knabe
Well-known member
did you update your proletariat pic?
looking better.
looking better.
knabe said:did you update your proletariat pic?
looking better.
Amen! I couldn't have said it any better and I wasn't as good communicating what you said.Tallcool1 said:I have read through this post, and many of the comments (in my opinion) have gotten off track.
The question is "When is it considered overkill"?
To me, this is about taking a gun to a knife fight. It isn't about how much money someone has or how good of a job someone does in terms of finding an underpriced steer.
If these people want to burn a State Fair caliber steer at a county fair, it is perfectly within their rights.
We got our $2500 county fair steer beat a couple years ago by a $10,000+ steer that was reserve at Jr Nationals and could have no doubt made some serious noise at the state fair. Our $2500 steer was really a $5000 steer that we bought really late from a trader that was just cleaning out his inventory. We weren't upset by this. We just shook our heads and wondered what they were thinking when they brought a steer like this to the county fair. It was overkill in a sense that they brought 2 or 3 times the quality that it would have taken to win. It was so lop-sided that the judge didn't even go slap the champion. He just said that we have a pretty obvious champion here and now I am going to sort through a few of these others to find the Reserve. Even the judge thought it was overkill!
We can show at 2 different county fairs because we live in one county and our school is in another. One fair is strong, the other weak. We don't even take steers to the weak county fair because there is no point in taking the "gun to the knife fight". It would be overkill.
It isn't about whining and crying because someone else is willing to spend more money. It isn't about working harder or having a cooler or even a professional do the clipping. It is about wasting a high powered steer for a low powered show. That is overkill...although no rules have been broken. It is a clear demonstration of a family operating their show steer deal WELL within their comfort zone. It is like the 12 year old basketball team that averages 6"1" signing up in the bronze division. It is about not challenging ourselves or our children to compete on a stage that is bigger than their comfort zone. It is overkill.
I really like your comments as well.rrblack78 said:I have had to think a little bit about what to post on this because it may not be a popular stance on this issue but here it is. County shows are tricky and are almost always about politics and hurt feelings. If you want to see a bunch of adults that went to kindergarten together become mortal enemies tag your kids for county broilers. We have only done cattle for 3 years and major shows last year and this year but we have participated in our county show for 8 years. I think these situations teach kids life is not always fair. You have to work harder, be better and rise above the petty people. And know that after all that you could still get beat. I understand why you find what these people have done irritating. While their behavior may be "wrong" they haven't broken any rules. They have the right to spend their money however they choose. You better believe if I had 30k to spend on steers I would do it. What I don't understand is why someone would do it to win a county show. We would use that to buy the best genetics 30k could buy, work our butts off for a year then drag those steers to every major show in Texas. If after Houston we still had those steers in our barn, then yes we would show them at county.
rrblack78 said:I would like to apologize for taking this thread off track. There is a point to my rambling.
Is it overkill to spend ten times more than everybody to buy a county fair win? Yes it is.
Is it wrong? It's a gray area. It's not breaking the rules but it sure seems inappropriate but you can't tell people how to spend their money. If this is what they choose to do more power to them. Let's face it someone is always going to do it. It's like that everywhere you go.
Can you change it? Not without getting involved with the county fair politics and it probably wouldn't do any good anyway. Just cause a lot of hard feeling.
On the flip side of this it's no fun to be the one accused of overkill either. Somehow we became "those people" just by tagging the only calf we have for my son to show.
vc said:I think the problem with taking your Major Show Heifer to county fair is when she gets buried in her class, more than people getting upset.
Tallcool1 said:vc said:I think the problem with taking your Major Show Heifer to county fair is when she gets buried in her class, more than people getting upset.
DING DING DING!!!!
We have a winner!!