What exactly is a "club calf"?

[dun]

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

A slice of wood (steak) cut from a large limb (club)

 

[Jovid]

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

Any steak that you get at a club.... :lol:

 

[Double R Ranch]

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.

In our area, including Nevada shows the hogs are NOT market hogs. There has been a huge change in Fair/show hogs. There has been a desire for winners in the hog shows/fairs to be muscle bound with not fat what so ever. I slaughtered one personally last year and gave the meat away.
We just slaughter 6 of our own hogs and I always discuss hogs with the cut/wrap guys. They have been making a stink for several years now that the hogs that are being shown are NOT marketable hogs.

I figure that it is the same with cattle. We haven't sold any calves for show yet but have had a ton of calls on it. I don't believe that we have CLUB Calves. I have seen the harry wierd looking calves and my cattle don't have those looks.

I do know that 90% of my hog sales to kids, the parents do most all the work. That is one of the reasons I have stopped selling to kids for fair. I spend half a year fixing sick animals that haven't been cared for, (interestingly the ones who are cared for and sold for meat are healthy threw slaughter) and when you give them clear cut instructions on how to keep there animal healthy and how to achive maximum weight gain without sacrificing quality of there hog it's like talking to air. And the parents seem ablivious. In the last few years I can recall 1 parent that has made the effort and the kids DO ALL THE WORK required. They also have won. We got lucky that the judge was from out of state in a state that still knows what a market hog is.

So having dealt with all the crap of trying to get these kids to fair and win, I am not willing to tackle Club calves. I hope that the kids on this board do put the effort in and take care of the animals they have made a commitment to care for. Best of luck to those who do the work.
Double R

 

[Lammie]

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.

Yeah, when I see a little bitty kid at a show, I have to wonder how much work that kid actully did, or if it was Daddy's "imported" help. Sometimes the kid did the work, but other times, well, you have to wonder. And that's not really fair to the other kids who did do all the work.

 

[Jogeephus]

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...

Please go easy on the "whatnots" as this is what I think I raise. True I've had some excitement, shown some theatrics but have yet to find any of the glitz and glamour of which you speak. Maybe next year. ;-)

 

[Earl Thigpen]

I guess I've lived a very sheltered life because of all the kids I've known in the FFA or 4H programs I have not seen one of them shirk their responsibilities toward the care and feeding of their animals. Not one!

I have read stories on this forum where spoiled, rotten, pampered kids get an animal (not FFA or 4H) who have no way to take care of it, no pen, no chute and no clue what-so-ever how to care for it and ask for advice here on why the animal is sick and what to do for it.

OK, I said that. I do have a problem with some the ways these contests are ran. If a kid's animal gets judged Grand Champion and the animal brought $50K (or what ever) the kid should get ALL of the prize money, not just what's left over after paying the judges off (?) or paying stall fees or paying the guy who provided the club animal or ?????

JMO