Market Steer

My son has taken some lashings at our local sale ever since he started showing!  My husband's employer has given our son top dollar for his animal every year.  One year my son's animal brought more than the reserve Champion animal, which actually brought a very low premium.  You can bet that kid's parents pitched a fit!!  They forced the board to put caps on the sale.  Now the reserve has to bring 10% less than grand, then blue ribbons can bring 10% less than reserve and reds 10% less than blues.  We greatly appreciate the money this man gives our son......but don't understand why others get so worked up.  My son still sends out buyer letters and goes door to door in person, shakes potential buyers hands, introduces himself and invites them to our show every year.  My son has others that contribute money also, and for the past three years, we have turned buyers away, and asked them to put their money towards other children that need it for their project.  Yes, it is very political, but I don't think you can tell people who to give their money to.  The man that contributes the most to my son is not a big supporter of the show, therefore my son is not taking money away from others.  Actually, I don't think he would even show up at the sale if my son was not showing.  Okay, I'll get off my soap box now!!  As you can tell, this is a sentive subject for me!!!

At our county fair you get want you get, if you have buyers you do well, if you do not, you do not do so well. There is no set price, the auctioneers do their best to set a floor price but sometimes they can't get that. Our resales go toward the scholarship fund. all resales are put on the board and you can purchase them for $1.25, I have seen someone stand in line all day just in case a steer hits the resale board. You can not purchase any animal until that species have all sold, then they open up the resales, steers sale last. This year are sale started at 10 and ran until 6:30 There where 210 hogs, 90+ sheep, 60+ goats, 16 veal, 50 steers and the champion pen of rabbits, pen of chickens, and turkeys. The people who want the resale steers if there are any sit there from the start of the sale to the end of the sale.

If you are in it for only the money in at our fair, hogs is what you need to raise.
Buy a hog for $150 put $200 worth of feed into it, 250 pound hog for $2.00 = $500 - $350=$150
Most hogs go for Between $2.50 to $3.50 a pound so you could double your money. If it is only about the money, just get a job, once you figure out the time spent working on your project to what you make broken down hourly it is not much. If you made $1000 on a steer which you had for 8 months and worked with just an hour a day you would have 240 hours invested (not counting the time it took to find the animal and the time at the fair) 1000/240 = 4.10 an hour. Most kids who are serious will spend more than an hour a day by the end.

There are many animals that sale for more than the champions at our fair, usually it will be a parent or grandparent buying an animal for someone headed for college, or there has been some kind of tragedy in a family and everyone will pool money together to purchase that child's animal, I see nothing wrong with this at all. We had 2 boys in our club who raised pigs, a month before the fair their father was killed, I do not remember the exact amount but I think both boys hogs sold for over $20 a pound. This was a community giving support to their own.

Our auction is not connected to the 4H in our county.  A private committee runs it.  They send out letters to potential buyers and host a meal the night of the auction for the kids, parents, and buyers. The showmen are asked to find some buyers if they can, and the kids that bring their own buyers generally do a little better than the kids that don't go out and look for buyers.  Election year auctions generally bring more money than other years. 

In my opinion, a person should be able to spend as much money as they want on any animal they want to.  In the end it is supporting the kid, and I have been on the recieving end of a lot of high sale prices.  Hereford steers don't generally win a steer show around here, so I never had the Grand Champion Steer in front of my name in the sale program.  If you want to make money though, sell a pen of meat chickens or a rabbit.  Those folks always make tons of money. 

I just did math tonight. and im a little shocked. i have a county fair at begining of sept. i bought a hereford steer last october. now i bought him off of a sale that i have the chance at two different shows to win 500 dollars back at each show. now that i only paid 1100 for him i can pretty much pay for him. i have won 500 at the first one and in 4 days will see if i can beat the other steer to win another 500. He got finky with feed on me and i bought pre maid show chow for him. at 12 bucks a bag for a ton i did the math and i would have 1300 dollars in him with feed if i had fed that the whole time. WE usually mix our own showchow with there concentrate. Feeding that cuts the price for a year to feed one animaal down to around the neighborhood of 800 dollars. I am just like you and usually showed heifers but steers really get ya goin with all the compeition. So my point is do the math with the feed your feeding now and my opion is try to at least break even. but like everyone else says find a breeder who will help you out and make sure you get a pretty good calf that won't dissapoint you.

