Fitting, Feeding, and Finding the Why
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I spend the majority of my week at the Chianina Maine-Anjou Junior Nationals cattle show in Grand Island, Nebraska. This was a very large show, with over 800 exhibitors and over 1,000 cattle present! Having never worked with show animals before, it felt like I was experiencing another culture! I was immediately struck by how well the cattlemen and women care for their animals. They meticulously wash and blow-dry the cattle, clean up after them, apply hair products, and give them a delicious variety of feeds. I was especially intrigued by the intensive process of “fitting,” which is preparing the animal for show by hair spraying, trimming, and touching up to make the hair and silhouette look top-tier.
As I stepped into this new world, I was taking so many new ideas and sights in that I internally challenged many ideas, but then understood the reasoning soon after. I didn’t understand the necessity for many things: the daily time-consuming washing and drying process, only offering full buckets of water, throwing away leftover feed, spending hours trimming each leg to perfection. However, my many questions were similarly answered––good results take consistency.
My soft skill of the week is consistency. At first, I assumed that the show cattle only needed washed and dried a few days before the show. After all, that’s what they’re getting ready for! I soon learned, however, that the key to a healthy-looking show animal is consistency. By caring for their diet, hair, and hide every day, the animal becomes much more tame, its hair shines, and it looks much healthier. The people who put in the most work caring for their animal each day will have better results than those who are inconsistent.
I am still curious about what makes a good show cow. I can see traits when they are pointed out to me, and I can pick out my preferred body shape in bulls or steers, but I would love to learn more about the desired characteristics for heifers, bred heifers, and calves.
I plan to continue helping with the show calves using all the knowledge I’ve learned this week. At some point in the summer we will begin halter-breaking next year’s calves, and I am excited to participate in that. Additionally, seeing the multitude of kids at Junior Nationals taking responsibility for their cattle inspires me to perhaps get my family involved in showing livestock in the future.
Submitted by: Anna Steinle
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team
