Big Dog Cattle - Show Cattle Blog

June 29, 2010

Show Cattle: a bridge to sustainable ranching?

Filed under: Show Cattle — Tags: , , , — cowz @ 3:32 pm

I am a ranch girl from a long line of ranchers and farmers. I still ranch, although I am one of those ranch wives who is really handy to have …….. as I also have a job in town. The only time I ever had to live in the city was during my college years, so that was a wonderfully fun exception.

I am happy where I am, except I dearly love to travel. I really enjoy learning about different types of ag operations. We travel the western and midwest states often and enjoy visiting and observing everything we see as we drive.

Often we drive through a stretch of highway that passes through neat and tidy little towns, through fertile farmland or sparse and rugged ranchland. More and more, I notice that I see fewer and fewer young people and families in these areas. It pulls at my heart strings! I often try to imagine what these small towns were like in their “heyday”, and wonder how they manage to keep their grocery stores and schools open.

My fervent hope is that small town agricultural America can stay alive for future generations.

One of the reasons that young families cannot manage to stay on the family operation or live near their roots is the inability for smaller ranches and farms to support multiple generations.

This leads me to my point. In this day and age we have to create the type of cattle operation that is sustainable. We have all heard the term sustainable agriculture, but I do believe it means somethin a little bit different to each and every one of us! To me, it means using every bit of creativity you have to force a living out of the agricultural resources you have or have access to!

Raising club calves for us started as a 4-H project and AI project gone beserk. We always had some registered stock we raised bulls from as well as the herd of commercial cows.

I always remind my crew that the commercial cattle are the “bread and butter”. But the truth is the group of cattle we raise club calves with, gives us the motivation and excitement that helps us look forward to the next calf crop. Choosing the AI sires from year to year always creates lively discussion and debate at our place! The end result is not only raising your own show animals, but the extra income that can be made from a tenant of our ranching operation that adds a little extra spice to our lives!

AJSA Western Regional

Filed under: Show Cattle — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — smatheson @ 9:50 am

I just returned from the American Junior Simmental Association’s Western Region event held in Moses Lake, WA. My Washington Simmental Association sponsored the event. This year the participants came from Washington, Idaho, and Utah. Spectators traveled as far as from Nebraska to see their cattle or friends compete.

The youth, ages 9-21, participated in Sales Talk, Public Speaking, Judging, and Cattlemen’s Quiz, Showmanship, and the Type classes. In the Sales Talk, they are given a scenario and must convince the judges (customers) that their heifer, cow, or bull is right for their program. They must be well versed in their animal’s physical and genetic strengths and weaknesses and be able to make a deal. For Public Speaking, they draw a topic from a hat and have 30 minutes to make up a speech and present that speech to the judges. The cattlemen’s quiz is difficult! Questions may be about genetics, animal health, history, attributes of the breed, and how to read and use EPDs. The judging consisted of six classes of cattle. One class was a keep/cull class. The participants were given EPDs and a scenario. They had to decide which cattle to keep and which ones to cull. Oral reasons were given for two classes.

We also had Novice kids, ages 4-7, participate. I had the pleasure to help judge the Sales Talk competition. I was amazed at the young children’s willingness to give it try and how well they did.

The youth and the adults had a great time at the Western Regional. I had been out of the show loop after my children grew up and moved on. This was educational for me and a chance to meet some wonderful people from around the western US.

These kinds of events are both skill and character building for youth. I encourage our young showman to enter these breed events as well as to participate in 4-H and FFA. They provide a great kick start to life! The AJSA National Classic event will be held in Des Moines, Iowa July 11-16. If you are in the area, you might consider dropping by to watch. It will also be shown on LiveTV. Details about the event may be found on the Iowa Simmental Association Website
http://www.breedingcattlepage.com/Simmental/iasimmassoc/nationalclassic.html

Sandra Matheson

Matheson Farms

http://bigdogcattle.com/mathesonfarms/

www.mathesonfarms.com

June 14, 2010

Livestock Identification Requirements for Exhibition Shows

Filed under: Show Cattle — livestock-id @ 10:58 am

Just a reminder to everyone, please refresh yourself with local livestock exhibition regulations, each state has specific requirements, that must be met, in order to transport your cattle to a livestock exhibit. Most exhibition halls and organizers can provide you with the state requirements, ask them for it.

A Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI) will be needed, and or requested at anytime during the exhibition, along with other possible certificates. An entry permit will also be needed for out of state livestock. The CVI must have the identification of the Animals, depending on your state, which could be a visual tag or RFID tag.

As you know many will request certificates for testing of tuberculosis, and other transmittable animal diseases. Please refer to your local state veterinarian’s office, as this should fall under the CVI. We have provided the link below to a list which is updated for 2010. Always be well prepared and well in advance of the exhibition show date.

List of State Animal Health Officials 2010

Most of you are already quite aware of the requirements, but this is just a reminder to those who are new to the show cattle industry. Know the facts, and where to get the resources.

Cattle Identification and regulations is a responsibility for all us producers who transport livestock to exhibition shows.

Have fun, be safe, be well informed, and most of all Good Luck!

Livestock-ID: Animal Identification Resources Is a Blog dedicated to helping cattle producers with Animal Identification, from RFID readers to cattle management software.

June 11, 2010

Clipping a Show Steer – 101 – Part 4

Filed under: Cattle Fitting,Show Cattle — Tags: — admin @ 11:41 am

Again, I apologize this has taken so long to get out. Last tutorial we left off with blending the hind legs into the butt of the show steer. Now we will focus our attention on the butt, tail head, and tail area.

1) I usually start with the tail  so that I can see what I am working with better. From the side view I will determine where the point on the butt is that sticks out the most. From there I will shave all around the tail from that point up. Make sure to leave the last 6 inches before you get to the tail head. We will working on that latter. I will then use some scissors and trim up the area between where I shaved and the switch begins. I want to leave most of this hair, but it is important to make it look nice. Last I will take a comb and comb out the switch. I will then take the scissors and clip the bottom of the switch so that it lines up even with the show steer’s hocks.

2) Next I will turn my attention to the butt of the show steer. I will again look for the point of the butt that sticks out the furthest. I will proceed to shave this area (make sure you shave with the hair and not against). I will then use this point as the point of reference. I will proceed to feather out from this point to the body of the show steer. You will want to take your comb and comb toward this point from the rest of the body then clip back the other way. Do this action repeatedly until the hair is nice and even. Just focus on one side of the butt. Then try and copy it on the other side.

3) Last we will talk about the tail head. This is possible the most important area of clipping the show steer. You can make your show animal look longer, wider, and the butt look bigger just from properly clipping this area. Like the legs, I typically don’t clip this area much before I fit it with adhesive. We will just pretend that we have taken adhesive and combed all the hair out and it has properly dried. I will then work on the sides of the tail head. We will want the tail head to appear as skinny as possible. This is done by starting at the point where the tail head meets the body and taking the clippers up the tail head. I will go so far as I will shave most of the hair on the body of the tail head. Once I have finished both sides I will start to work on getting the profile lines worked out. Take a step back and look at the profile of the show steer. On the butt side we will want the shaved area of the tail to blend into the tail head. We don’t want the back to look perfectly straight. We will want to there to be a slight bend in the line. This will make the butt look bigger. The top will also have a bend in it. The bend in the top will be opposite of the butt area. The butt area will bend out, but the back area will bend into the show steer. Once I have a picture of what I want I will start to clip the tail head to match it. I will typically round the tail head tip. When I am clipping the back line area of the tail head, I will make sure that the tail head appears as far back as possible. You can do this by making the tail head smaller. When you look at the profile, the tail head should be the highest point of the show steers besides the head.

