Not sure where to start,lol.
Since we began with the county fair deal, I'll start there. "Someone said quit trying to be somebody and they won't resent you so much." I'm nominating that for the truest statement of the year. In the late 80's I had a Simmental heifer that was a division champion at the Canadian Agribition. At that time, it still may be, it was the largest Simmental show in the world. Against my better judgement, my dad wanted to take her to the local fair so that his friends from work would be able to see her when they came to the fair. She stood 5th out of 6 in class in a 20 head show. Most of the local people involved either with the fair or showing were happier that I had lost than they would have been if they had won. That's just how people are at these little deals. I'd like to discuss the cheating part at the end of this dissertation.
In the late late 80's to mid 90's we were very active in open shows on a national level. The "politics". wrong birthdays, what ever you can imagine, it's there. It took me about a year to figure out that these are the "rules" of that game and I was not going to change them. And I was ok with that. At an open show there is a lot more to it than winning. There are people who get to see your cattle that would never see them other wise. A judge never bought a single animal from me, but there were lots sold in the barn before and after the show. And I learned that it made a difference who was leading that animal so I just made sure the right person was leading them. I'm a big boy and if you want to cheat me to win, have at it. May make me mad for a minute, but there's more to it for me than that.
And as for EPD's used in open shows, the Simmis do it now. It's asinine. It's pure stupidity. The same animals that would have won with out them win with them. It just takes longer as the judges have to figure a way to justify the way they used the EPD's. And how can anyone think that EPD's should be the deciding factor in a show when the accuracy ratings on EPD's of young cattle are so low???
But my hot button is for an adult to cheat a child. I have a friend in Iowa who called me last night. A jock who has been kicked out of the barn and arrested at our state show in 2007, had recently bought a heifer from him. This particular person is famous here for selling heifers WAY older than they are supposed to be. The truck came to pick up the heifer and deliver it to the jocks customer who happened to be in our state. Our heifers have to be born September 1, 2007 or later to show this year. this heifer is a late April, 2007. It makes my blood boil.
This years Champion steer failed his drug test (Lasix). No one had ever seen this steer before. He came in on a trailer with OK plates two days before the show. Our steers are supposed to be on farm by September 30 of the previous year. Except revoking the prize money and thus losing the steer, I don't believe any punishment will be meted out to the offenders??? What's up with that? Why not ban the whole bunch for life?? That's the only way to stop this crap.Why no punishment for the ag teacher who had to sign off that the calf was indeed on the farm by September 30. Why not ban the whole family because the parents had to buy the calf and approve. It should be a privilege to be part of the program, not a right. It absolutely boggle my mind how "those in charge", could allow this. We will be DNA testing steers from now on, so that is one positive thing that has come from this.
Several years ago a particular person followed every calf he had sold into the ring. Judge was a former judging team member this guy coached. He picked 'em all. Why the parents of every other child there allowed this man to escape with even the one arm he has baffles me.
Call me violent, radical, over reacting, ect. But people used to get tarred and feathered for doing things like that around here. How did we become so passive??? There is no accountability for these people or their actions. If that county fair staff member or that judge who reversed the calves had feared accountability for their actions, it never would have happened. If you want to cheat me, I have no problem with that. I'm a big boy. But if you cheat my child, you'll be accountable. I guess it's a good thing that I have no children. To me, it'd be worth spending some time in the pokey to make sure that person thought twice about doing that again.
I'd love to hear some parents views on why they allow this to happen. We've become so passive, apathetic. It's the reason our government is the way it is. We allow these people in Washington to do the things they do by either continuing to vote for them or not voting at all. WHY???
. it happens at every level of competition not just the county fair.
