show cattle routine

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L Weir

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Those who show cattle ( heifers or steers) what is your usual routine when you work with your cattle as far as feeding, tieing heads up, wetting down, brushing, etc.? We show cattle in which we have a routine, but I want to see if there are any other ways to do it differently. Thanks.
 
5:00 am feed cattle
5:30 am rinse and blow cattle
6:45 am move cattle to day tieouts with fans
3:00 pm tie cattle standing with head up high
5:00 pm feed cattle
5:30 pm rinse and blow cattle (wash once a week)
6:45 turn out on grass for the nght
 
txshowmom":2rld9xgp said:
5:00 am feed cattle
5:30 am rinse and blow cattle
6:45 am move cattle to day tieouts with fans
3:00 pm tie cattle standing with head up high
5:00 pm feed cattle
5:30 pm rinse and blow cattle (wash once a week)
6:45 turn out on grass for the nght

This list is for show ring broke cattle that are used to the daily routine already. This list also probably works well for txshowmom.

The feeding time will vary with each person or crew's schedual. While most shows require the cattle to be in the barn at or before 8am...I usually feed at tieouts about 6am. Then wash, or rinse-depending on the day, and into the barn. Then brush and blow with heads tied up. I usually let them down about 10am. Every time one of them stands up during the day they get brushed off. This also helps to train the hair. Unless you are in Texas.
Then I will tie their heads up again about an hour before tieouts. More for display than anything.
Tie outs at shows here are normally 5pm, sometimes later. Evening feeding is in tieouts at a show. I don't like the hay and grain messing up my stalls at a show so I keep all that in the tieouts.
At home they get fed in the stalls and turned out in a lot (when the temperature drops) with free choice hay.

As far as hair products...This year I'm going to try this stuff called ez-all.
In the past I have washed on Monday and Friday with joy soap. Then rinsed the other days. I also use revive in the evenings before I turn out or go to tie outs.

I also NEVER leave the cattle unattended while their heads are tied up, no matter how well broke they are. I spend a lot of time brushing and just messing with the show string.
 
certherfbeef":2ndvbz44 said:
I also NEVER leave the cattle unattended while their heads are tied up, no matter how well broke they are. I spend a lot of time brushing and just messing with the show string.

We put up two tie rings, one high and one low. Put a piece of wire that will straighten out with a hard pull into the top ring formed in a hook. Tie the halter lead to the bottom ring and through the hook on the top ring. If the animal falls, the top ring will release, giving them enough slack to get up.
You will have to determine what to use for the hook. The guy who showed me used baling twine, but I was concerned that it might not break or that the sudden snap when it did would injure the calf. Of course, you won't want to do this with an animal that pulls, and you still can't leave them totally unattended, but it makes me more comfortable doing things where we can't see them while they are tied. An added bonus is that the rope can be slipped out of the hook leaving plenty of slack to untie. Some animals will probably learn they can straighten the wire and lay down, but we've done it for three sets of calves and not had a problem yet.
 
Thank you for the replies. Our routine is the same as most of yours. I was checking to see if there was anything different we should be doing.
 

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