No hair shows

[BCCC]

My county is trying to get our county to go to a no hair show like in texas. I really do not like the idea, I dont see why they should do it at state level, you gona shave it all off for county, and then go to state and have a steer that still has no hair, competeing against a buncha hairy calves, and you will lose, and then it will look down apon on your county.

How do you guys take care of your steers for shows that you have to shave them for?? Thanks alot

 

[angusboy1]

yea you got  point you probaly would lose

 

[Turkey Creek Ranch]

Well, i know a lot of people work REALLY hard to get hair, and to just shave it off seems stupid to me. I have never had a hairy calf though. Living in Nebraska with just a barn and 2 turbo fans probably doesn't help that much. lol.

 

[sawboss]

Our county is a hair show at the end of March here in Texas, which is very unusual because most counties are slick shear.  The only major that is a hair show is Fort Worth at the end of January.  In our case you decide which route you want to go, hair or slick and then bypass the others.  A lot of people purchase multiple calves in order to have different calves for different shows.  We did this for the upcoming year, we have two very good hair calves that we will show in Fort Worth.  If they do not make the sale line we have the option of slicking them for San Antonio or Houston, or leaving the hair on them for county.  We bought an American calf that we will slick and show in San Antonio.

To answer your question about hair care on a slick animal, we work the hair forward with a brush just as if it was to have hair for a show.  We do not worry about growth as much as we do control, so that we can avoid having a swirl pattern.  On a slick sheared calf you are looking at all of his strengths and weaknesses, and not who has the best fitted calf with hair.  This is why Fort Worth is the toughest of our majors, great calves and tremendous fitting jobs.

 

[afhm]

Try and get them to move the county fair after the state fair.  Tell them that being slick before state will greatly reduce their numbers.  Have it after state and it will probably be as big or bigger than it has in past years.

 

[BCCC]

      We cant move county to after state because we have to qualify for state by getting a a purple (grand or res).  Allthough if they would that would be great because then you could buy real good calves take them to state, if it doesn't make the sale there then it will for sure make the sale at county(4k-5k <party>) If they do decide to do it, and make us shave the heifers also, I will show our heifers at the county next to us, and my pigs, and steers here (I love the sale price  ;D )

 

[txshowlamb]

Here in Texas all of the prospect shows and county are hair shows then at the majors we shave it all off. To me it makes no sense to work all year then shave it all off. I work especially hard with my calfs hair because he has a great coat he is bathed with conditioner every day and shampoo twice a week plus brushed out every day. I am going to be so upset when it is all shaved off lol.

 

[simtal]

you have to qualify to make state?  what a stupid rule. If you have the money why would they turn you away? I guess things are different in other states.  I'd fight it,  but if it is a lost cause go show somewhere else.

 

[farmgirl760]

Our local county fair just went to slick sheared show this year. I have noticed that entries have dropped already. We have picked steers this year that dont grow a lot of hair to begin with so its a lot easier and we also got a steer that had a lot of hair for the other fair that we go to. We have those who say that a good judge can see and feel through hair. What is your fairs definition of no hair? ours it everything to the switch of the tail. That includes the ears, head, body, legs, and everything inbetween.

 

[minimoo38]

how exactly do you go about shaving the ears and legs?  ???

 

[farmgirl760]

thats what i would like to know!!! they are putting on a clinic in 2 weeks to show how to do it. we can shave bodies but legs and ears are difficult.  we have found that on the ears its easier to take a really small pair of clippers and just go slow. they dont like the sound in there ears but eventually they get used to it.

 

[BCCC]

We will be leaving the tail switch and thats it :'( I can gurentee that if they make us shave the heifer like they say they are going to, I am going to show in the next county. and keep showing steers and pigs here. We have a big'ole list of stuff to bring up at the meeting ;D

 

[farmboy]

start a petition

 

[OH Breeder]

I have never understood the slick shows. I think that is half the fun of it.It also shows how hard it is to work to get the hair. It ain't easy.

 

[BCCC]

thats my point, the main reason I work with my cattle 10 times a day is so that they have hair  O0 so I they took the hair away what the point of working with them that much?

 

[simtal]

I would seriously quit showing if I couldn't work hair. Why bother to care for the animal in general?  Shaving ears and tails? what good does that do? Once again these socialist, backwards rules aimed at "leveling the playing field" are ridiculous.

 

[farmboy]

this is all apparently to give the kids who cant work hard enough to get hair coughlazycough a chance at beating the kids who work their tail off to grow shag and i find it outrageous 

 

[afhm]

Trust me watch and the people who win with hair will win w/out hair.  One upside is watch and the cattle will get better maybe not the 1st year or so but they will.  It takes a better calf to win a slick show than it does a hair show.  Of course the downside to that is the better cattle cost more money.  The other downside is it will cause a snowball effect into other fair and maybe even the state fair going slick as well.

 

[BCCC]

Oh if they do it at state then I have no problem them doing it at county, I just don't see the reason that they are doing it at county when they ain't doing it at state level. I still wont like showing no matter where they do it at if there ain't no hair though :'(

 

[JSchroeder]

Did somebody say socialist?  Do you have to eat cow hair in order to be a capitalist now?

It's not about removing responsibility, it's about getting back to beef production.  It's amazing what the switch to slick did to the quality of certain breeds at the Texas majors.  That first year you couldn't tell the difference between most of the British breeds and the dairy cattle.

It most certainly doesn't level the playing field.  The high dollar steers are worth even more now because you can't make up for a lower quality steer with hair.