what exactly is a "club calve" ?

[jasper]

I don't know anything about "cows". I am driving madly on though. LOL.
I get that there are different qualities/grades of cattle, but Idont understand it all yet.

What is a club calve ? are they actually registered ? or are they just a much higher breed than a "grade" animal.
Just out of curiosity I went to a cattle auction the other day.
I noticed that none of those cows had ear tags. ??

I have googled alot of stuff. But, yall are awesome with the help.

THANK YOU!!
Jasper (thumbsup)

 

[BCCC]

Club calf= a Show calf, Some where on here is where the word actually came from some thing about 4-H clubs

 

[jasper]

(thumbsup)
Thanks!

 

[farmboy]

club calf , if you look in semen catalogs, will be all the cross bred bulls with 10 inches of hair and big post legs, or look like that, thats when you get a breed calf thats said to look more clubby looking

 

[garybob]

club calf , if you look in semen catalogs, will be all the cross bred bulls with 10 inches of hair and big post legs, or look like that, thats when you get a breed calf thats said to look more clubby looking

Why don't thet breed one sooooooooo hairy, and name him "Gossimer"? Or, why don't someone  breed on that is soooooo roughly made, that they name him "Cow KIller".

GB

 

[AAOK]

Back when Junior Shows began, they were called "Fat Stock Shows".  The only competition was Steers, ready for market.  The 4-H club would purchase the calves and distribute to the exhibitors in various ways.  The breeders, who many times donated these steers in order to collect data on their steers such as ADG and Carcass results, became know as Club Calf Breeders.  Eventually the steers became known as Club Calves.  Today, the term Club Calves is still used by most to represent Market Calves, and not Breeding Stock.

 

[farmboy]

club calf , if you look in semen catalogs, will be all the cross bred bulls with 10 inches of hair and big post legs, or look like that, thats when you get a breed calf thats said to look more clubby looking

Why don't thet breed one sooooooooo hairy, and name him "Gossimer"? Or, why don't someone  breed on that is soooooo roughly made, that they name him "Cow KIller".

GB

i dont know

 

[aj]

4-h is a club and ffa is a club...I assumed the projects for youth initiated the club calf term.

 

[cowz]

4-h is a club and ffa is a club...I assumed the projects for youth initiated the club calf term.

Around here, the new version of this is a "catch it calf" program.  Local business pool donations to buy 10 calves.  20 4-H or FFA members apply to be in the program.  Usually at the fair rodeo, the 20 kids and 10 calves are turned loose in an arena and the 10 lucky kids that halter and tie the calves to the fence are given a free calf for the next year.  The calves in our program are purchased from the same program.  The breeders enjoy seeing how the like calves progress.

 

[aj]

Club spelled backward is bulc. I think it stands for "buy underwear lime colored". This could be a wal-mart marketing gimmick to sell lime colored underwear! I think we need a government program to study this situation. <hero>

 

[Doc]

  Gee, TheTruth you sure are a bundle of positive attitude.

 

[SSIMMENTALS]

Also to add to my last post.

If you have a heifer that does not do well in the show ring, more than likely it was because:

1) She has too much femininity.
2) She looks like a heifer instead of a steer.
3) She can actually walk.
4) She's not hairy enough.
5) She didn't have the right farm prefix at the beginning of her name. 

So basically if you lose in the show ring, you actually win.

It also means that your animal will more than likely produce a live calf every year all the way up until she's at least 14 to 20 years of age,  long after that "Barn Burner" Grand Champion Animal has turned into a skeleton in the ground. 

There is a happy medium for some folks. Just because you win in the ring doesn't necessarily mean that your heifer is doomed for life. I give it to you that some of the show steer rejects that win the heifer classes are completely unfunctional and are not fit to grace anyone's pasture, but if you look deeper into some breed shows, the females that are winning pretty near the top actually do make some pretty nice functional females once their days of showfeed are through. I believe that if you find a balance of show appeal and proven lines with predictable genetics that a heifer can compete in the pasture and  the showring. Usually though these are the ones who are picked on for their first year or so and then once they get to be heavy breds they turn the world on fire.

