Our fair has a "Bred and Fed" division, Steers only bred in the county can compete, you do not have to be the breeder, the calves just have to be born in the county. There are not a lot of breeders in our county, there are a few trying to breed some better quality calves but they are just starting so the quality is not there yet.
There is a family in our club who own about 10 cows have won the division for the last 3 years; they have quality cows so the calves are real competitive in the market show as well as the Bred and Fed Division. Last year one of the Ag advisors made a statement that there was no way that calf was from the county, just so happens his son is this family's vet. He turned to his dad and said "I know for a fact that calf was bred and raised here, I AI'd the cow and helped pull the calf".
The side effect of cheating is if you win and are not cheating, you will still be accused of it. One of our close friends whose kids are always at the top end of the show with their calves made this statement "If they are calling you a cheater, you must be winning."
All champions are drug tested and there is a random at weigh-in. I do think drugs are as much a problem as airing calves, and the excuse for this is well everyone else is so we have to, what a crock.
All champions are drug tested and there is a random at weigh-in. I do not think that drugging at our fair is as much an issue as the cattle being altered prior to the Fair, more high-end calves have probably been aired or altered some other way, prior to the fair then drugged. These people are of the opinion that everyone else is cheating so they are evening the playing field by cheating, as long as people thank that way, cheating will never go away.
It has been suggested that our fiar go to the format of purchasing commercial calves, drawing names for the selection order, kids will pick their calves from the group of calves and take them home and raise them for the fair, no outside calves allowed. Fist off the kid with the last pick will feel great about his chances; secondly I guarantee that by the second year some one will find a way to beat the system and cheat.
They have also talked about going to a slick shear format, again the kids with the good calves will have good calves again and the kids with the poor quality calves will still have poor quality calves, they will have to find a new excuse, since it is no longer the hair that beat them.
I think if you are caught cheating you should be sent home and band for life, but I also wonder some times, at least at the county level if it is more sour grapes than cheating.
Now the bigger the show the bigger the prize the more some one is apt to cheat.
I would be willing to bet that currently there is more cheating in the heifer shows than steers, false papers, birth dates that might be a month or 2 off, and then add everything that they can do to a steer they do to heifers and there is a ton of money being spent on heifers.
As far as the black comment as long as there 5 times as many black cattle to select from you will see more black calves being shown. Plus the fact, at least in our area, if you have a colored calf and a black calf identical in quality you will pay 20 to 30% for the colored calf. Supply and demand, a lot of people are going to the colored calves since there tends to be fewer calves to compete with.
I am done rambling