Cucumber35
Well-known member
Thought I should share some pics and get some advice on my daughters first "show" heifer. I'm pretty much new to the whole showing cattle thing myself, spent my life with commercial cattle and never got into the show ring myself when I was younger for whatever reason. I do have some friends that I'm sure could give some pointers when that time actually comes. However my daughter loves cows and seems to have an interest in showing after going to a few dairy shows with friends. Anyway, I had some cull cows and late calver's penned up together, and one calved the same morning as the cull cows were scheduled to leave, and my 82 yr old grandfather mistakenly loaded up the wrong cow when the neighbor came to haul them to the sale. Needless to say i was left with a newborn bottle calf the day before I was leaving town for a week. So I tied its legs up and put it in the back of my pickup and hauled it over to a buddy's dairy farm to put in an empty hutch and he kindly took care of it until she was off milk and eating grain. Just so happened I brought her home a couple days before my daughters 4th birthday so I told her the calf could be hers, since it was very tame and used to people already. She got named Felicia and I penned her up by herself since she is still on calf starter and so we could continue with the regular human contact. She took to a halter fairly well and I regularly lead her around some or tie her up and let my daughter help bathe her or brush her which she loves to do. Not sure she has what it takes to be competitive but at this point I figure it's teaching my daughter about responsibility and getting her used to working with an animal even if she is a bit young yet. I figure if this heifer is at least decent I'll shell out a little to AI her to a good bull so she might have her own "better" show calf when she's older. I don't feel like I've developed very good cattle eyes yet so I'm curious what those more experienced have to say about her. Like I said, not planning on winning anything with this one, might not even show her at all. I've considered taking her to couple local fairs next year just to get a feel if my daughter is even going to maintain enough interest to get into it any further but may not either if I don't think she's ready. I guess for now we are just having fun with our "pet" since the rest of our cattle are pretty skittish lol. This is her at around a day old. Born 7/10, Dam is a Red Angus/Piedmontese cross and sired by a purebred Piedmontese bull.
This is right after we brought her home at a little over 2 months old.
This is right after we brought her home at a little over 2 months old.