Our county fair is blow and go, but if you put the time in at home and the hair pops, the calves have a more youthful, fresh appearance. We do not have a cooler and are calves did not have 2 to 3 inches of hair to work with; they did have more hair than the calves that did not get worked with.
Branguscowgirl, it was not hard for me at all, I just had to make sure the boys got up early enough before school. They spent about 45 minutes in the morning and hour and half after school the last three months before fair. The calves that get that much time spent on them are also much easier to handle, very little upsets them at the fair. A 12 year old weighing 90 pounds leading a 1350 pound steer like a puppy, and right behind is an 18 year old who had to get 2 of his buddies to get his steer to the ring. The hands on time at home, pays off in more ways than one at the show.
We have a small fair in our county that is a month later than our county fair, this is where a lot of the kids who had extra animals (can only sale one through auction at county), animals that were too light at county or people just don't like the big shows, go to. It is a slick show; the haired calves at county that did well are the same calves that win at the slick show. Good calves are good calves, hairy or slick, it does seems that black cattle looked better than colored cattle hairy, and with slick it is the colored calves that do better. I think it is a visual thing more than what calves are actually better.
As far as the foamer, yes they are a nice tool to have. Use whatever soap you are comfortable with, just use it sparingly. We used the Head and Shoulders type because we had a calf that had bad skin, we tried vinegar, and everything else, just could not get rid of it, in a last ditch effort tried dandruff shampoo and it helped.
Branguscowgirl, it was not hard for me at all, I just had to make sure the boys got up early enough before school. They spent about 45 minutes in the morning and hour and half after school the last three months before fair. The calves that get that much time spent on them are also much easier to handle, very little upsets them at the fair. A 12 year old weighing 90 pounds leading a 1350 pound steer like a puppy, and right behind is an 18 year old who had to get 2 of his buddies to get his steer to the ring. The hands on time at home, pays off in more ways than one at the show.
We have a small fair in our county that is a month later than our county fair, this is where a lot of the kids who had extra animals (can only sale one through auction at county), animals that were too light at county or people just don't like the big shows, go to. It is a slick show; the haired calves at county that did well are the same calves that win at the slick show. Good calves are good calves, hairy or slick, it does seems that black cattle looked better than colored cattle hairy, and with slick it is the colored calves that do better. I think it is a visual thing more than what calves are actually better.
As far as the foamer, yes they are a nice tool to have. Use whatever soap you are comfortable with, just use it sparingly. We used the Head and Shoulders type because we had a calf that had bad skin, we tried vinegar, and everything else, just could not get rid of it, in a last ditch effort tried dandruff shampoo and it helped.
