What exactly is a "club calf"?

[poultryrancher]

I hear this term everywhere on cattle breeders websites.... I have no clue what it means! Pardon me, please--I'm still a newbie...Just finished my first year in steer 4-H and can't wait to learn more and do it again!

 

[bigbull338]

a club calf is a combo of breeds used to produce steers for shows such as 4H FFA an state fairs.hence the term club calf.breeds are chi maines maine angus an maybe some other breed combos that i dont know about.

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

A haltered calf of usually black or red that is raised and shown by kids participating in 4-H, FFA, and other programs.

Now...on my "caustic, sarcastic, devil's advocate side"... ;-)

MY definition of a "Club Calf":

• 1. Any overfed calf to fill out so it will impress the judges.
  2. An overly pampered calf.
  3. An overly groomed, bathed, etc. calf.
  4. A hairy, post-legged calf.
  5. A calf that the "shower" hopes will impress some buyer to benefit the kid's effort and program.
  6. A winning calf in a show that is sold for much more than it's worth (for meat or breeding).
  7. A calf that is mostly useless for any other purpose than for giving the kids an experience (or) to show.
  8. A calf that has an excess of body fat and excess marbeling due to what it's been "enhancement" fed.
  9. A calf project that keeps the kids "off the street" and "out of trouble"...lol.

 

[TexasBred]

Bill...you left out the part about the hired help usually does all the work, Dad or grandpa usually buy the calf at the auction and make sure it brings a premium.

 

[Jovid]

A haltered calf of usually black or red that is raised and shown by kids participating in 4-H, FFA, and other programs.

Now...on my "caustic, sarcastic, devil's advocate side"... ;-)

MY definition of a "Club Calf":

• 1. Any overfed calf to fill out so it will impress the judges.
  2. An overly pampered calf.
  3. An overly groomed, bathed, etc. calf.
  4. A hairy, post-legged calf.
  5. A calf that the "shower" hopes will impress some buyer to benefit the kid's effort and program.
  6. A winning calf in a show that is sold for much more than it's worth (for meat or breeding).
  7. A calf that is mostly useless for any other purpose than for giving the kids an experience (or) to show.
  8. A calf that has an excess of body fat and excess marbeling due to what it's been "enhancement" fed.
  9. A calf project that keeps the kids "off the street" and "out of trouble"...lol.

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: I don't believe you missed a thing

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Bill...you left out the part about the hired help usually does all the work, Dad or grandpa usually buy the calf at the auction and make sure it brings a premium.

Yep. When family or friends buy the calf at a "premium price" it sends an erroneous message to the kids about the true "value" of the animal. Later, when they grow up, they find out the "real" story about the value and selling price of an animal. On other hand, I'm sure there are some kids that have "reality awareness", but it's hard to get away from the glitz, glamor, excitement, theatrics, etc., of the show ring whether or not its club calves, horses, alpacas, rabbits or whatnots...

 

[backhoeboogie]

Our county fair has a floor price per pound. That is the price the locker plant is willing to pay. If a bank pays $1.50 over, they sell it back to the locker plant for the floor price.

Many times I have bought a steer that didn't make the sale because it didn't place and a kid needed to sell. Usually it is an old family friend's kid. I offer floor price and have it hauled to the processors. I have done this a dozen times or more through the years.

 

[dun]

Our county fair has a floor price per pound. That is the price the locker plant is willing to pay. If a bank pays $1.50 over, they sell it back to the locker plant for the floor price.

Many times I have bought a steer that didn't make the sale because it didn't place and a kid needed to sell. Usually it is an old family friend's kid. I offer floor price and have it hauled to the processors. I have done this a dozen times or more through the years.

That;s what we do with pigs at our fair. Don;t need any beef but can alwasy use some pig meat.

 

[poultryrancher]

I BEG YOUR PARDON! I am a 4-H member, and I bought my steer this year with a cashier's check out of my own bank account, picked him out myself at a ranch, halter broke him and did all that. YOU guys must be talking about the Steer 4-H leader's daughter. She's the one who had it all handed to her pretty much like you guys said :lol: .

 

[Workinonit Farm]

I BEG YOUR PARDON! I am a 4-H member, and I bought my steer this year with a cashier's check out of my own bank account, picked him out myself at a ranch, halter broke him and did all that. YOU guys must be talking about the Steer 4-H leader's daughter. She's the one who had it all handed to her pretty much like you guys said :lol: .

Ease up there pardner. No one is saying that your steer was financed or handled by someone else. :roll:

There are some kids, like you, who do it them self. For them I have alot of respect. They are getting far more out of the experience than the ones who have it all done for them.

