1) No the calf acting up is not always a sign that the exhibitor didnt put in the work at home. Young cattle often act up even if they have been worked, something may have spooked the calf and just have it on edge the rest of the day, and just like people sometimes cattle just have a bad day. Now for me if I get down to my top 5 and they are really close and one of thems calf is acting up, they are probably gonna be 5th. I am not going to ask another exhibitor to switch and take a calf that is acting up. The purpose for asking really close ones to switch is to see which ones are truly good showmen, and which ones have just been trained to walk around the ring and smile beside a calf that does everything on its on. Its a sad fact, but we must face it that how a calf looks or behaves in a ring is no indicator of how much work the kid leading it has done at home anymore. More often or not I think a lot of the calves that have issues are being shown by kids who really try but just dont know what their doing and have no help or support. While at the same time there are a lot of kids with great looking, good haired, well behaved cattle who couldnt even tell you where the barn at home is...only the hired help would know.
2) For me questions depend on age. The purpose of these shows and projects is not just to teach a kid about how to walk around the ring with an animal, its to teach them about responsibility, life skills, and about the industry. How man times do we say "These exhibitors in the ring right now are the future of our industry."? Do you want the future of our industry to not know anything about the industry? I ask questions to ALL age groups and to ALL exhibitors in the class. Their questions change with age group. PeeWees only get asked their animals name and if they are having fun. Juniors I expect to know how often and aproximately how much their animal eats, what their daily routine is, name, breed, age of animal,and if females are bred. If they get really close I may ask Junior some basic parts of the cow or how many parts of the stomach there are. Intermediate I expect to know all that same information plus know how much and what the animal is eating, and know a little more of the anatomy, I also feel like they should be able to tell me the 4 parts of the stomach and how long a cow is pregnant. The Srs always get asked the age, breed, sire, sire of calf, how much they eat, what they eat(most can even tell me Protein and Fat %) if a heifer is bred they should know to which bull, they should know all the external anatomy, they should know what EPD's are. If they get really close I may ask them about a big topic in the industry currently, but honestly I have never gotten that far, and I think we are doing these kids an injustice.
A lot of parents who pay the help and want to buy the show want to say that these kids are to young to learn all this. Let me tell you what happened a few weeks ago at a Jackpot I judged. A young man that is on here fairly frequently just flat showed the hair off his heifer, and when I asked him questions I had to stop him, he started answering me and I looked at him and told him, I never even know that much info about my cows. When I asked Sire and Dam of his heifer, he not only gave me names, but Reg #s and who owned them, When I asked him what EPD's were he not only knew what they were, how they were helpful, he started reciting his Heifers specific EPD's. This young man is only 15 and in his first yr of being in the Sr class...not only could he answer all my questions but he could explain them, in detail. His one fatal flaw, he forgot to take his baseball cap off before coming in the ring. If you know me as a judge, you know this is a big big mistake to me, but he did so well I still used him as Reserve Sr Showman ball cap and all. Whats more impressive is this kid doesnt really have a background in cattle, he has pretty much taught himself. I also have an 8 yr old I am helping that can answer questions in the ring that some of the breeders 16 and 17 yr old childrens cant, and those kids have been at this their whole life, this 8 yr old has been doing 4 months. Now his answers arent always text book. His heifer has been pasture exposed, but not sure she is bred, when judges ask if she is bred he often responds with "We dont know but she been with her boyfriend!" May not be textbook but he answered the questions.
So now that I wrote this novel, I guess my point is not only do I agree with asking questions, I think they are vital part of it. If we arent gonna ask questions and expect the kids to learn something about the project then why waste our time and money with jr shows, just have an open show let em judge the calves and go. We have the jr shows so that kids can learn and to promote education. Its just like school, if teachers never gave tests the kids would never bother to learn anything. Those questions in the show ring are often times the only tests the kids in these projects get.
