ring. Made me want to cry.. but at least the judge was very good and didnt' say bad things about the steer, just tactfully pointed out some things, but not in a mean way.

I also invited him to come out and look at what we had.. he never called back. A shame.. obviously a hard worker.

 

[Bek]

If anyone offered for me to come back and look at their stock, I would most certainly take the offer up.

Fair enough 7 times out of 10 the adults may have the better steers, but us kids put in as much work as they do. It's just a lot of the time we can't afford what they can.