Problems at County Fair

[red]

symbols...even my little neighbor boy age 3 knows what that means. This is a family board....DO NOT CUSS....right red?

Jen if I was pulling posts yours would have been pulled too.I don't like cussing but mean words are just as bad.  I'm not the morals police here. sorry but it's not a full time job.

Piss poor means exactually what is means. I have no idea where you get your explaination from. To me it was said in the matter it was expressed.

The original topic was good. sorry it turned into name calling & degrading people. this is for all that are guilty, not aimed at one.

Red

 

[cowz]

I apologize if I stirred the pot.  It is a hot button topic for me where I live.  We probably have more animal nutritionists and animal science degrees per capita than any other county in the state.

Unfortunately, we are seldom asked to help with the 4H program.  It is very tightly held by people with very limited cattle background. They have total control over the extension office.  Makes us crazy and it always seems as though these people are doing it for their own "glory" instead of what is best for the kids.  Then they talk smack about the families that refuse to kiss up.  ARRGGGH!

 

[knabe]

Trust me, I picked up pop cans for my rabbit money!!!
So, Dusty before you start cussing and showing your "sailor self", maybe you should know what your refering too. And please don't cuss using #$U#(*$&#$&(  symbols...even my little neighbor boy age 3 knows what that means. This is a family board....DO NOT CUSS....right red???????

last weekend, i stripped the copper of 3 pumps, and a bunch of outlet cords so they don't have to go to india, cause global warming, and have 10 year old kids strip the wire.

my five year old daughter asked the other day, which came first the mommy or the baby.

a bad word in our house is "stupid", and yes, i've used it a lot, detailed the definition, and it's meaning is more accurate than the now perjoritive word itself.

i support using symbols, kids understand this, kids understand words about deffication, as it's a popular theme in children's movie cartoons like the movie with the saber tooth tiger, mammoths and possum's where they use the word fart or something else.  cartoons from the 50's era used the symbols, and parents and everyone understood what it meant.  i didnt' see a massive moral decay from that, more so from the 60's and the free love freedom from oppression unless it was their oppression, everyone had to fit in with long hair, the army jacket, the loud pants etc.  every group has it's symbols.

i think kids can appreciate explanations more than we know and right an wrong.  a kid usually has to only hear a swear word once or twice to remember it forever.  i bet you my daughter can recite more swear words that women have used than men, and doesn't use them because she knows daddy will start his roll the eyes explanation.

 

[red]

Knabe, you continue to crack me up. When I was growing up the worse word we used was "horse manure"

I continue to stand by my position, I'd rather people use symbols than actual cussing, would like if neither was used. I'd be pulling all of AJ's posts if that was true. 
Means spirited words can hurt just as much.

Off my soapbox. i hope this can get back to the orginal post.

Red

 

[Jill]

Wouldn't it be interesting if the EPDs were used as a factor in "Breeding Heifer Shows"!!   Obviously, the breeds must think they are important becuase we spend thousands and thousands of dollars and a what of a lot of breeder's time getting the info for them.   Maybe we should really make them meaningful!!

I only speak from Maine EPD's, but to make them meaningful you would have to make them correct.  I can tell you the best EPD cows in our herd have been the worst cows, I wouldn't give a nickle for the EPD numbers in this breed.

 

[Jill]

Let me start off by saying, my family loves showing cattle, it is a positive experience for the whole family, but we have also been in this business long enough to be realistic.

I’m sorry for the original poster, that kind of stuff happens, the fair board member was out of line, they hired a judge, and they should let him do his job.

Now for the hijacked part, my husband and I neither one grew up showing cattle, in our county there had been 1 dominant family for as long as I can remember.  When our nieces and nephews got old enough we gave them all the option to show and part of our motivation was to show our county that with the same hard work and dedication someone else could win, the rest of the county had themselves beat before they even started.  The very 1st year we were Champion Heifer and the crowd was wild, someone sitting by me made the comment that the 1st year they are wild, the 2nd year they applaud, but not wholeheartedly, the 3rd year you are the cheating-political family and no one applauds, nothing has changed but perception.  Guess what, they were exactly correct, we won 3 years and in a row and that was the response.

