The Cow Who Started It All-for me

My first cow was given to me by Miss Olive Aldridge in 1989 when I was 2.5 years old which would explain how OA Diamond Julie's Baroness 29Z spent her life being referred to as "Baby Julie".  This cow has shaped my program most females I own going back to her either from daughters or sons. I am lucky to still have embryos in the tank and will be putting them in spring 2015!  She is pictured at 10 years and had Diamond Julie Baroness 8J at foot who is still producing in the herd at 16 in 2015

What cow started the passion for you?

The cow that started it for me was called Lucy named after Lucille Ball. She was a bright red heifer. She placed dead last at the county fair. We AI'ed her numerous times and she never settled. The vet finally said she wasn't cycling normally and we sold her. It was this failure and the desire to improve that fueled my interest in cattle breeding and genetic progress.

This photo of Ruberta at the Worlds Fair in 1904 made me love the patient Shorthorn cow.
I know many would criticize her for being fat, etc, but it was the great heart of her that got to me. Just let me nurse my calf, she seems to say.
http://www.lyndonirwin.com/04beef04.htm
"Judging was delayed by one day because a cow named Ruberta had a calf on the day of the show.  It was later decided to withhold her from the show.  Ruberta had been bred to the champion bull, Choice Goods, and had given birth to a white calf that would, of course, have high expectations. "

HerefordGuy said:

The cow that started it for me was called Lucy named after Lucille Ball. She was a bright red heifer. She placed dead last at the county fair. We AI'ed her numerous times and she never settled. The vet finally said she wasn't cycling normally and we sold her. It was this failure and the desire to improve that fueled my interest in cattle breeding and genetic progress.

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IMO this is one of the best stories to be told here on Steer Planet for quite some time. Everyone always wants to be a "winner", never want to say they stood last, or receive a red or as in my case a white ribbon, which, heaven forbid we aren't allowed to use white ribbons any longer. I just text a friend of mine who is coaching HS Boys basketball & they had not won a game up until earlier this week and he was somewhat feeling understandably low. I text him that it is easy to be the winner, but losing and how you lose teaches much more and can determine what kind of person that you grow up to be. I personally learned more from my white ribbons than I ever learned from the purple ribbons. Kudos to standing last in class and facing adversity and finding the fortitude to persevere.

That cow appears to have a white face to me, perhaps it is just the photo.  I have been asked many times where the white faces on some Shorthorn cattle came from.  We've all seen many Shorthorns with what horse breeders around here would call a "bald" face.  Cates' bull that did some winning at Louisville would be an example.  3W Payoff was a popular bull in the 80s that would throw some white on the faces.  I guess when you throw red and white in together it can end up about anywhere.

The first cow registered in my name was Lady Anna in 1964, purchased for me by my father.  We still have descendants.  I was disappointed in her first calf because it had a bad head (too long and narrow for the time).  Our most noteworthy early cow was Badge's Duchess, purchased from the Thedes in the Dakotas in 1965 or 6.  The first heifer I showed was Clara 141st, also from the Thedes.  She got fourth at the county fair, but she was a champion to me.  Badge's Duchess was the champion that year for my brother.  Clara 141st never had a calf.  Badge's Duchess went on to be our very top producer for many, many years.  Lucky for us we didn't know much about showing back then or we probably would have ruined her.  My twin grandson's heifers had their first calves last year.  Let me tell you they are extremely special.  The kids and the calves. 

This is a great topic!

My first year in 4-H, my dad picked out 3 heifers in the calf crop that he thought would be good projects.
I knew nothing about cattle as a 9 year old other than baby calves are cute, mama cows are big and can be mean and you were never to get in the bull pen.
So off we started-- we worked with all three heifers and they were progressing pretty well from what I remember.  One did get sick and dad had the vet out to treat her and after she had to get shots, she never was tame again to work with on a halter.  If she was loose in the pen she was fine, but she refused to be touched after that vet visit again-- she was a good cow for lots of years.
One of the heifers turned into a big puppy dog-- her name was Queen.  She was a red white face 3 way cross commercial heifer- shorthorn, angus and simmental.  I didn't do very well at the fair with her- she wasn't fancy enough and dad knew nothing about the current fitting trends-- he still fit them up like it was the 50's, but I had a blast my first year just getting to go to the fair and run wild on the fairgrounds for a week and made lots of friends to run around with!  She turned into a super mama cow and every year I would drag her up to the barn around June with her calf and start getting them ready to go to the fair as Cow/Calf.  She was a good teacher-- never kicked, never fussed.  I think she figured out that going to the fair was the "easy life" as compared to being left out on pasture.  She got feed, baths and petted.  Dad had her even after I graduated H.S. and it was a sad day to let her go eventually when she was old.  I still wish we could have just let her pass on the farm, but she was also part of the business of farming, so you know how that goes.  My mom has pictures and pictures of us each year with her and a different calf at the fair.  She was a regular-- it got to the point where some neighbors would say-- will I see your old cow at the fair again   -- I will have to scan some to my computer.
EF

Wasn't a cow at all that got me hooked. It was my first 4h steer that made the decision for me to become a cattle junkie. He was a little rw maintainer with absolutely no hair and a tick small framed which every judge pointed out to me as they would bury us in a class. But that little steer had such a personality and good temperament I was hooked no matter how I placed. I enjoyed everyday I worked with that steer. He's not only the one that got me hooked on cattle but the reason I have a soft spot for painted up cattle.

