minimun age to show market steers

[dutch pride]

I our county, it is a 4-H rule that youth need to be 12 as of Jan. 1st of the current year to show market steers at our county fairs. The livestock committee at one of the fairs recently proposed a rule change to lower the age to 9. The fair board of that fair approved the changes. When the proposal was brought before the county 4-H council  the proposal was defeated.


The biggest concern was safety however youth aged 9 are allowed to show horses which have been shown to be a safety risk as well.

Just wondering what others out there think about age requirements to show market livestock.

Any help to try to convince the council to reconsider would be helpful.

 

[farmboy]

8 and in 3rd grade or 9 y/o regardless of grade

 

[Cattledog]

I believe that minimum age at our county fair is 8.  You would think that parents would know if the calf is too spirited for the exhibitor.  Like I told my eight year old cousin this last summer, if you think that your going to fall down let go.  Don't ever tell a small child to just hang on.  They may listen to you!

 

[braunvieh]

You can join 4-H at age 7 here and you can take any project you wish, including market steer or heifer. Most little ones don't take steers until they are older but can if they want.

 

[Ms Ray]

In CA you can be 5 to join 4-H but can not be a animal project till nine (by Jan 1)  our fair falls in October so you have to have already been in the project sence at least Jan 1, so the kids are 10 for the most part when they start showing.

 

[Jill]

In Kansas you can join 4-H, but have to be 7 as of Jan.1 to show livestock.

 

[DLD]

Here in OK they have to be 9 by January 1 to compete in the OK Youth Expo in March or 9 by July 1 to show at the Tulsa State Fair (Oct) or the OK State Fair (Sep).  To show at our county in the spring livestock show (premium sale) they have to meet the OYE requirements, but for our local, county and district fairs in the fall they just have to be enrolled in school.  5 to 8 year olds showing at these deals is not at all uncommon (all 3 of my kids started before theywere 9), and I've yet to see any of them get seriously hurt.  They pretty much always show super gentle stuff, and everyone (ring staff, other parents and leaders and other exhibitors) helps look out for them. 

Edit to add - I just now saw the "market steers" part of your question.  You do have to be 9 here to show market steers - the younger ones show heifers (usually smaller ones at that) or occasionaly prospect steers...

BTW, that's one of our 9 year old twins at our county premium sale last spring in my avatar... they hold their own

 

[Nasc]

Until this past fall our fair had a rule that you must be 10 as of January 1st to show a market Steer at the fair. The rule was changed to where if you are of 4-H age you are now eligible to show a market steer.

 

[KMJCC]

In our county in Ohio you have to be 8 years old and in the 3rd grade to show animals.  You can join 4-H as a Cloverbud at the age of 5.  As a 4-H advisor I would like to see our county set some kind of age limit to show the large animal species. I don't know what age is the right age because every situation is different but  I see it all to often that a parent just grabs their kids fat steer and drag it all over the place and then when the kids get a hold of it the kid can't do anything with it.  It will be real unfortunate to see a kid get seriously hurt.  I have seen many near misses and I had a near miss of being seriously hurt when I was a 15 or 16 year old boy trying to break one of my steers.  These animals no matter how broke they are, are still wild animals and you never no when one sill get spooked and try to get away.

 

[randiliana]

Here, from age 6-8 they can show as cloverbuds, whatever project they want. Anything from a baby calf to a cow/calf pair or a market steer. Cloverbuds MUST have a parent in the ring with them though, regardless of what they are showing. A lot will have a baby calf, and then take that baby on to either the heifer futurity or to a market steer.

 

[Reinken Cattle Co.]

to switch this up a little how old can they show at county level?! the county next to us just opened up so ffa members can show until the age of 20-21 final year of ffa, there talking about doing it in our county. At this point they can show the summer they grad from highschool 18