Q: What did you do for your long weekend?

A: I went to McKinnon's Feedlot!

That has been the story of my life since I was 10 years old because every May long weekend the Balzac Beef 4-H Club holds its Achievement Day on the Sunday. For those of you who aren't involved in 4-H let me explain what an Achievement Day is.

In the 4-H program, Achievement Days are set aside for members to showcase their final projects after a years hard work. Usually the projects are judged against their fellow 4-H members projects but this is not necessarily the case. In our club, the projects are judged. Now what, you may ask, does one do when showing a cow?!

There are several key steps involved in the cattle show world which may seem bizarre or surprising to those who are not involved in the cattle industry.

1. First of all, one must work with their cattle for a substantial period of time prior to any show. This ensures that the animal is well behaved and (relatively) calm in the show ring. A few times a week for a month in advance would be about the minimum you should do - and I mean the MINIMUM! When I say "work with your cattle," I mean that one should halter, groom and lead their cattle daily; as well as getting the cattle used to stimulus such as clippers, blowers, being bathed and standing calmly while activity is happening in the yard.

2. Prior to the show it is important to wash the bovine using soap and warm water. This ensures that the animals hair is clean and ready to style!

3. At most shows, animals are "fitted." This is a fancy way of saying that their hair is styled so that the animal looks good. This is done through the use of heavy-duty hair "glue," clippers, and sometimes aerosol paints. Obviously the better an animal looks, the better it will place in the show ring and there is big money in fitting animals if one knows how to do it - the website I got the below picture from was charging $200 an animal! Some shows are moving to a "dry brush" format which means that use of glues or paints are not allowed in preparing an animal for showing.



A fully fitted calf.
From http://www.austincattle.com/fitting/fittingservices.html,
accessed 22 May 2011.

4. Finally when a person is showing an animal, a special halter made of leather is used and the handler carries a "show stick" to help them in showing the animal. A show stick is a stick that is approximately five feet long and has a little hook on the end that is used for gently prodding the animals feet in order to make it stand nicely. Once it is standing nice, the little hook is used to scratch the animals belly and help keep it calm. Now this is all for beef cattle showing - in dairy shows the handlers walk backwards with their animals and always wear white pants. In beef shows it doesn't matter so much what the handler is wearing but it is still important that they look good and are wearing clean clothes!

Dairy Showmanship
From http://www.rutters.com/?m=201001, accessed
22 May 2011.





My last 4-H Steer, 2008. Lightly fitted, wearing show halter
and being handled with show stick.















5. After showing an animal, the glue must be washed out otherwise it can severely damage the hair, resulting in hair loss!

There you have it! Cattle showing in under 15 minutes!