jlingle
Well-known member
Well lemme introduce myself. I live in SW Oklahoma, and my dad has been raising show calves for several years. I guess he's doing pretty well at it, even though he has a relatively small herd of 30 or so cows. I was the kid in high school who always wanted to show calves, but we just never had the money to get it done, so I was destined to only show hogs. Oh well. Now I'm raising kids and after 1 year of getting our hind end handed to us, the kids want to move on and show calves. With my dad raising show calves, I think I'd be a fool not to take advantage of the situation if the kids are willing to do the work. My daughter is 9, my oldest son is 7, and praise the Lord we have a healthy 5 month old son who will be following in his brother & sister's footsteps as well. My dad has been looking forward to being the "pawpaw" who raises calves for grandkids for a long time. I wanted the kids to show hogs for a year, to gauge how hard they would work & their level of dedication. They passed with flying colors. They worked hard for 5 months, and even though we were pretty certain the hogs weren't going to be able to compete well at our county show, they stuck it out and saw it through. I refuse to be the dad who does everything for their kids. Yes, I know I'll need to be there to handle a lot of the dirty work, but they're gonna work their tails off & we're gonna do things as a family. If I have to do it all, we aren't gonna do it. Call me ignorant or old fashioned, but I don't think the show animal process is for dads to see who can raise, feed, and prepare the best calves. I believe it's about teaching kids to do the best jobs they can do, take responsibility for the care of an animal, and then do a great job showing. If my kids can do that, I'll be proud as punch even if we get trounced.
Here's my problem & the reason I'm likely to drive you folks nuts. I have never shown a calf in my life, and know precious little about the process. In order to get a jump on things, we plan to try to attend one of Stierwalt's clinics this summer & learn all we can. I quite literally own NO equipment, and will need some advice on what to purchase for the journey. Dad has some fairly decent facilities & is raising some pretty good calves, but I need a little insight on what to purchase for show equipment.
I thought I had a family lined out to sell us their show equipment, but they're having second thoughts about getting out of showing steers. I can't blame them a bit, they do a fantastic job feeding one out, for sure. In yalls opinions, where would be the best place to purchase some equipment, and should I only buy new stuff (it'll need to last a long time) or would it be alright to pick up some used stuff? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.
Here's my problem & the reason I'm likely to drive you folks nuts. I have never shown a calf in my life, and know precious little about the process. In order to get a jump on things, we plan to try to attend one of Stierwalt's clinics this summer & learn all we can. I quite literally own NO equipment, and will need some advice on what to purchase for the journey. Dad has some fairly decent facilities & is raising some pretty good calves, but I need a little insight on what to purchase for show equipment.
I thought I had a family lined out to sell us their show equipment, but they're having second thoughts about getting out of showing steers. I can't blame them a bit, they do a fantastic job feeding one out, for sure. In yalls opinions, where would be the best place to purchase some equipment, and should I only buy new stuff (it'll need to last a long time) or would it be alright to pick up some used stuff? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.