Mine was a small 1st calf yearling Angus heifer, straight off the range in Eastern Oregon. She was sired by OCC Echelon 857E, and we had been sitting at Larks Dispersal Sale for 2 days and it must have been a last minute decision to buy a yearling heifer for me at the end of the sale instead of using a heifer from the cow/calf pairs we'd purchased. They got down to the last 25 heifers or so to sell and then it was somewhat of a panic to come home with one. We'd like darn near every Echelon female we looked at all weekend, so we set to get one to take home. I think we paid $600.00 for her and it was such a blurr I hardly knew what I actually purchased.

I paid for half of her with money I had from my 1st market lamb, and my mom paid the rest. I had the option to give her the 1st calf, or pay for the 2nd half when I sold the calf.

We got her several hundred miles home with a trailer load to switch our herd from a "rainbow" herd to a Registered Angus herd. She made it known early that people were not her thing. I'd venture to guess that outside of vaccination, branding and sale time she'd hardly seen a human. She rocketed through the chute, which didn't have any fancy head catch on it, it was homemade, but usually effective. She hit it so hard and fast the handle flew out of our hands and straight out the front she went like a bat outta h*ll! At 10, I was starting to wonder if I really wanted to do this! We eventually got her fairly broke but she never really enjoyed her life as a show cow.

She went to our county fair every year from 2001-2007. I don't think a year went by that she didn't kick me or slam me into the wall. Our saving graces on her is that she was exceptionally pain sensitive (and very responsive to the halter) and loved grain! I ensured she was always tied against a solid end wall of the barn. Her calf served as a buffer when even I went to tie or untie her. She was affectionately knows as "the Witch." It wasn't until the final year that I could actually get her to let me use a show stick on her for reasons other than to pop her in the nose for blowing snot at me.  She brought me home Supreme Champion female as a cow/calf pair in 2003 and her production report was stellar. She probably never got over 1,100 pounds, but her calves weaned the heaviest in the herd every year.

I could handle her, didn't mind too much doing it, it was a challenge but no one else could, and never a man. She hated men. She threw my uncle into a hot wire fence when he tried to tag her 2nd calf for us because we were out of town.

She spit out her 1st calf at 22 months, between the speed she had it or the pain, she attacked it rather than mothering it. It took a couple of weeks of tying and hobbling her to get her to let it nurse, and having to separate the pen between her and the calf before she finally started talking to it. If finally clicked and she was a fantastic mother after that. We tried to AI her, but my mom being a novice at it , could never get her. She would lurch back and forth in the chute, and there was no way you could even keep a hold of the cervix.

She certainly taught me a lot over the years.

I sold her at 8 years old, when I graduated. Of the 12 head I sold then, she's the one I miss the most. We had it figured out between us, but boy did she hate going to town.

The photo is as an 8 yr old, her last trip to town.

I really enjoy "tales of the show project."  Isn't it interesting that all the cattle have personality.  I wonder if any hog showman or lamb showman could tell similar stories. 

I had an experience more like Hereford Guy...

The second calf we bought for the son to show got Spastic Pastheis, not real bad at first, even had the vet out, but he seemed to not know what it was.  I finally put it together from looking at pictures on Steer Planet.  I realized that most the other Cow Dads, or at least the ones selling "4-H heifers"  in this county knew what it was.  She "locked up" bad at the county fair sitting for 5 days , and since she was the only one in  the class I swallowed my pride and let my son show it. She got a small trophy for winning the class, but a red ribbon...

I will tell you one thing.  I hope to NEVER sell one that does that for a young person.  When I saw another one, about the same as ours at the fair a couple of years later, I took dad aside and told him my suspicions about his sons calf so he could be aware of what was ahead... 

Here is my story. This was my family's first show heifer. We bought her in 01. She was a strictly business x mailman. My family paid 2100 for her which was a lot back then for us. She was my brothers. He used to pay me to walk her and clean her stall so he could talk on the phone to his girlfriend. We took her to a show in June where the show committee let my brother and I show her for showmanship. He took her in for the senior division and she didn't do a lot for him. I walked in the junior division and won it all in showmanship at my first show. She used to drink water from a water bottle before going into the ring. I had a lot if great heifers out of her. When my little boy was  born and got big enough he was timid around cows but I would take him to see stef and she would let him sit on her. I had to cull her a few months ago. She will always be remembered. She was the backbone of our program and it will take awhile for me to find one to replace her in and out of production

My first show heifer was a pb angus heifer that we calved out from a bred cow we got from the neighbors. She wasn't anything special but she was perfect for a first year 4her. In fact I was able to win junior showmanship with her.
The next year when it came time to have her calves, she aborted her twin heifers two months early. At the time I was crushed.
Still have her today at 11 years old. She is always the first one to the trough and last to leave.

I'm not sure if I would've stayed in showing with out having a calf like her. Cows like these seem to be the hardest ones to say goodbye