Our breed's field man that personally visits and selects the cattle for the sale from each farm that consigns to our state's annual sale has a saying that if you want to consign something to the sale it should have to "hurt" you a little to let that animal go as you want to sell something that represents the best of your breeding. It should be satisfying to anyone to have the cattle you bred, raised, and sold do well for the buyer as that is some of the best marketing you can get.
Fire Sweep, don't take this the wrong way but personally I'd rather see someone buy our cattle and turn them out to pasture to make good cows and herd bulls for them than parade them around a show ring. We haven't personally been in the show ring since 2000 when my younger brother and I were showing as juniors in the years prior to that so we're probably a little out of touch with what is the hot thing in the show ring these days, But even back when we did show our family was still aiming to breed for productive cows in the pasture and not just in the show ring. What good is a heifer if she does well in the show ring but is a poor performer as a cow?
That was 1 reason our dad hated when we wanted to show a cow/calf pair because his saying was "that cow should be in the pasture with the bull right now and not under a fan with a feed pan in front of her." We weren't allowed to show a cow/calf pair past our County Fair in the first week of July because of that so we only took them to our state junior show and county fair and that was it. My most memorable year was taking an 8 year old cow I had shown as a heifer who had an impressive bull calf that year. She was easily the oldest cow at our state junior show as most of the cow calf pairs were 1st or 2nd calvers. She probably had the best calf in the show but placed right in the middle of the class because the judge said "she wasn't carrying enough condition." Well I'm sorry but an 8 year old cow should not be fat and "carrying condition" so I wasn't offended by that comment because we got plenty of compliments on the bull calf she was raising. A couple weeks later we took her to the county fair and she took home the grand champion cow/calf pair because the judge was shocked when they found out the cow was 8 years old. Just looking at her she looked younger than that which I think probably factored into naming the pair champion because most judges are used to much younger cows in the show ring.
I'll always take a female that has longevity in the pasture over a female that does well in the show ring as a yearling then flops once she is put into production in the pasture any day. One of our better cows right now is one that would not catch your eye at first sight in the pasture and we nearly culled her as heifer but out of that calf crop just 1 other female has out-produced her so far after 4 calves so there is something to say about going with your gut with genetics that you believe in and giving them a chance to succeed. Had we culled her because she wasn't a flashy looking female as a yearling that would have not done well in the show ring we would have missed out on some very productive daughters and grand daughters.
