washing cows

[carole]

Just a bit of advice please. We run a large herd of dexter cattle and primarily are involved in the supply of beef to the local butchers. Although we have kept the herd for seven years now we have never shown any of our stock, the whole herd are now non short and it seems most of the winners at shows are shorts.

Anyway I am always impressed with the standard of cattle shown and admire the efforts taken by those who take there cattle to the various shows, if you guys never did this we would never have got involved with the breed. But to the point.

I would like to get the best of our cattle to a standard I see in the show ring and then I may be convinced that I should take them to some local events. But first of all I would like to know what items I need to wash them, I know they wash each other, but we need to be better than that, what else should I consider besides giving them a wash and brush up?? Do we really need a hair dryer in the yard. I have seen people giving stock a blow dry at some larger events eg Royal Cornwall.

Thanks for the advice in advance. Carole

[Mark Bowles]

Hi Carol, probably the best thing would be to contact someone local who shows and ask if they would want any help getting their cattle prepared for a show the day before.Some groups have show preparation days which can prove very helpfull.I personally do my prep work the day before so on the day it is just a tidy up. As someone who has done lots of shows you tend to forget the basic things that newcomers do not know.
Take the animals out of the field 24hrs before you go to the show so you can feed them hay to tighten up their dung.
Buy your halters, combs and shampoo from Peasridge or Showtime online.
Make sure the cattle you want to show are carrying good condition but not excessive.

I could go on and on, sometimes it is just a matter of taking the plunge as long as you have confidence in the behaviour of your animals. If you ask, most exhibitors at shows will give you advise and help when you are there, well in our area they will.
Just a thought, if you want an idea on the standard of your own cattle then for a very reasonable fee, get them classified on your farm. Anything that scores VG or EX i would think should not disgrace you, short or non short should not make a difference as long as they are a balanced animal.

[carole]

Many thanks for your advice Mark, very helpful.

As regards linear assessment, you may be intrested to know, that we have the opportunity to make an informed judgement but not an assessment of the herd.

Last year we purchased a number of very fine stock at the Moonshine dispersal sale in Worcester of Mike Bancrofts herd. Among the stock purchased are Moonshine Pickle VG88 and Moonshine Pipsqueek VG85, having these two fantastic cows in our herd allows to see how our own breeding are in some ways very close to standard set and in others so very far away.

We are located down in Cornwall, so we are not likely to get involved in an assessment day in Bucks, but we have a concrete yard, a race and crush, so its something we will look at in the future.

Thanks again Carole