Many of us have seen the 'other' way of it being done. I personally know of 2 boys whose parents bought the steers, bought the feed, trained the steers, paid someone to fit the steers and the boys led the steers around the ring at the fair, and collected the fat check at the end. Then the process started all over again the same way.

Keep on learning. Keep the questions coming, thats how you learn.

Katherine

 

[backhoeboogie]

and I bought my steer this year with a cashier's check out of my own bank account, picked him out myself at a ranch, halter broke him and did all that.

At your age most everything I earned went for school clothes, for my brother and sisters. There was no way I could afford a purchased animal. I showed one of the family steers

 

[TexasBred]

I BEG YOUR PARDON! I am a 4-H member, and I bought my steer this year with a cashier's check out of my own bank account, picked him out myself at a ranch, halter broke him and did all that. YOU guys must be talking about the Steer 4-H leader's daughter. She's the one who had it all handed to her pretty much like you guys said :lol: .

Good for you. And you will benefit from your experiences. But there are those that don't really learn anything from showing. I know one "family" who had kids coming thru 4-H and FFA for years. They owned a big dairy operation. The kids literally did not know what animal they would be showing until the show started. Mom and dad donated the animals, their hired hands fed, led, groomed and took care of them 100% of the time....Then grandpa bought the animals at the show and they would often bring more money than the grand champion. Actually saw the mother bidding one time and she raised her on bid 4-5 times to get the price up and then said grandpa bought it along with all the money donated by the local Ag boosters club. She might as well have stolen it.

 

[dyates]

Even worse than the responsibility issues y'all mention, I have trouble swallowing the idea that a good show animal is probably not the same animal that will do well in the real world. Quite frankly, some of them look like freaks of nature. Not just cattle, but sheep and other animals as well. I'd be more satisfied if the judges of shows were buyers for the feedlots and judged the animals for real world quality.

 

[Jovid]

Even worse than the responsibility issues y'all mention, I have trouble swallowing the idea that a good show animal is probably not the same animal that will do well in the real world. Quite frankly, some of them look like freaks of nature. Not just cattle, but sheep and other animals as well. I'd be more satisfied if the judges of shows were buyers for the feedlots and judged the animals for real world quality.

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[backhoeboogie]

I'd be more satisfied if the judges of shows were buyers for the feedlots and judged the animals for real world quality.

Market hogs seem to go that direction. Market calves confuse everyone.

 

[Susie David]

Been alot of years since my kids showed "club calves" but they were the product of our own breeding program and the daughters were the hands every step of the way from the breeding through calving, working and showing. It was never hard to tell the real 4-H kids...usually knew when they first took hold of the lead and the animal responded to the kid on the way to the ring.
Now that I have some more time on my hands I'm looking forward to hauling the grand kids "club calves" around the state. The dams and grand-dams of the grandkids calves will be born late winter so I guess that the kids will have an idea of where they came from. Just hope that the judging reflects what the animal was bred for and not what the trend of the month is. Looking at some old pictures awhile back....we sure had some different ideas of what a steer should look like. I still like short, long and wide.
And that's my two bits worth...asked for or not. Dave Mc

 

[TexasBred]

Club calves can be hard work for kids.

And should be !!!!!

 

[Jovid]

Been alot of years since my kids showed "club calves" but they were the product of our own breeding program and the daughters were the hands every step of the way from the breeding through calving, working and showing. It was never hard to tell the real 4-H kids...usually knew when they first took hold of the lead and the animal responded to the kid on the way to the ring.
Now that I have some more time on my hands I'm looking forward to hauling the grand kids "club calves" around the state. The dams and grand-dams of the grandkids calves will be born late winter so I guess that the kids will have an idea of where they came from. Just hope that the judging reflects what the animal was bred for and not what the trend of the month is. Looking at some old pictures awhile back....we sure had some different ideas of what a steer should look like. I still like short, long and wide.
And that's my two bits worth...asked for or not. Dave Mc

Unfortunately most judges today are a product of a college judging team and they have no idea what a "true" market steer or a breeding heifer should look like. They do know how to look for one that has lots of hair and that has been clipped to hide their faults. JMO.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Unfortunately most judges today are a product of a college judging team and they have no idea what a "true" market steer or a breeding heifer should look like.

That is unfortunate.

Back when I was in college,(a long time ago) and we were 'learning' to judge cattle, we were taught to judge by the 'standards' that most of us real-world producers look for in 'real' market animals and breeding stock. Not those fluffy post-legged types that you see today.

Katherine

 

[ga. prime]

OK, now everybody knows what a club calf is. What is a club steak?