My kids were each started with a heifer and a steer for 4-H at age 8. They have been allowed to keep the increase from their herds and worked to offset their expenses. My wife and I figured that if we made them pay for expenses now we would have to help them with college later. My daughter owned 13 cows when she went to college. She was the class valedictorian and chose to sell her cows when she went to college. She got a full ride scholarship and her cattle money covers all of her other expenses. Despite that she works part time and received the top undergraduate biology student award at IU last year. She also spent the summer in Spain on a scholarship to work on her spanish.
My son is a sophomore. He owns 15 cows now and is a hard worker. Not the student my daughter was, but he is leaning towards the Marines and Rotc to help him through college.
The deal we have with them is that we fund their cattle operation and they TOTALLY fund their college. In return, they work for us and recieve pay in the form of feed and expenses.
We have two hard working kids with sense that have made us proud. I wouldn't change a thing about how we did this.