this is my fourth year showing steers, but am learning more every year. Our family has a small herd of mainly Angus cattle. My sister and I started out by showing steers out of our own herd. They were not the best quality, but they were good enough to put us on top as our county has a large number of south devons and it is hard for devon steers to compete. This year is my first year goin out and looking for a good club calf steer. I was fortunate enough to find a seller who not only had good animals for me, but also offered to help with grooming and feeding along the way! Also he was only about 40 minutes from my home! We just  finished our county fair and I was fortunate enough to come out with a champion steer  and a bid of $775.00 at auction but I did go out and tell people to show up for auction.  We are now in the process of getting our steer ready for State Fair. We are in Minnesota and it is a very big State Fair.  My sister showed a steer and heifer.  She was reserve Champion with her steer but he was overly finished so she is taking her heifer to state fair.  The heifer is actually out of the same club calf bull named Texas Hold Em.  We will definately make money off the heifer and we mixed our feed with show chow.  We expect both animals to do well at State Fair.  Yes, it is not about winning but we are expecting the steer to make auction at State Fair.  If you do your research before purchasing your steer you can at least break even.  We purchased my sisters steer at the Minnesota Beef Expo for around market price. At the time we didn't know a lot about the walking part and didn't realize he had a few structure problems but he was pretty good.  We could have purchased a better animal for about the same price and I guess if it costs me a little money I would rather do that than to be in trouble or get in the wrong crowd of kids. Oh, and I am a country hick anyway.  I would take my chance at it or at least do some research. (clapping)

[cowgirl_up_47 said:

I have always shown heifers at our county fair, and am now getting down to my last 2 years in 4-H. I am now really considering doing a market steer, but have no clue where to start. I looked at stall cards, and it looks like I need a calf born somewhere between January and March of this year. I was also told you should start with them in October (Our fair isn't until August next year).

Can anyone help? Would appreciate any tips, advice, etc...

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Yes, I will agree that it does cost money to show a steer, but it's costs money to show period.  Our 4-H breeding beef show isn't that competitive which is a little disappointing, but our steer show can sometimes be pretty hot.  Having sold MANY Shorthorn steers to youngsters throughout the years, I will tell you what we typically experience (Our 4-H fair is the last weekend of July, with our county fairs in late August and just after labor day).    We typically break the calf to lead for the new owner and they usually pick them up (or sometimes we deliver them) by the end of November at the very latest (this gives the new owner a chance to work with the animal and feed it the way they want it fed for the upcoming shows).  We keep in touch with the owners by making sure they have all of their questions answered on feeding, hair work, etc.  We have been known to go to shows to purely offer fitting help to those showmen that aren't that experienced.  Most of all, we try to make it a teaching/learning process for the buyer so that they enjoy working with their cattle and they get the most out of it - everything from feeding, to fitting, to showing, and even breeding (well with the heifers anyway).  This is what I recommend you look for when looking for a steer!  Make sure you find someone who will be there AFTER the sale of the calf, whether it's just calling them for advice, or asking if they will come help you clip out the steer at home before the show.  This is how to shop for show cattle!  For the time period of your show, I would stay with a steer calf born somewhere between March - May.  I have seen January/February steers get too framey and overdone before the show too often.
I am not sure where you are located, or if you've even found a steer yet, but we're located in North-central Illinois and have quite a few Shorthorn and Shorthorn Plus steers priced to sell.  Some of them are still out to pasture, but they will ALL be available for viewing by Labor Day Weekend.  If you're looking for a competitive steer at a good price, I encourage you to give me a call and I'd be happy to show you around.  Also, even if you already have a steer, don't hesitate to pm me with questions during your show experience.  I've seen too many good showmen give up because they're too embarassed to ask a few questions.

The last thing I would be thinking about if I win is the money I get that is for sure!!Its more like icing on the cake.