Remember that there is a lot more that goes into giving a show steer an excellent clip job. I am just try to give some basics to help get you started. I would strongly encourage you to spend time practicing, looking at other show steers that are clipped, and, if you can, ask for hands on advice. I am only able to give so much via this media. Hopefully, I will be able to post some videos at some point. Please let me know what you think here: info@bigdogcattle.com

June 10, 2010

Animal Identification: The Basics of Protecting our Livestock

Filed under: Reviews,Show Cattle — livestock-id @ 10:14 am

Animal Identification is an important part of safety in our food supply chain. With an implemented animal traceability system, it enables authorities to effectively trace back animals to their point of origin. This is extremely important during a disease outbreak, such as Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow Disease, the affected livestock, whether it is beef cattle or sheep can be traced back to its original farm, and gives exact data of which animals the affected animal was in direct contact with, so those animals can be quarantined, and further tested.

This also proves to be cost effective, as an entire herd at a feedlot, does not have to be destroyed. An average feedlot at any given time has between 200 to 3000 heads of cattle, all depending on the size of the feedlot. This can enable a beef cattle rancher to segregate possibly just 50 heads of cattle for testing, instead of the entire herd. Even testing has a cost per head, with an average of $10 to $50 per animal.

Animal Identification can be done with several methods, the oldest and most cost effective to the beef cattle producer is the visual ear tag. Although there are other methods such as tattoo, metal ear tags (mostly for sheep and goats) and Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) ear tag.

The RFID ear tag is the most effective form of animal identification, and has many benefits for animal traceability, as well as cost effective benefits for the cattle rancher. RFID cattle ear tags have a unique identification number, which will never be duplicated, so this eliminates human error. The RFID ear tags can also be read at an extremely fast rate, with a hand held RFID reader, or fixed RFID reader.

RFID ear tags also give a wealth of information very quickly. When used with basic cattle management or livestock software, a ton of information can be recorded and retrieved quickly through the software. Information such as date of birth, vaccinations the animal had received, gestation period, etc., all can be retrieved by simply reading the RFID ear tag, and making a simple enquiry through the cattle or livestock software.

Many livestock producers have been against any form or type of Animal Identification Systems, claiming it is a violation of their rights, and added cost per head to their operations, and so on. But there is a great deal of benefits to producers. Livestock producers, just need to be educated more on the technology, and the benefits it could add to their operations, and the added value it could bring to their animals, on a per head basis.

Animal Identification is an important part of safety in our food supply chain. With an implemented animal traceability system it is beneficial to everyone, from livestock producers, to the customer who purchases meat products at their local supermarket.

Livestock-ID: Animal Identification Resources Is a Blog dedicated to helping cattle producers with Animal Identification, from RFID readers to cattle management software.

June 1, 2010

Show Cattle Classifieds

Filed under: Show Cattle — Tags: — admin @ 7:26 pm

Introducing the newest section to BigDogCattle.com is the Show Cattle Classifieds section. This section is designed to give showmen from around the country access to buy, sell, or trade equipment, cattle, and services. This section was not designed to advertise whole herds, or general supplies that can be sold through a single website. It’s purpose is for the sale of mostly used equipment or individual services and cattle. We also offer a wanted section that will allow easier connections between individuals. Our hope is to allow showmen, producers, and all the above to be able to utilize their resources in a positive way to improve the show cattle industry.

Please visit the classifieds sections here: http://classifieds.bigdogcattle.com

Feel free to let us know what you think. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. info@bigdogcattle.com

April 13, 2010

Clipping a Show Steer – 101 – Part 3

Filed under: Cattle Fitting — Tags: — admin @ 8:01 pm

Sorry it has taken me so long to continue our venture of clipping a show steer. We left off talking about how to clip the belly and cod area of a show steer. Today we will cover the fundamentals of how to clip the hind legs of a show steer. Typically, when I am trimming the back legs I will leave a good majority of hair until I can clip the legs after they have been fit up. This portion of the animal will receive the most adhesive, so it will also need to be clipped up the most after the adhesive has been applied and has had time to dry. In this tutorial I am going to pretend that the hair is fit up and the adhesive is dry, so that we can talk about all that need to happen when clipping the legs.

