The Growing Gap Between Real and Show Cattle
By Jen Hill
As fairs and Junior Nationals shows wrap up across most of the country and seedstock producers begin to prepare for the fall and winter showing seasons one thing is becoming abundantly clear; the gap between club and commercial animals is growing, and it’s concerning for the animal agriculture industry as a whole.
Show cattle have always been a bit different than your average commercial animal, however the differences have become more stark in the last decade. Walk around just about any show today, from county fair level to major national events, and you’ll notice that show cattle are increasingly sway backed and have hip pins that are progressively more level or even above the hooks, indicating major calving difficulty in their genetics. Today a bulk of show calves are delivered via C-Section as the breeders chase higher and higher birth weights. Watch the average market steer walk into the show ring and they are frequently so unsound you wonder how it would ever manage to get itself to the feedbunk. While these problems likely won’t impact the average kid showing a steer at county fair, it does have big implications for the seedstock and commercial industry at large. Seedstock and registered producers use livestock shows to showcase their animals and drum up customers, often commercial cattlemen. As these club calves sell for bigger and bigger money, many producers find themselves drawn to that potential high dollar sale. However producing and promoting cattle that cannot calve or walk is not a successful long term business plan.
These shows are also the agricultural industry’s showcase to the public. County and state fairs are full of people with no knowledge or connection to the industry watching and judging what we do. And they notice. They notice when an animal has been pushed so hard that its joints no longer function right and it looks painful to walk. They make comments like, “that cow looks like it walks with a stick up its butt.” They may not understand what that means, but they notice something seems off. It follows that they then wonder about industry wide husbandry practices.
Club animals have truly become their own industry, pulling away and separating from the commercial side entirely. Last spring my own children attended a youth livestock show instruction camp where the parents were forced to sit through a three hour sales pitch for show supplements from the CEO of a major show supply company. At the beginning he asked if anyone in the room raised commercial animals in addition to show. After raising our hands my husband and I were immediately shunned. Presumably the CEO knew that we would see through the B.S. he was shoving down other, less bottom line driven parents. We listened, feeling both amused and appalled as he told them things like, “never give your animals free access to water, but instead drench them every three hours so you know exactly how much water intake they have”, and supplement like crazy with high dollar pastes made up of nothing but a couple of minerals they are likely already getting from feed and little bit of peppermint (because every lamb needs fresh breath, right?). But who do these people think are really the backbone of the industry?
There are also implications to the lessons we are teaching our youth in this game. The average kid purchasing a show steer, feeding it to 1200 pounds and selling at their county fair is losing money. Many of them will tell you they also raise and sell and hog to pay for their steer. If our goal is to raise future agriculturalists who will make money in the industry, is teaching them that it’s ok to lose money year over year really the right lesson?
As ranchers, animal and industry caretakers we are called to produce animals that can be healthy and as self-sufficient as possible. Perhaps it’s time to get back to the days when show judges were old ranchers brought in off the range to select industry viable winners.