On Sunday October 9th Dairy Club held a dairy showmanship contest fun show. The event contained a lot of hard work, Jon Dairy club's part and the participants.
To participate you must be an OSU student and sign up before the deadline. Two weeks prior to the event, there was a meeting where peple picked their heifers (female cow that has not had a calf) that they wanted to halter break and show. There are two divisions experienced and inexperienced.
After participants had picked their cow, they could work with them from 4-7 on weekdays prior to October 9th. To show the heifer you had to go out ere for a minimum of 4 times to work with your cow. Dairy club members were present to help you catch your cow and to help open/close gates.
Some of the heifers were easier to work with than others, the one I was working with liked to throw tantrums and did not like the halter. Others had no problem walking their cow around. It took a lot of time and determination on the handlers part to help halter break the cow. For those who do not know about halter breaking cows, heifers are extremely hard to halter break. The breed of cow we were working with was jersey. They like to do something what people call the jersey flop. Jerseys like to just flop on the ground and then they will get up when they feel like it. This is something that happens a lot when first halter breaking them, or in my case happened every time I worked with my heifer. In addition to a showmanship contest, there was a costume contest. The costumes had to be approved by the farm managers and the heifer had to get used to the costume. There were only a few that participated in the costume contest, but they were very creative.
Dairy club members worked extremely hard preparing for the event. First off, there were many members out at the farm helping out every day of the week. A lot of the members were showing, but they were able to help others out. There were a lot of members that were helping out at the event. There were members in the show ring helping push the heifers that did not want to move, a member helping direct where to line up then heifers in the inexperienced division, members checking participants in and getting them their t-shirt as well as telling them what class they are in, members helping at the food table, and members helping with photographs.
Even though there was a lot of work that was put into the show, it was extemely fun. It was a good way for students who had not had a lot of experience with cattle to get them hands on experience. Dairy club puts on this event every year, and I urge you to compete next year to see if you are the king or queen of Buckeye Royal.
