Missile Defense

[grassfarmer]

I would agree with all that stuff Emrald but when you see the reserve Champion calf out of 40 head (who I would have made champion) make $1.20 and a scrawny hereford feeder steer at @900 lbs bring $1.90 where is the justice in that? Maybe this is why so many adult producers are happy to sell scrawny looking feeder calves later in life?
I think that this is a great project and the standard is very high - it just makes me mad to see the best cattle not being recognised. To me it is always about the cattle first and foremost, the connections and the marketing are secondary.

[grassfarmer]

grassfarmer, you have got to take into account the following:
Maybe the kid with the scrawny hereford took the only calf availible to him or her. Maybe her parents didn't have the cash or knowhow to ensure that the steer got the feed necessary to finish.

I have seen 4-H members bust their backsides to work with a calf, and have the parents not willing to pay for the proper feed, and on achievement day the best 4-H member in the club shows up with a 900 steer. Kids are encouraged to join 4-H, and many of them do not come from a traditional farm background. The kid whose steer I showed yesterday comes from a blended family of 13 kids. His step dad is old enough to be his grandad and hasn't a clue about cattle. The kid works part time for the feedlot down the road and the owner gave him a steer to get him started in 4-H. He also gave him enough feed for the critter and let him work off the costs .
The kid took his steer home so he could work with it, and the deal was that he would do his sisters chores around home in exchange for her feeding the steer when he worked at the feedlot on the weekends and school holidays etc.
Nobody fed the calf anything but hay during the entire year with the exception of the days when the kid was at home. The steer weighed 980 yesterday and had a frame that could have easily handled 1250 pounds, but he was the best behaved steer in the club.

The kid is getting no encouragement at home, and if not for the feedlot owner and his family, two of which are in 4-H, this young man would lose out on the opportunity that 4-H offers.
He is going back in this fall, and will keep his calf at the feedlot so he can look after it himself.
Does he deserve $2.50 a pound for an unfinished steer....you bet he does !!!

Another kid had a 1300 pound steer that was the club champion, everyone knew that his uncle had fitted the animal, and the kid was afraid of it, and didn't put any effort into showing it.
Great steer, but did that kid deserve as much for it as the kids that worked their butts off ? Not in my books !

4-H is a lot more than selling a steer, when I was a leader I used to tell the kids and their parents at the first meeting each year, that if the only reason they were there was to sell a steer on achievement day then perhaps they should rethink joining.
Responsibility, marketing ability, business skills, public speaking skills, mean a lot more to these young people in the years ahead than the dollars they make on their calf.


By the way the Grand Ch. sold for $4.05 a pound here yesterday, with the average well over $2.00.

[grassfarmer]

Again Emrald I wouldn't argue with the case you laid out - in that case I would be happy to see the feedlot worker kid get the big money over the Dad competing through his sons hands.
Reality of the show I was at were the calves making the money, whether they were good or bad, belonged to the big established ranch families with the most connections in the community. We had some blended families too,with little farm experience,hard up but
with wonderfully encouraging parents and unfortunately they were the ones getting the lower prices regardless of the quality of their calf. I guess that's just life but I felt dissapointed for them.

[grassfarmer]

grassfarmer, nobody ever said that 4-H was about fairness, when it comes to reaping the rewards for work .

Some of the hardest working members are the lowest paid when it comes to selling their calf. Some buyers choose to support so and so's kid just because they are buddies or business associates etc. Quite often oil service companies will buy a steer belonging to a child of one of their employees which is understandable.

It is tough on kids to see a calf that either isn't as good or no better than their own sell for a significant amount more. That doesn't relate to the real world where hopefully the best calves bring the best dollar, but I still think that all lessons learned in 4-H build character and an awareness of both the unfair and great things that happen in life.

[cowman]

I think 4H is an excellent teaching ground for any young person who intends to enter business. Why you can learn all sorts of neat essential things like how to cook the books, it's okay to cheat to stay competitive, influence peddling, and the old time honored Mafia concept of "one hand washes the other"! LOL!
I recently heard the gay rights community is lobbying to have 4H changed to 5H? Heart, Health, Head, Hands and...Homosexual! I guess they figured 4H was discriminatory or something to all the potential gay kids!

[cowman]

GEEZ Cowman !!! I think that 4-H teaches basics and it also will show members that not everyone wants to play by the rules....they can choose to do so or not, but for the most part the kids seem to understand the rules one heck of a lot better than their parent do.

As for 5H, I never heard about that one, and how in hell would anyone know if the 9 year old first year member is gay or straight. Hopefully we don't start worrying about gender garbage in youth groups !!! And if we do its boneheaded adults that are the ones initiating the issue !!!

[cowman]

I never let my kids join 4H. I guess I wanted to keep them innocent of what an evil world it was out there! LOL
But I will admit I had a ball in 4H. And it sold a lot of bulls for the old man!

[cowman]

cowman we did not push our kids into 4-H, the youngest one wanted to join while the other one was interested in sports vs working with a critter.

I know a lot of kids that have paid for one or more years university with the earnings from sales of 4-H steers, and some of them have received numerous scholarships partly due to the experience they gained in 4-H.
I think it is an excellent program as long as it is done the way it was intended. When parents get their noses into the business of the club then show politics usually gets in the way of common sense.