1) First it is important to remind ourselves of what a good show steer looks like. We want a calf that stands on good substance of bone, but we also want an animal that looks fairly natural. We want a show calf that is structurally sound, but we also want to make him as showy as possible. It is a fine line we tread when we trim show cattle. The hind legs play a large part in how closely we walk that thin line. They need to have some natural shape to them, but we want them to appear showy with good substance of bone. This means that there need to be a slight grade from wider to thinner down the steer’s leg. If the legs are wider at the bottom than they are up by the flank, the calf will look disproportionate.

2) I will usually start to clip on the back of the legs around the hock area. I tend to start at the high places and work my way to the lower places (where you will typically leave more hair). I like to start at the hocks, so that I can begin to clip out any imperfections. If there are any imperfections (i.e. cow hocked, toe’s in, etc.), I will focus on making them disappear. The best way I have found for straightening up the hind legs is to closely clip the hock where it should be. This will give the animal the appearance that the legs are sound. From here I will work my way forwards blending the hair from the hocks. The hair on the show steers joints will be clipped tighter than the low spots giving the animal the impression that he stands on a significant amount of bone. I will typically clip the inside of the legs fairly tight. This will give more distance between the two legs, and make the animal appear wider.

3) We try to make the hind legs blend as nicely as possible to the rest of the body. This means the legs need to flow into the flank and butt area. I will typically clip the lower flank fairly tight to tie it into the rest of the leg better. I will also leave a good amount of hair above the hock to help tie the leg in. Remember we need the animal to look natural. A good clip job doesn’t just look like a good clip job, it makes the animal look better in a way that people don’t know it is how the animal was clipped.

4) The last part of blending the hind legs of the show steer to the rest of the animal is from the side. This is a very important step. There is a muscle in the steer that goes from the butt halfway down the leg. This muscle needs to be emphasized. Then clipping up the leg, when you get close the butt tapper it off so the butt looks bigger and more defined. This should look similar to a “V” shape going down the leg. The hair at the end of the tapper should be as long as possible, but you still need to clip it. When it is finished the hind quarter should look deeper and larger than before.

March 20, 2010

Clipping a Show Steer – 101 – Part 2

Filed under: Cattle Fitting,Show Cattle — Tags: — admin @ 9:09 am

Ok folks… Here is part two of the Show Steer clipping tutorial. Remember that the purpose of this article is to give young showmen the basic idea of how to clip a steer. Keep in mind that it take a good amount of time to clip a show steer, and it should probably be done at lease twice before the show. I find that the more times I clip a club calf throughout the year the better their hair becomes also and the easier it is to make them look really good.

Last time we left off with the front end complete. With the front end of the calf we took quite a bit of hair off. Remember, even if we want to leave most of the hair on the sides it is still important that every hair gets clipped. That way it will give your animal a nice soft smooth look.

1) So, as we move from the front leg I will usually transition to the arm pit of the calf and the belly of the calf. I try to make the leg, belly, and brisket flow together as nicely as possible. That way your show steer won’t look “piecy”. I will usually shave the bottom part of the brisket and blend the hair from the arm pit to the tip of the brisket.  I will not typically shave the whole brisket. That will help it blend better with the rest of the steer. Otherwise it kind of stands out which is usually not what we want.

2) The next step is to go to the under side of the show steer. It is important to be very careful when working in this area. I will start from the front and work my way back. It is important to take a step back from the steer to view the profile. You will want the underneath to look as straight as possible without making it look too unnatural. I will usually work on straightening the lines up. Then I will blend the hair. The hair underneath the steer can be the same length, but when you start to work your way to the side of the calf you need to start leaving more hair to blend it nicely with the side of the calf (where the longest hair should be). I will usually shave most of the sheath. I think this is one part of the steer that doesn’t need to flow with the rest. If we make it flow with the rest of the steer, then it will make the belly round and make the flanks look too high.

3) Now that we have got most of the belly completed on our show steer, lets focus our attention to the cod area. Even thought this area my seem not necessary to clip it is actually quite important. Make sure to clip the sheath down as much as you can especially in front of the cod. This will give the impression that the flanks are lower than they really are.  Once you have that part clipped down, blend from that area back into the cod and the hind legs. Try and keep the belly as straight as you can in doing this. We don’t want the calf to appear too high flanked because the line from the sheath to the cod goes in an upward direction.