Not everyone that wins is political, cheaters, liars or fraudulent, not all judges pick a halter or can be swayed by someone else’s opinions; some of you folks need a healthy dose of reality.  I can tell you that when you have 2 head of cattle that are very close, most judges will pick the winning kid, kind of like in boxing, the close match will always go to the current champion.  This is a show, you’re going to win some, and you’re going to lose some, if you can’t accept that you are in the wrong venue.

Fair boards-I can speak volumes on this, our family has been on there for ever!  10% of the people at a county fair do 90% of the work and the remaining 90% are usually the ones that b***h about the outcome.  It’s great to step up and say if you don’t like the outcome get on the fair board, but just remember that with that position you also get a thankless job, with no pay and an enormous amount of work that no one else wants to help with, they would no doubt love to have you step up and help.

 

[shorthorns r us]

Fair boards-I can speak volumes on this, our family has been on there for ever!  10% of the people at a county fair do 90% of the work and the remaining 90% are usually the ones that b***h about the outcome.  It’s great to step up and say if you don’t like the outcome get on the fair board, but just remember that with that position you also get a thankless job, with no pay and an enormous amount of work that no one else wants to help with, they would no doubt love to have you step up and help.

the world is ran by those who show up

 

[shorthorns r us]

And in my area, you can step up to the plate and become a fairboard member, or a coach, or about any other volunteer position.  You just have to have the guts and the backbone to do it.

In my area noone wants to do any of those jobs because they don't want to have to deal with the people like you...

no need to get personal.  we are all entitled to an opinion.

 

[occ]

Not sure where to start,lol.

Since we began with the county fair deal, I'll start there. "Someone said quit trying to be somebody and they won't resent you so much." I'm nominating that for the truest statement of the year. In the late 80's I had a Simmental heifer that was a division champion at the Canadian Agribition. At that time, it still may be, it was the largest Simmental show in the world. Against my better judgement, my dad wanted to take her to the local fair so that his friends from work would  be able to see her when they came to the fair. She stood 5th out of 6 in class in a 20 head show. Most of the local people involved either with the fair or showing were happier that I had lost than they would have been if they had won. That's just how people are at these little deals. I'd like to discuss the cheating part at the end of this dissertation.

In the late late 80's to mid 90's we were very active in open shows on a national level. The "politics". wrong birthdays, what ever you can imagine, it's there. It took me about a year to figure out that these are the "rules" of that game and I was not going to change them. And I was ok with that. At an open show there is a lot more to it than winning. There are people who get to see your cattle that would never see them other wise. A judge never bought a single animal from me, but there were lots sold in the barn before and after the show. And I learned that it made a difference who was leading that animal so I just made sure the right person was leading them. I'm a big boy and if you want to cheat me to win, have at it. May make me mad for a minute, but there's more to it for me than that.

And as for EPD's used in open shows, the Simmis do it now. It's asinine. It's pure stupidity. The same animals that would have won with out them win with them. It just takes longer as the judges have to figure a way to justify the way they used the EPD's. And how can anyone think that EPD's should be the deciding factor in a show when the accuracy ratings on EPD's of young cattle are so low???

But my hot button is for an adult to cheat a child. I have a friend in Iowa who called me last night. A jock who has been kicked out of the barn and arrested at our state show in 2007, had recently bought a heifer from him. This particular person is famous here for selling heifers WAY older than they are supposed to be. The truck came to pick up the heifer and deliver it to the jocks customer who happened to be in our state. Our heifers have to be born September 1, 2007  or later to show this year. this heifer is a late April, 2007. It makes my blood boil.

years Champion steThis er failed his drug test (Lasix). No one had ever seen this steer before. He came in on a trailer with OK plates two days before the show. Our steers are supposed to be on farm by September 30 of the previous year. Except revoking the prize money and thus losing the steer, I don't believe any punishment will be meted out to the offenders??? What's up with that? Why not ban the whole bunch for life?? That's the only way to stop this crap.Why no punishment for  the ag teacher who had to sign off that the calf was indeed on the farm by September 30. Why not ban the whole family because the parents had to buy the calf and approve. It should be a privilege to be part of the program, not a right. It absolutely boggle my mind how "those in charge", could allow this. We will be DNA testing steers from now on, so that is one positive thing that has come from this.

