T-Majic
Well-known member
I just wanted to see if there are any county fairs out there that do a share-a-beef program, where a farmer will donate/loan a steer to a kid whose is responsible for raising and caring for the animal throughout the year and then there is a special class for those calves at the fair as well as be able to be shown in there respective classes/divisions and afterwards the farmer and exhibitor split the money 50/50 after the fair when the calf goes to market. We had this at one county when I was not old enough to show but my brother was able to take advantage of it and I thought it was a great program and can help get kids back to showing market animals. The down side and reason they did away with it is cause a calf got loose one year and got into a swampy area south of the fairgrounds. I don't know if they eventually got him back but the farmer raised such a fuss about not getting his money asap that they did away with the entire program. Our local county fair has a very very low number of market and feeder calves but a lot of cow/calf and bucket calf projects. I would really like to start this at our fair as I think it would give kids more incentive and responsiblity while being able to earn some money for their hard work withouth the upfront expense of purchasing a show animal. If anyone else has a program like this please let me know how it works.