What's the best age to sell a show calf

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FlyingLSimmentals

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off his dam and when should you start halter training them. Have someone interested in a calf for 4H and wondering if I want to go through with it. Never have sold a show calf before or did any showing myself. Have halter broke a very few but just for ourselves. I usually will start halter training around 4 months and figure I might sell him at around 6-7 months old after he is weaned off of dam. Does that sound about right.
 
Most are sold just after weaning. They need to be started on well started on grain. Most people day wean them as they get to be a couple of months old so by the time they are ready to wean, it is pretty smooth. We just start penning the calves up in the barn during the day when they are a couple of months old. Then they get turned back out with their dams at night. Whenever you start to day wean, is a good point to put the halter on. Your plan sounds right on track.
 
4 months is a good age to work with them. They are not as "tied" to their dam and yet not toooo big to work with. I totally agree with day time "weaning" for show calves prior to weaning. I let them drag a halter for a few days before I try to tie them.
 
Jeanne - Simme Valley":14rsgjbe said:
4 months is a good age to work with them. They are not as "tied" to their dam and yet not toooo big to work with. I totally agree with day time "weaning" for show calves prior to weaning. I let them drag a halter for a few days before I try to tie them.

This is pretty much what we did recently with two heifers and it worked out well. We did start them on feed much earlier though. Once we got halters on them we let them drag a lead around the corral for an hour or two. Did this twice a day for about a week and then moved to lead them twice a day thereafter. Would also leave them tied for up to an hour while brushing them down.

To avoid the potential for the heifer to get it's legs tangles up in the corral panels, I took 2 8x4 sheets of marine plywood and bolted hooks to the top and then hung the sheets from the top rail of the corral panels. Left a couple of cutouts at the top to allow for tying the lead to the rail. The sheets can be moved easily to other parts of the corral if needed.

Having the heifers halter broke and able to be led allowed us to keep the price up.
 

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