Several years ago a particular person followed every calf he had sold  into the ring. Judge was a former judging team member this guy coached. He picked 'em all. Why the parents of every other child there allowed this man to escape with even the one arm he has baffles me.

Call me violent, radical, over reacting, ect. But people used to get tarred and feathered for doing things like that around here. How did we become so passive??? There is no accountability for these people or their actions. If that county fair staff member or that judge who reversed the calves had feared  accountability for their actions, it never would have happened. If you want to cheat me, I have no problem with that. I'm a big boy. But if you cheat my child, you'll be accountable. I guess it's a good thing that I have no children. To me, it'd be worth spending some time in the pokey to make sure that person thought twice about doing that again.

I'd love to hear some parents views on why they allow this to happen. We've become so passive, apathetic.  It's the reason our government is the way it is. We allow these people in Washington to do the things they do by either continuing to vote for them or not voting at all. WHY???

 

[knabe]

more "normal" people simply need to run for office.  i for one wouldn't have a problem if they had a real job and didn't show up unless to vote, especially at the state level, as they simply have too much legislative time on their hands, and it has become a full time job, when it really is just a part time job.  when state legislatures have enough time to produce a bill to allow communist party members to become a teacher, to teach our kids a philosophy that we have fought numerous wars over and defeated that philosophy to now codify into law because of moral relativism because we can't seem to judge that our system is better than communism, i mean, really, those legislators really need a real job, preferably starting at a fast food restaurant again, just like a lot of us did. 

i guess i would like to see some quilting activists get on the fair board, perhaps some jam and pie makers, well, i guess even those contests can get "political".  i mean the bra stuffing and the leaning over must be something fierce.  i remember when my cousing won for jam with her plum butter, "everyone" said she cheated because my grandmother did it for her.  i knew this not to be the case as they basically couldn't stand each other.  my cousin went to all her "secret" stash stands of wild plums and hand picked every juice dripping one.

 

[occ]

Sorry, messed up on earlier post trying to quote gonewest.  What I intended to say is:  gonewest, the grand champion steer was not the late arrival.  The grand champion was shown all year and did pretty well.  The 3rd overall was the "rumored" late arrival.  I think these and past years' shenanigans hurt the steer program in our state.  May have something to do with the lower prices you mentioned in another post, also.  I personally don't think the family who owned the grand champion knew about the Lasix.  They are good people who would not risk the damage to their reputation nor put their children in this position.   The other steer was owned by a good family, too.  As far as I know, it could have been in their barn all year.  I'm from the same county and don't like  the things (including Dr. Hook) that are associated with our county every year.  Glad to have the dna testing now, though.  And, mouthing of all heifers.   JMO  

 

[Lucky U Cattle]

  I ask to tell me the difference between a show heifer and a replacement heifer and they could not answer this.

I am from out in Cali and we have lots of replacement heifer shows out here and run into the same problem. Out here a replacement heifer show is where they show short-bred heifers and then sell them, in a replacement heifer auction. They are not looking for show cattle just like your fair said Earl. They are looking basically for the biggest, deepest bodies commercial heifer in the show. They dont want one that would do good in the show ring, they dont want registered heifers, they dont want quaiity. They think that if they have even the smallest amount of clubby breeding that the heifer will have problems all her live, and no rancher will want to buy her, which is the point of our shows out here! So in a nutshell... they cant deal with the competition of the high quality breeding heifer show, so they have made another division where their commerical bred ranch cattle can perform! Cause ladies and gentlemen, that is what county fairs are about: OUT with the CLUBBY in with the CRAPPY!  (thumbsup)