They parts that are left to clip are the rear quarter (including legs, butt, tail, and tail head), and the top line. Stay tuned and we will publish the rest of the tutorial ASAP. Let me know if you have any questions/comments/concerns at info@bigdogcattle.com

March 15, 2010

Clipping a Show Steer – 101 – Part 1

Filed under: Cattle Fitting,Show Cattle — Tags: — admin @ 5:59 pm

When explaining the basics to giving your show steer a good clip job it is always easier to show rather than tell, but I am going to give it my best shot. Please remember that each animal requires a slightly different style of clipping, so I am only going to give some good basics that can help get things started. It is also important to note that styles can and do change from year to year, so probably your best bet it to visit some of the larger stock shows and observe where the industry is headed.

For the purpose of this tutorial I am going to focus on the proper clipping techniques for a show steer. Other show animals require slightly different clip jobs.

For this tutorial we are going to assume that proper hair care has been done to the animal, so we will have a good base to get started. Understand that a good clip job on a show steer will only take place when the animal has been properly washed and blown dry. It is also very helpful to add some oil to the hair to get it to pop.

1) The first step I take is to take a step back and study the animal. I want to find the natural flaws in the animal, so I can start thinking about how to clip the animal in such a way that it minimizes any defects. I also want to identify areas of the animal that I want to accentuate (top, butt, bone, etc).

2) I usually start on the left side of the animal above his shoulder blades. I start by knocking all the long hair down so it will give a nice even look. From there I will move down the shoulder and neck to the brisket and leg. Remember that it is important that every hair be clipped to give allow a nice soft look. In the shoulder neck area it is important to clip fairly tight. We want the show steer to have a nice neat and clean front end. Clip the neck fairly tight because will give your animal a longer neck. Clip the shoulder joint as tight as you need to in order to minimize the appearance of a rough front end. I will usually move from the shoulder joint to the brisket clipping only enough hair to blend nicely between the joint and the very bottom of the brisket. I will usually put hair heads on my clippers and shave beneath the brisket and up the throught line. I will then proceed to blend from the shaved area back into the sides of the neck. This will give your show steer a nice clean and neat front. Depending on the temporment of the steer I might consider shaving the head at this point. Make sure to use a hair head and clip all the hair off the steer’s head. I will usually shave all the hair on the front of the poll and blend from the crest to the top of the poll so there is a nice straight line from the crease of the neck to the top of the poll. Clipping your steer’s head will make the rest of the animal look larger and it will give it a better show calf look.

3) From here I will usually move to the front legs. Keep in mind that we want the show steer to look like he has good substance of bone and be structurally correct at the same time. When clipping the front legs I will usually start will the knee joints. I always clip them as they should be and not how they are. If your show calf toes out a little then I will pretend he doesn’t and clip the knee joints accordingly. We need to understand that if we clip the knee joints down a little it will make the bone below the joints look larger. Above the knee joint I will blend the hair up into the shoulder and neck area.

This concludes our first section for how to clip a show steer. We will try to get the rest of the tutorial out ASAP. Please let us know what you think.

Thanks

Jamie

February 26, 2010

The New BDC Forum

Filed under: Show Cattle — admin @ 10:09 am

I would like to announce the creation of our new Big Dog Cattle Forum (http://forum.bigdogcattle.com). With the advancement to technology comes easier access to information. Information that is critical to the success in the show ring. The BDC forum is a place that is designed to allow steer jocks from around the world to share ideas, ask questions, get feedback and above all improve their skills. This forum is brand new, so be patient with it. It will take some time to become popular to the point that lots of useful information will come out. Please feel free to register and begin your journey. Sample questions could be: how do I grow hair on my show steer during the summer? How do I fit the tail head of my market heifer? How do I feed my club calves to give them extra bloom? Or, what is the best way to bone up the legs of my prospect steer?

Also, feel free to request any changes/additions/or issues you might have with this forum. You can contact me directly at info@bigdogcattle.com.

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