5 Things Showing A Steer Will Teach Your Child

So your kid wants to get a steer.

What happens when your child decides to show a steer?

If you’re from a show family, you’ve been gearing up for this for years. You’re ready with a comb in one hand and a blower in the other. You know what’s coming.

But if you’re new to this world, it’ll probably get a little overwhelming.

Yet oh so worth the ride.

Steers are not only the largest market animal shown, but also the one you have to keep the longest.

Goats, pigs, lambs… They’re only kept (typically) for a few months. But you keep steers for close to a year.

That’s a long time to be dedicated to the welfare of an animal - and the rigors that come with maintaining it.

So what exactly can you expect your child to learn?

Respect For Where Food Comes From

Your child is going to fall in love with that steer. Even if it’s not love, there will be some kind of respect and partnership.

So selling it will be hard.

And eating hamburgers the next night for dinner will be harder - even if the meat comes from a different animal.

The reality is that your child will know where that meat came from and won’t be able to forget that knowledge.

Has that turned some kids towards vegetarianism? Yes. But not everyone.

Most of the time, kids learn to really respect where their meat comes from. They understand it’s the circle of life, but they respect it. They don’t lightly pick up sausages at the store and take for granted where that sausage came from.

Work Ethic

Raising an animal is no easy task. Especially a steer.

It takes an intense amount of effort every single day.

Steers are huge animals and if there’s not some kind of effort, they’ll grow unruly and wild. Taming a 200 lb calf is much easier than halter breaking a 1,200 lb grown steer. So the work starts immediately and requires consistency and patience.

Does every 9 year old want to go out and work their steer each day at 8 am? No. There will be times when you have to make them. There will be tears and shouts of, “It’s not fair, mom! Tommy sleeps in on Saturday!”

But they’ll do it.

And they’ll learn from it.

Because when you want to do something, it requires work and effort. It doesn’t just happen.

Selflessness

Speaking of getting up early on Saturdays, animals have to be feed everyday. Multiple times a day. And they can’t feed themselves.

There is no skipping out on a feeding just because your kid wants to sleep in. That’s not how it works.

When the steer is sick, not eating, or needing something… Your child is going to have to step up and show up.

It’s hard at first. They won’t always want to. They’ll want to hang out with friends, sleep in, or do literally anything else. But our house lives by the rule…

We don’t eat until the animals do.

If the animals haven’t been given breakfast, we don’t get to eat. Because they can’t take care of themselves and they rely on us.

Over the years, I’ve seen countless kids’ attitudes change as they raised one animal after another. They went from selfish to selfless as they learned to place the animals’ needs above their own.

Money Management

Did I mention that raising a steer takes almost a year and they’re large animals?

Let’s do the math: that’s a lot of food. Especially show steers.

Steers have a rate of gain of anywhere from 6 to 9 pounds of feed to 1 pound of body weight gain. That means they need to eat 6 to 9 pounds of food to gain just 1 pound.

If your steer needs to gain 1,000 pounds, that’s 6,000 pounds of feed - conservatively.

A steer should eat a mix between grass hay, alfalfa, grain, and open pasture. If you don’t have land for grazing, you’ll need to use supplements and additional hay as an alternative. Feel free to ask us just how to do that!

But that’s an expensive mix of feed.

And that’s not even considering the cost of building a pen and buying other necessities, like feed pans, troughs, halters, a blower, fitting rack, and so much more. Plus, the actual steer! Your kid is a budding entrepreneur! They’ll need to track their expenses and their over all profit.

They may even have to take out a loan from you to start their project off.

But in the end, they’ll build awesome record book keeping and money management skills.

Team Work

Spoiler alert: your kid won’t be able to do this alone.

They probably don’t have the start-up costs to raise their first steer and, if they’re young, they don’t have the experience or maturity to get it all done by themselves.

Honestly, they might just be lacking the sheer body size.

They’ll need your help to make this project a reality. Yes, it will be stressful. Yes, there will be tears and fights. But it will be worth it. You can use this as an opportunity to get closer and grow as a family.

But you (and your kid) will also need to learn from other show families.

Fitting a steer is no easy task. Feeding a steer is not simple.

You’ll have to ask for help and find yourself a good show team that will stand behind you and make sure you’re set up for success.

In Short: Get The Steer

There’s so much to do and learn… But is it worth every minute?

Yes. Absolutely.

Don’t let this opportunity pass you by.

It’s hard… But it’s worth every tear, every heartache, every fight, every laugh, every smile, every friendship.

Just get the steer.