Here is where I cant just sit back and read any longer. I dont believe anyone has the right to degrade such a valuable part of the industry until they have, themselves, fully competed in a show. Every year we bring a string of cattle out to many shows. The first reason being that we cant get half a million people out to our farm to look at our cattle. We can, however, display our cattle to that many people a year at shows. The second reason is for soundness. Cattle at shows are put under a microscope and overanalysed by everyone. I challenge everyone to tie their herd bull up and stand him on concrete for a week and truly see how sound he really is. Only extremely sound animals feet and legs can take it. Now, granted there are good cattle and bad cattle at shows. Just like there is good cattle and bad cattle at every feed yard I go to or every commercial auction I attend.
To say that showing cattle is ruining the cattle industry is to admit your cattle are terrible. All cattle go back to show cattle somewhere in the pedigree. If you have a good herd of cattle then you have yourself to thank as well as the generations of purebred breeders who raised seedstock to get you there. Now as far as the overfed, counterfeit topic is concerned. Good, easy doing cattle dont need alot of feed to maintain a nice body condition. Only those who have efficient cattle would know this. Every calf we show gets to the show in the exact same body score condition that he/she was weaned at off of his mother and grass. As well, I am not really sure where feeding cattle became such a fraud. Every animal that is not retained for breeding stock ends up on a hot ration at some point in there life. You don't get much more "real world" than finishing cattle. So if certain cattle can't tollerate any grain then they will be the steirs and heifers that will show a loss for the feedlots.
How many cattlemen see cattle from hundreds of herds and see progeny from thousands of different sires every year, from across North America, without attending a show. You would have to travel 365 days a year to get that kind of information. Without that kind of information you cannot make a well informed, sound bussiness decision. And in bussiness, knowledge is power.
The fact of the matter is I sell alot of bulls every year. They have to go out into very rugged terrain, survive and get the job done. Not only that, I have to follow up on these bulls and warranty anything that doesn't satisfy the customers needs. I have never heard of a commercial producer having to give the money back to a feedlot because their animal didnt quite live up to its expectations. So who has more to lose with conterfeit cattle?
We all, as livestock producers, get very annoyed when PETA makes a false, uninformed campaign against our industry. I feel the same has happened here on this forum topic. People should get informed before insulting many people's way of life.
As well I feel I need to put my name under this column, as I am very proud of what I do and what I stand for.
Shane Cadieux
Well put Shane
My point of view on the counterfeit show cattle is simple if you want to go out and do all sorts of "tricks" to make your show animal look better all the power to you, we all know that ppl do it and most of the time a good judge or other purebred breeder can see through it. I like to think of show fitting as a sport within the sport of showing cattle. It keeps the shows interesting and competitive. I am though in favour of being ethical when doing this, if it is not legal by show standards or is a threat to the animals health it should not be done.
Its only illegal if you get caught. You just need to be snaeaky. HaHA
rock on shane!! Bump.....Set......Spike!!! 1 point shane 0 for band.
It's absolutly rediculious to think that every animal in a show is fraud and that it's bad for the industry. There are good and bad cattle every where you go in the world and in every single breed. Not everyones cattle well work for a certian person and not everyone see's cattle the same way. what might work for one not might work for the rest. Doesn't mean there not good. In response to no commercial cattlemen strolling threw the barns wanting to buy a champion bull or female to work in there herd ah.......for arguements sake lets just say they calve out close to 1500 head a year. Go and talk to Himmilsbach ranch up in northern Saskatchewan and ask them where they go to find herd bulls that they run in a pasture close to 20 sections big. Call me crazy but Thats a pretty good reason for going to market cattle at a show.