A Meander Through A Show Steer Auction Preview
This morning my daughter and I rose early, for we had a field trip to embark on! Both of us had a spring in our step because this particular field trip involved going to a show steer breeders farm and previewing all of the club calves that are going to be auctioned off this Sunday. You see, it is already time for the kids that want to do a market beef 4-H project to pick out their calves for next year's fair. There really isn't much of a break between the projects and is most definitely not an endeavor for those who do not want to put in some work.
We were to be heading down to the Rathdrum Prairie to visit the cattle farm this morning with a couple of our fellow 4-H friends. The cattle breeder is so super cool, he and his family arranged for us to come and privately preview all of the calves so our kids could get an idea of which calves they liked and wanted to bid on this weekend at the club calf sale. We arrived at the working cattle ranch this morning to a familiar sight to anyone who's ever pulled into a working agricultural operation. All manner of equipment and outbuildings bedecked the property like oxidizing heralds of hay -scented welcome. If you looked in among the agricultural themed detritus more than a few barn cats could be spied peering at you in perturbed alert.
The elder rancher greeted us and proceeded to lead us to the large corral where the calves were getting their training. One thing about the place where we get our market calves that makes it so special is that it is a family run operation. Instead of just getting a young, unruly steer that has never had any handling, when you buy a club calf from the McLean family you are going to get something special. Multiple generations of family members work together on halter training and gentling the weaned steers. They truly have a nice operation and their care and love for what they do shows, for their steers are fantastic.
When we got to the corral we were faced with a scene of beauty. Well, beauty to a bovine enthusiast. There, in front of us all, were twenty young steers standing tied. For the next thirty minutes or so Mr. McLean led us down the line of steers and went over their parentage and pros and cons. He had this little black book that he referred to when we had questions, the pages all dog eared and faded from the elements and use.
After a bit of Moo shopping, we stood around and talked feed and genetics while the kids said hello to the calves. Then, without warning, the amiable cattleman hollered,
And try them out they did! Part of the young calves lead and gentling training involves leading them to a water trough during the day in the middle of the corral. The three kids that were with us got right to work leading and testing out their favorites. Some of their initial likes proved to be stubborn or not quite right, and new favorites were quickly established.
I have to say that Mr. McLean is sharp, for before the visit was over, the kids had tested all of the steers and led them to water. Our favorite cattleman chuckled about that fact with us and his adult grandson, who is in charge of the calves' training. They enjoyed the kid's auction preview visit too.
Upon leaving, we all piled into my friend's truck and chattered back and forth about our favorite calves and reasons why. As I sat squished in between two teenagers that smelled of moo, I reflected a bit on the fact that I just got to spend an entire morning petting baby bovines in the company of a bunch of cool characters and decided that the rest of my day would probably be as moo-velous as the first half!
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