Heifers....what is the ideal age to show?

[SlickTxMaine]

Hope I don't drive you all crazy with my questions, but this will be our first year showing a heifer.  I know steers should be 15-18 months at show time, but what about heifers?  My daughter who is only 9 will be showing a heifer. I would like to start her with a younger one, for the sake of size, but still want her to be able to compete.  What is the youngest heifer you would show??  Our local show does not have any age classes. 

 

[BCCC]

Normally the older/heavier bred they are the better they look. Most times with young calves they will still be real green and hard to compete against a heavy bred female.

 

[farmermom]

Hope I don't drive you all crazy with my questions, but this will be our first year showing a heifer.  I know steers should be 15-18 months at show time, but what about heifers?  My daughter who is only 9 will be showing a heifer. I would like to start her with a younger one, for the sake of size, but still want her to be able to compete.  What is the youngest heifer you would show??  Our local show does not have any age classes. 

  I'm assuming your local shows will be this summer.  You can show what ever age you want.  You should have a heifer weaned and started on feed good before show time.  I'd say for you a fall 09 heifer would be the best because it wouldn't be too big for your child.  I have a 10 yr old, and we started with heifers that had the right temperament before we worried about the show stopper.  We are still doing that some.  I want the kids to have fun and not get hurt.  If your show is this summer July or so, I would be finding something soon if you haven't already and start working with it.  Halter broke or not have plentiy for time before show time it the key rather than the age of the heifer. 

 

[chambero]

My youngest son is starting to show this year.  He is going to be dragging a January 2010 heifer.  She's one of our later born and not our best, but she's solid and most importantly, very gentle.  That's not an easy decision for me to make due to my competetiveness, but its best for my son. 

Generally, heifers look their best about the same age steers do.  Most of the breed champs I believe are a little older than that (roughly 18-24 months old), but some heifers start to fall apart after that 18 month mark and start looking "matronly" vs. show heifer.

Short story - find you a real gentle, decent heifer and kick back and enjoy watching your little one do their best.  Plenty of time to get after it later on. 

 

[SlickTxMaine]

Hope I don't drive you all crazy with my questions, but this will be our first year showing a heifer.  I know steers should be 15-18 months at show time, but what about heifers?  My daughter who is only 9 will be showing a heifer. I would like to start her with a younger one, for the sake of size, but still want her to be able to compete.  What is the youngest heifer you would show??  Our local show does not have any age classes. 

  I'm assuming your local shows will be this summer.  You can show what ever age you want.  You should have a heifer weaned and started on feed good before show time.  I'd say for you a fall 09 heifer would be the best because it wouldn't be too big for your child.  I have a 10 yr old, and we started with heifers that had the right temperament before we worried about the show stopper.  We are still doing that some.  I want the kids to have fun and not get hurt.  If your show is this summer July or so, I would be finding something soon if you haven't already and start working with it.  Halter broke or not have plentiy for time before show time it the key rather than the age of the heifer. 

Our show is the end of February.  I have found some heifers that are being born now or next month, and will be weaned in the fall.  That would mean only about 5 months with us on feed.  That seemed like a short time period.  I was hoping to find a newly weaned fall born now to give us plenty of time with it.  Of course, our feed cost would definitely be cheap!

 

[The Show]

I like the intermediate division, if I had to pick an age I would say probably 12-14 months. That's just my personal preference though. The biggest calf doesn't always win like they once did. A smaller calf can't compete with a big soggy made heavy bred 2 year old in terms of volume and size, but a good complete young calf will beat one that's got a hole in it.

 

[LN]

If your show is in Feb. and the heifers are being born now, it would be a short time for next year but the year after she would be a heavy bred and that's usually when they look their best.

 

[The Show]

On a side note, what kind of calf are you looking for?

 

[kobo_ranch]

My son showed steers and heifers this past year, the first year for him at 17.  We learned right away those girls  (heifers) are much more trouble.  The good part is you can keep them and it doesn't break your heart like a steer when you have to put em on the truck!  Not heartbreaking for my son, just me....