 

[BIGTEX]

(welcome) 





The Truth. WOW you sound bitter. It also sound like you have been at the back of a lot of classes with lots of bigger named ranches in front of you. We used to call it D.A.L. dead ass last! It's amazing the money some people spend and to drag around animals that have no chance of placing.

 

[common sense]

I don't know anything about "cows". I am driving madly on though. LOL.
I get that there are different qualities/grades of cattle, but Idont understand it all yet.

What is a club calve ? are they actually registered ? or are they just a much higher breed than a "grade" animal.
Just out of curiosity I went to a cattle auction the other day.
I noticed that none of those cows had ear tags. ??

I have googled alot of stuff. But, yall are awesome with the help.

THANK YOU!!
Jasper (thumbsup)

Jasper, if you are truly looking to learn about the club calf industry then you are doing a good job by asking LOTS of questions.  You do need to remember that the answers you receive are going to be good and bad/positive and negative.  You will have to sort out what information you think has the most merit and learn from that.  I had the best teachers and the worst teachers. I can't knock the people too much that were being what I would consider negative because they set an example for me.  They were people that I never wanted to learn from because they had such a slanted view of things. 

If you want to get involved you just have to jump in and give it a go.  Learn from your mistakes, get up and dust yourself off when you fall flat on your face and give it another go.  Best of luck!

 

[afhm]

I haven't really noticed all shorthorn heifers looking like steers.  In fact most of the heifers winning the past few years across all breeds are very femine looking for the amount of mass they are able to carry. So are you a shorthorn breeder or what kind of cattle are you into?  You obviously don't like club calf oriented cattle which puzzles me as to why you would get on a message board called Steer Planet.  The name alone to me suggests show cattle.  As far as the heifers not winning in the showring maybe its because they were not good enough to win.  Good cattle win because they are good not because of how much hair they have, but bad cattle can win because of how much hair they have.  There is some politicing that will keep some good cattle from winning, but if they are good enough they will win and more times than not the people who were using politics to win will try and buy your cattle so they can win with them instead of getting beat by them.  As far as barn burners turning into a skeleton in the ground in concerned any animal that is fed and/or  taking care of like a show animal when turn out after their show career is over is going to struggle when they have to live with little to no supplementation.  It doesn't matter if they were the grand champion or last in class or never made to a show ring.  Think about it show heifers have never had to make it on their own until the show career is over.  They were on mama and probably creep feed, then in the show barn on full feed for the next year and a half to two years of their life.  When they get turned out they are having their 1st calf, having to work for their food for the 1st time in their life while spitting their teeth is not an easy job.  Not many of them are gong to maintain a body condition score of 6-7 while dong this.  Many will be lucky to maintain a 3-4 bcs during this time in their life.  Many of those champion females will have long productive lives.  Granted some of them will recieve some special care throughout their lives but if they produce good offspring they deserve it and are probably being flushed and generating enough money to justify it. 

 

[Doc]

  Well put afhm!!!

 

[bcosu]

agreed. i seem to notice that showing a heifer can in a way set it back as a cow. they catch up eventually but that first year or two is really hard on them. they always complain about show heifers not milking well and that is partly because they are fed hard enough that their mammary glands fill with fat and partly because they aren't always bred to milk well. we've had some first calf heifers that were showed have excellent udders and others that didn't.

i have become a little concerned with how terminal many females are becoming and therefore have tried to maintain a lot of the angus influence to help establish some easy keeping characteristics.

but to help describe what a club calf is i would say that it is a steer or heifer bred to show. many have the show ring desireable characteristics like more bone, hair, muscle, thickness, and  eye appeal.

 

[DLD]

Does anyone know of a general "Purebred" or Commercial Cattle Man Message Board? 

Just an honest question.   ;D

Oh yeah, there are some out there...

http://cattletoday.com/forum/index.php

http://www.thebeefsite.com/forums/index.php?s=1ae601cadc328854a6920903bfa59ff4

There's a couple to get you started. I know I used to be registered on a forum that was pretty much all purebred breeders - mostly Angus, some Hereford, and a few Charolais and Limi breeders, that was about it. It was a pretty active board, too, but folks there tended to take themselves awful serious. I'll try to find it and post that url, too.