Show Preparations...

Have you ever attended a livestock show? Whether you've walked through the barns or have exhibited at the county, state or national level you realize that each event has it's own unique experience. Two and a half weeks ago I traveled home to get ready for the upcoming livestock show that we'd be attending, the North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE). If you've ever shown livestock you realize the time and effort you have to put in to get your cattle ready. Although we didn't have to be on the fairgrounds in Louisville, Kentucky until Wednesday November 10th, preparation for this event started clear back in early August. A few things we had to do early was put the four cows we were going to take on a special feed ration so they would be in the right 'condition' for the show. We also had to do a few hair care things, one of our young heifers, 'Sunset' had all of her hair shaved off so that she would grow back a nice healthy coat of hair. Our bred heifer, 'Lady', had to go on a diet and just eat grass for almost two months with a few pasture buddies of hers'.

In mid-October we started working with our 'show team' more, by bringing them into the barn and giving them a bath every day. This helps manage their hair coat and gives them a chance to get some extra 'loving' from my family members. They really like being in the barn getting ready for a show. They get their own feed pan, instead of having to share with their friends, their poop is cleaned up after them and they have a fan on them all day to keep them cool. Some days I wish I was a show cow! :)

Over the weekend before the show I had to go home to give them all a hair cut. With some of the cold weather we've been having some of them had three to four inches of hair in some places! So after getting a bath and drying their hair I got my clippers out and started giving them each their own personal haircut. The first picture is of 'Secret', who is only eleven months old in this picture and weighs about 980 lbs, respectively, is before she got her hair cut. The other picture is of her with her hair cut, talk about a difference! This took about three hours of clipping to get her to look like she does now.

On Wednesday November 10th my Dad took our four cows, 'Lady', 'Sunset', 'Secret' and 'Arsenal' to Louisville, Kentucky for the NAILE. Be watching for my next blog post to see photos and results from the NAILE!