But back to your question that others haven't mentioned... our heifer was a July 08 born heifer, and we showed our first show was our local county Jan 10.  Of course since we raised her she became very gently.  EXCEPT during heat cycle.  You might keep in mind the heat cycle.  Our heifer and most others will act totally different, not to mention want to mount everything in site during shows which isn't fun for a young showman (or girl).  So if I were you and had a little young lady I wouldn't necessarily focus on a young age heifer as much as one that I knew would be 'bred' by showtime.  Our heifer was totally sweet and gentle (all the time) not to mention looked even better and was more competitive during the shows. 
I would just look for a gentle heifer from the get go or one already halter broke.  Just my two cents.  GOOD LUCK!

 

[mykidsluvshorthorns]

Our show is in August my girls like to show our fall Born's Sept /Oct the 1st year they are not real competitive except in class but they are small and gentle the 2nd year they are bred so you don't have to worry about heat cycles at shows are very gentle and use to the game after doing it so long most of my daughters calves the 2nd year automatically set themselves up. The bonus for us was we just started our herd a few years ago so we would buy a  really good fall born and spent alittle more money for quality be cause we knew we would show it for 2 years  so we only bought a heifer every 2 years. As most of the others said most important is gentle.

 

[SlickTxMaine]

On a side note, what kind of calf are you looking for?

Probably a maine, but will consider others.  Black or black baldy seem to do best at our show.  We ventured out a little with our son's steer this year and went with a smoke.  I don't think I'll be that brave on the heifer!    Our local show is small, 10-15 heifers. 

 

[The Show]

Is it JUST for your county show? I have some SimAngus calves that would work.

 

[SlickTxMaine]

Is it JUST for your county show? I have some SimAngus calves that would work.

Well, I am considering the possibility of having my 16 yr. old son show her at a major, just for the experience, so I don't want to lock myself in with one that I can't take to a major show.  Do you have anything that would work for that??

 

[The Show]

Not at this time. I only have about 15 PB simmi cows and I put an angus bull on them so their all F1 SimAngus. How much are you looking to spend? I can probably find you one.

 

[AAOK]

Ideally, I always liked to start showing a Heifer at 5 months, and show her all the way through her 24th month.  Retire, cut back on feed, and have them calve at 26-27 months.  I still can't understand raising, feeding, and preparing a calf to show one time.  To me, it makes no sense.  We had one we showed 44 times, which is nothing compared to some of those in Texas who can show 5-6 times in one weekend.

 

[KMJCC]

We had a March 09 Who Made Who heifer that won reserve breeding heifer last year at our county fair.  She was selected that for our County born and raised show and also our regular show.  Our shows are on different nights and we stood behind a February 09 who heifer for our county born and raised show and stood behind a big heifer during our regular show so if they are good enough they can compete with the bigger heifers.  Ours was one of the lightest heifers there cause she got sick and didn't eat for about 3 weeks.  We almost didn't take her but glad we did.  She was a lttle green and the was the knock on her both nights by both judges.

 

[CJC]

Is it JUST for your county show? I have some SimAngus calves that would work.

Well, I am considering the possibility of having my 16 yr. old son show her at a major, just for the experience, so I don't want to lock myself in with one that I can't take to a major show.  Do you have anything that would work for that??

The SimAngus would show ORB.

 

[DLD]

Obviously everyone has their own opinions on this one, and mine may not be too popular -  personally, we like to show 'em to around 12-14 months and then turn 'em out and make cows out of 'em.  Seems to me like the ones that get fed and drug around right up 'til they calve tend to have a little harder time transitioning into being cows. For us, the younger heifers just seem to be more fun to mess with, plus smaller is better for your younger kids, I believe.  We've won more with yearlings than with older ones, but then I don't like to keep older heifers as fat as they often need to be to win.  I know few things are more fun to look at than a good heifer that's close to calving with lots of hair and a little more condition than we all know she needs. But getting a calf out of them and getting them to take care of it can be not much fun at all.

 

[The Show]

The SimAngus would show ORB.
[/quote]
Ft. Worth doesn't have a ORB class. I know Houston does, and I'm almost positive that San Antonio does.