trying to get started

my son is 8 and wants to start showing he is going to show a steer off the farm this year but I know wont compete and am ok with that but would like to improve our stock for future years. I showed at the county fair here in town as a kid  but never a good caliber calf like you see today and am wanting to raise some club calfs for ourselves we have had cattle my hole life but just commercial cattle what is the best way to get started is it with a bred club heifer or with crossbred cattle and then AI and if so what bloodline. thanks for any info

Are you trying to raise them because it's expensive to buy them or because you want the experience/tax write off of raising one yourself?

As expensive as the good steers are, it's still cheaper to buy the good ones than produce them starting from scratch.  Add in the club calf breeder bubble that's still building steam and there will be a ton of high quality steers for relatively cheap prices by the time you have your operation producing them.

I might catch some flack for this post but this is from personal experience:

It is much easier to buy a decent show calf then to raise on.  Your first hurdle with be to get the calf out alive.  A big boned big butted calf doesn't usually come out as a little dink.  You risk loosing momma and baby.  Then you hope its a steer calf, that the heifer milks ok, you can get her rebred, etc.  Then you have to hope the quality of the calf is what you want.  You have to worry about structure a lot more with club calves then you do with commercial cattle.  I don't want to paint a bad picture for you, but we have been raising commercial and purbred cattle for a long time.  We have tried to produce a few club calves as well and gave up after so many different problems with the whole thing.  It isn't financially worth all the trouble when you can buy a decent calf for less with less worry,risk,and trouble.

Just my opnion.  Good luck to you though!

Fluffer

Depends on what level you want to show.  For county fair steers, you can go out and buy them, but look at the economics and what you are trying to teach your kid.  We have spent a little, not a lot of money on some nicer heifers that my kid owns.  Have AI'd them to easier calving Angus and clubbies for the first calf and after 2 years he now has a string of 2 bred cows, 1 bred heifer (last year's show heifer) and 1 open show heifer.  The winnings at some smaller jackpots have about knocked the price of the show heifers down to market price.  This year he will show at county fair one of the calves he raised.  Probably won't be a contender, but he only has about $600 in the calf (what he could have sold him by the pound for this fall).  That calf should sell for somewhere around $2000 at county fair.  Even if he bought all the feed (which he doesn't), he would still clear a profit.  He had another calf that was a dud, so sold him at market price and used the proceeds toward a second show steer.  Should about break even on the second steer and could do a little better.  Trying to teach him how to run it like a business and this is his college saving plan.

If you want to teach them how to gamble, then buy the expensive ones and try to hit the grand at jackpot shows or your county fair.  However, the upside potential is way less than the risk of losing a grand or two buying something.  Our philosophy is to make money at this even if it doesn't pay much.  We aren't interested in gambling with the college saving plan, but probably won't see the fancy banners very often either.

thanks for the replies but I am not planning on winning any big shows by doing this my son enjoys it and am doing it for him and if he does win at the county fair that is a huge plus but not worried about it if he doesn't. My thinking I would  get the first couple of calves for him and stay at the county level make him help and teach him to save his money and buy other calves or cows for himself. I want him to learn it takes work to do things and not everything is handed to him loose or make money is not the worry if he enjoys it.

If you are wanting to raise your own, that is rather expensive. But if money is not an issue or you just want to get  a few head, then by all means go for it. I would reccomend either buying a few bred recips with embryos already in them, then you put and embryo in them the next year of your choice. Or you could buy a few proven club calf cows, that have consistently thrown good calves, these cows usually dont come very cheap though. I wouldnt reccomend buying a bred heifer, because she is not proven and you may be buying a cow that consistently throws junk calves, (for lack of better terms). This is just my opinion though. Your best bet would probaly be to buy a few proven cows, a few recips, flush your best cows, put the eggs in and breed back the good cows to calving ease bulls. jmo Good luck!!!!

my advice is get a good little heifer for starters. feeding steers can be tricky,dont worry about winning.teach him how to care and feed one right.then move on to bigger and better things.i dont practice what i preach but dont get recips that have high dollar embryos .you are still at great risk.try to get something that has a good disposition.parents get these knotheads,cut the lead as short as they can,fight to get them to the ring and hand them off to the kid and say have a great time!let your kid mature wiwth the cattle.JMO and good luck,Rusty

Just curious, what is the risk difference in buying an unbred heifer and buying a bred recip? But I do agree, if you are going to buy a show animal make sure its got a good disposition, nothing is worth getting your child hurt over.

here is what happens to me, I buy these clubby embryos and put them in recips, then i go out and see 130# dead calves with alots of hair ,great big old shoulders and huge bowling ball heads. my thought for a 8 yr old is to get a little heifer that they can handle and feed right instead of holding wt for 2 months or feeding the crap out of to make weight.a little off topic ,sorry,you can kinda of control your destiny with a heifer you get bred.rusty

  I think that if I was in your place, I would look into buying some embryos and use my own cows as the recips. I would decide what breed or cross that I wanted the calves to be and search for flushes that had been done with sexed semen. I think that would be the fastest way to catch up to today's cattle without having to spend an outrageous amount of money getting caught up. JMO.

