new Houston registration rule

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nobody

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 6, 2010
Messages
182
Location
East Texas
Does anyone know anything about the new registration rule for Houston jr livestock show? The chapters have to scan an electronic copy of the registration papers and if they are unable to read the file you are kicked out. Our son's paper work was scanned and sent by our AG teacher along with the other students and sent as one file and for some reason his was the only one illegible. Fortunately for us, someone in the office at Houston pulled his paperwork from last year (same cow) and got us in. But 300 other students weren't so lucky, they were kicked out. Two questions: 1. If the chapters are scanning the papers and sending in a hard copy why are they kicking kids out of the show? 2. How are we supposed to know if the file is legible once Houston gets it?
 

JBB

New member
Joined
Apr 27, 2011
Messages
4
Houston does not require hard copies of papers at entry.  How did you find out they could not read them now when heifers have not checked in yet?
 

Mouse

Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2010
Messages
8
Houston notified 2 of my kids by letter about their entries being declined for a similar reason. We recieved the the letters about mid Febuary.  I think entries were due in December for a March show.  I do not understand why they need so much time at Houston. And why they are so slow proccessing the entries. But since 2 kids could not show the other 2 said they didn't want to go.  I was the most disapointed because this is the senior year for the oldest.  We contacted Houston and they were less than helpful.  And then they keep the kids money. My kids pay for alot of their own show expenses and Houston declines the entry and keeps the money.  But ask Houston and they are all about the kids and supporting youth. My opinion Houston is the second worst place to go for a show. The show is the most expensive we attend, people are rudy and not friendly, and it seems every year half the people we know there either get their vehicle stolen or broken into.  My kids enjoy going to shows we attend about 10 every year and we do not jackpot but they have said the do not want to ever go back to Houston. It is only show they do not enjoy.
 

chambero

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Joined
Feb 12, 2007
Messages
3,207
Location
Texas
Houston's whole program has shifted over the years to where they are as focused on supporting urban youth in their area vs. rural youth across TX.  They are reaching a point with steers where it is going to be financially prohibitive to show with feed cost and MARKET price costs relative to their designated payouts for making the sale.  Every calf making the sale has upwards of 1500-$2000 in costs other than the purchase price.  If they dont up their payouts they are going to lose exhibitors.  I love Houston, but I'm way more inclined to take a calf to SA now if I had to choose since the minimum sale price there is about $4k.  FW is around $7k.  Houston is a little over $2k, not even $500 over market price today.

Their system is hurting the average 4-h/ FFA kid.

Now this on heifers.  Many a school and county 4-H office doesnt have the scanner/copier technology and software to efficiently scan papers and send them in.  A lot of the older agents/teachers dont know how to fo it.  Combine all of that with Houston keeping the money if errors are made. 

The whole major show program is evolving into a "what can we do to penalize kids" - from ridiculously inconsistent sifting - to now overcomplicated entries - to ridulous overcrowded parking/stalling partially as a result of accomodating VIPs at the expense of exhibitors and parents that pay the bills.

And I got my truck broken into in 2010 at Houston.
 

JSchroeder

Well-known member
Joined
May 17, 2007
Messages
1,099
Location
San Antonio, Tx
San Antonio did most certainly up their game on the auction prices this year.

However, I don't think it's really fair to compare the price Houston pays for those 6th-10th place calves to a show like San Antonio.  In San Antonio you just get the gate and the floor price if you place that low.  Ft Worth doesn't brand nearly as many as Houston either.  And let's be honest, all of them are light years ahead of what the kids in other states could ever dream of from their shows.

On the original subject, I've always wished harm on men in power throwing away a kid's hard work because of a honest mistakes/technicalities.


I don't know of anybody who has gone to Houston more than a few years that wasn't either broken into or in a group that had trucks broken into.  It's to the pervasive to the point that you almost have to think there are large numbers of hotel clerks in on it.
 

twistedhshowstock

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Joined
May 2, 2011
Messages
758
Location
Nacogdoches, TX
I think that is just completely ridiculous.  There are 2 shows that I know of that require you to scan and send copies of papers. Houston and San Antonio, though admittedly its been a long time since I did entries for most of them.  Unless I am mistaken I still think SA requires hard copy of the papers at  check-in.  But regardless, to require scanned copies of the papers, most originals these days are printed with special paper that make parts of the papers illegible when copied or scanned so that they can not be forged, so its understandable that they are going to receive images that arent legible.  There are numerous other things as well, operator error on the scanner, older scanners that do not scan as well.  I remember early scanners blurred things badly and you could hardly read any writing on things that were scanned unless the font was huge.  As long as the entries were filled out correctly and the only problem was that they couldnt read the scanned image clearly then I think they should allow the kids to show, at the very least they should notify you and allow the chance for you to send a better copy.  We had a similar situation with Ft Worth this yr, I forget what was wrong exactly but for one of our entries they couldnt read something, we got a letter from them explaining what the issue was and were given a chance to correct. I was even gone out of town when it came in the mail and didnt return home until after the deadline to send the corrected entry. I called them up and they said it was no problem, they could tell what class the heifer was supposed to be in so just bring the corrected info to the office when I got there.  Seems to me Houston should do the same. 
I have always thought that the sale prices were low for the lower end at Houston, but I always thought it was one of the smoothest running shows of that size around.  After hearing stories of what a disaster move-in and check-in was for the Open Show last week and now this I am more inclined to believe that Houston is trying to ruin their show.  I was not aware of this issue until I read this, my roommate is an Ag Teacher and we are leaving with Heifers in the morning, he didnt know anything about this until I just told him, so it seems like only those who got letters saying they couldnt show and the people they told are the ones aware of the issue.  I bet if word got out and enough people said something then this may change.
I do agree it seems like shows are trying to find more and more reasons to disqualify people and take them ot of the running, and in my opinion this is no doubt thanks to the highly political people who have lots of pull with the management at these shows.  The VIPs as they were referred to earlier.  Just one more way for them to insure that they have a lock on the wins.
 
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