Why show steers

[EastTnShower]

I am sure I am going to get an earful from this but why show a steer. They are basically money traps. You can pretty much feed two heifers for what you could a steer. Steer classes also seem way more competitive. Also after show season they have no perpose but to eat. I doubt unless it was farm breed you will make any money on it so why?

 

[frostback]

I had a grandfather in our 4H club ask me the same question about showing steers. I just told him that I was raising kids not trying to make a profit. You don't make money with kids playing sports so why do that too? Well its to teach kids life lessons for later in life. The learn so much from it. You cant do it for money or ribbons but for the kids and their future.

 

[RyanChandler]

I am sure I am going to get an earful from this but why show a steer. They are basically money traps. You can pretty much feed two heifers for what you could a steer. Steer classes also seem way more competitive. Also after show season they have no perpose but to eat. I doubt unless it was farm breed you will make any money on it so why?

Entertainment. 

 

[iowabeef]

I had a grandfather in our 4H club ask me the same question about showing steers. I just told him that I was raising kids not trying to make a profit. You don't make money with kids playing sports so why do that too? Well its to teach kids life lessons for later in life. The learn so much from it. You cant do it for money or ribbons but for the kids and their future.

AMEN!  Showing any calf is not about making money.  It is about spending time together as a family.  Some people pour money into boats, campers, or golf clubs......we put money into an educational experience where you teach innumerable life lessons to young people.

 

[chambero]

Because it IS the most competetive and hardest thing to be succesful at involving the breeding and showing of livestock.

 

[Buck]

AMEN AGAIN!!! Few people realize how incredibly difficult it is to breed and raise a really competitive steer. Then how much time and effort goes in to feeding, grooming and showing him. You have to start with a really good one and then work your butt off to be competitive. Simply put, you usually get out of the experience what you put in to it.

 

[cowpoke]

If spending quality time with your family  to reach a goal,being able to have lifelong memories and making friends that last forever, teaching responsibility and work etic are important things to you than showing livestock is priceless.If you let someone else to your work,think money will make a winner,and don't interact with fellow exhibitors[or parents] then find a corner and text or play computer games and talk on your cell phone.Exhibiting livestock has more to do with the exhibitor instead of livestock which is really just a tool to help develop our next generation.Winning is fun but the journey if done with right is most important.

 

[RyanChandler]

The most difficult part is finding somehow, w/o a financial interest in the matter, to give you an honest apprai$al of a prospect's value. 

 

[Show Dad]

The most difficult part is finding somehow, w/o a financial interest in the matter, to give you an honest apprai$al of a prospect's value.

AMEN!!

Or even more difficult is finding someone to listen, after they bought one, to your honest appraisal!!

Just say'n
SD

 

[RyanChandler]

haha, very true-  Hard to swallow the fact that you just spent 20 grand on a calf that might win his class-

*I meant someone not somehow

 

[chambero]

"Just" Winning a steer class at a Tx major with a $20k steer is a good thing.  There a lot more 20k + steers than there are classes available to win.

 

[RyanChandler]

"Just" Winning a steer class at a Tx major with a $20k steer is a good thing.  There a lot more 20k + steers than there are classes available to win.

If you lined up all the class winners from ft worth, Houston, and San Antonio-  what percentage would you say would be over 20k?

 

[RankeCattleCo]

If you're in it for the money, then you're in it for the wrong reason.

 

[Bradenh]

"Just" Winning a steer class at a Tx major with a $20k steer is a good thing.  There a lot more 20k + steers than there are classes available to win.

If you lined up all the class winners from ft worth, Houston, and San Antonio-  what percentage would you say would be over 20k?

If you included ft worth in that I think your ratio would bump up to around 40% or so, Chambero would be closer but that would be my guess

Surely around 80% being in that 10k range,

I'd like to hear rack ranch and chambero on that point though like I said that's a guestimation

 

[rackranch]

We have been fortunate enough to have had a profitable show career up to this point. We may be the exception to the rule in this department I don't know but it has not been a losing investment on our part.  A lot of the things mentioned above are the real reason we do this, except for the fact we LOVE doing it.  We are going into Faith's senior year and it is already difficult to image not being involved in raising cattle for show.

See yall in College Station, we are about to go load up and head North.

 

[5PCC]

My kids show heifers because that is what I showed when I was young. It is a way for the kids to increase and improve their cow herd.

We also show steers. Yep...3 kids...3 heifers...3 steers...My kids show steers because their dad wants them to. We show the steers at the county fair and state fair and a few other local shows. The steers are sold at the end of the county fair for much more than market value. It helps cover the cost of the feed. We do not pay $20K for the show animals though.

 

[DLD]

We show steers because we enjoy it. It's a great family activity, the kids actually learn a lot doing it, plus they get to travel and meet lot's of people - todays friends may become valuable business contacts in the future. Don't know that we can say we always make money on our steers, but we don't spend so much on them that there's little or no chance of at least breaking even.  I agree completely that it's not a money making proposition overall.  But on the other hand, neither is showing heifers if you pay much of a premium for them.  With steers, there are at least premium sales to shoot for.  And despite the fact that there are a lot of high dollar ones out there, there are also people getting along with cheaper cattle, believe it or not. 

 

[chambero]

Very few people do spend that kind of money, even in Tx.  The vast majority of those calves get concentrated in the hands of a few families - say 20-30 or so here off the top of my head.  There are 6 "big boy" breeds at our steer shows - chis, maines, simmis, char, limis, & aobs.  3-6 classes per breed at SA and Houston.  Your top end calves that bring those $$ are in medium or heavy weight classes.  So there are maybe 40 tough classes to be won in a year.  There are dozens of calves that bring that much money here.

Trying to beat them with one you raise - which aint cheap either- or with a cheaper  is quite a challenge.  That's the fun part for my family.

People that soend that money are paying for "technical support" moreso than actual calf value.

 

[BLININ]

And it is all so sweet to beat those high dollar ones, but" all greats ones are made not born" was what one of the all time great steer guys told me and that was a quote from him!

 

[BLININ]

And before I get slammed that was just what a legend told me once