Project Steer: Just that an educational project, you purchase commercial steer for market or just above (hopefully there is one of higher quality to give you an edge), feed quality commercial feed, halter break and groom. Take to county fair show and sell your animal for a profit. You hope that it does not become ill or injured where it either goes of feed or needs a vet since that will cut into or take all or more of your project. You keep your records of cost, daily gain, daily activities and turn in your record book.
Show/Project Steer: You plan on showing between 5-20 shows prior to your final show. You purchase animal from a breeder-seller of show (club calf) cattle. The price is what you are willing to spend. You are going to be putting in a ton of time and work with the animal, not to mention the cost of the shows: fuel, hotels, equipment, supplies, entries and such. Do you purchase an animal that is going to compete or stand in or near the bottom of it class every time. What it cost to show, which is a hobby, is a key reason people spend more on their animals.
How many have hobbies: Golf, Fishing, restoring old cars, Rodeo, Kids Club sports.
Do you have the least expensive tools, equipment, or horse, or do you have the best you can afford? It is the same in Jackpotting cattle. The problem for most that do not jackpot is that when these kids are done showing, bring their cattle to the county fair. Most the time the cattle are better looking so yes they do win, do they hang any better or produce a better end product, no not really.
But if you are in it for the project and the learning experience, winning or not winning should not be an issue, as long as you were successful with you project.
My kids started with the commercial animals, made enough money to buy better animals and did, we hauled them all around the state and had a good time, met some great people, made friends that are still good friends even though my boys are older and out of it know. We could have spent that money on other hobbies. My sons learned that the harder you work the better the results, any one can buy a great animal and ruin it, but if you buy a good animal work hard, take care of put in the extra time you will increase your chances of succeeding. Just like sports, school work or life the more you put in the more you get out of it. One decided he did not want to go to college and got a job, he is one of their fastest learning hardest working employees, the other is going to college pulling good grades. I contribute part of their success in real life to what they learned showing cattle.
I have seen to many kids that have a project steer that they did nothing with prior to the show, poured feed in the feeder if they remembered, halter broke it behind the tractor the week before the show, complain that the show steers win because they cost more and have hair. Maybe but the 2 hours a day of grooming and exercising, adjusting their feed thru out the project so they hit 12:00 the day they step into the ring did not hurt them either.