Take it from someone who has spent a fortune raising them, save your money and go buy him one.
If you must make the same mistake the rest of us have made, buy him a really nice heifer or two (takes just as much to raise a bad one as it does a good one) each year and in 2-3 years you will have calves on the ground you can show, by the time you get a great one you will have a hundred grand or more invested in his project.  
I can guaranteed you this much it is a whole lot funner to do well and see your hard work pay off, do yourself a favor and don't waste your time with a calf you know won't compete, get in an off breed class or different age bracket where your son can see some success from his work, it will pay you back in the long run.

really confused now if raising your own is so expensive why does everyone do it

i think the money you spend in embryos,transplanting, a.i work,having to feed recips or bred heifers,you could go buy a nice heifer and be done with it.rusty

Missouriman i sent you a message

I don't know about anyone else, but by the time you make the initial investment and spend the money for feed and expenses all year long you hate to just sell them so you collect them.  When we started out, we didn't raise cattle, we got into it strictly to show, it is a great family project, and we thought it would be a great opportunity for the kids. We started raising them thinking it was going to be cheaper than purchasing one and of course with what you see going through a sale ring, we were going to make a fortune, by the time we figured out that many of the high dollars you see are just a facade we were hook and really do enjoy it.
There isn't anything wrong with raising your own as long as you go into it knowing it is probably going to be a loosing deal, it is a gamble, you may get a great one and then again, after a lot of money down the tube you may still get the sale barn calf.

missouriman said:

really confused now if raising your own is so expensive why does everyone do it

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Cuz its just too darn much fun and more addicting than most street drugs lol

the angus111 said:

i think the money you spend in embryos,transplanting, a.i work,having to feed recips or bred heifers,you could go buy a nice heifer and be done with it.rusty

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Very true and a good statement at that. It just really depends on what you want to do. If you want to show and arent super worried about what type of calves you will produce, go out and by a good show heifer, that you think will make a good cow. If you want to raise 'em, go out and buy your recips and embryos or put the embryos in your own cows and get the best of the best genetics. If you want to do both, buy a just buy a package of eggs that comes with a guarntee, put 'em in your cows, and use what you have left over to get a nice little heifer calf or steer. Either way, I wish you luck, thats an admirable thing for an 8 yr. old boy to already start to want to raise his own.

We have a small herd of commercial cows that have been a hobby for 15 years.  Have pasture and need to put it to work.  When kids got old enough to show, had them show lambs or pigs the first year or two and then grandpa (who is a full time rancher) said he would donate the first calf to each grandkid.  Kid got the pick of the replacement heifers and that was how he started.  Now he has a few head together that we purchased and he can at least raise his own county-level show calves.  Not that much invested.  Not trying to raise a great one.  More trying to have strong set of maternal registered cows with clean genetics in the event that we get tired of raising show cattle (and have to wean ourselves of the addiction) and want to go back to the simple life of commercial cattle.  Have learned a lot in the past few years.  Read everything you can -- this site has been great for learning about show cattle.

As a parent of 3 4-H members - 2college grad. FFA members 1 still in  hi school------  go the 4-H FFA route !!!!!!!!!!    Your kids make lifelong friends- and learn life lessons to boot. Make rules right from the beginning and stick to them i.e.  chores  payments for feed etc.  when they know from the  begining that steers are sold and heifers are kept for cows or sold as br.stock, it easier  in the end.  Take my advice (my oldest is 26- we  started showing when she was 9) look for a nice tame steer , after that if your kid is doing ok buy a tame heifer( heifers can be pretty hard for younger kids to show). I hope you have as much fun as we have had over the years and good luck. And trust your local steer jocks - they usually get along well with younger kids and will hand out pointers if you ask. See you at the show

I have to agree with Jill and Bruiser they both hit it on the head. 5 years ago my daughter who is now 16 wanted to show cattle we got with a friend of afriend of afreind that was a steer jock bought a really nice tame shorthorn steer started going to jack pot shows to gain experiance went to kirk stierwalts 3 day school before we ever went to a show. after  that year we bought a fall heifer since you can show them 2 years here that way we could spend a little more money and get great qaulity since we show it for 2 years we have purebred shorthorns and Angus. My oldest daughter has 4 cows and my youngest has 1 cow and a heifer from her sisters herd. The point is my daughters and i are very close from all the time we spend together because of the cows and that is worth way more than money that we spent on the animals this year all 4 calves going to the fair was bred born and raised by us we dont always win grand champion but we are not last in class either. the girls pick out the bull that we AI to and have to give reasons why and being cute does not work LOL. With a whole lot of luck we have had some really good calves . and its always more fun to win with what you raise anyone can buy a winner for enough money but it takes alot of time and luck to raise one that can compete and for that you need to start with a good foundation