Delaware State Fair

In case you didn't know, we have a few head of cow here on our small farm.  This year we had 4 calves.  We have a friend who takes cows to the fair every year and he invited us to take one of our calves along with his.  This also meant that we had to get the calf broke and halter trained.  Renae said that she was interested in doing this so the weeks before the fair, Renae spent every morning and evening working at training one of our calves.  She was doing this at our friend's farm along with other kids who were training calves.

On the first day of training the calf stepped on her foot 3 times!  She was too timid to tell anyone and the next day she got stepped on again.  Her foot had so much swelling, bruising, and was painful to touch that she ended up at the express care center.  Thankfully nothing was broken.

The calf had to be at the fair the whole time so that meant going down every morning and evening to take care of the cows.  It made sense to us why so many people set up campers there.  On the day of the "showing," Renae showed twice.  The first time she was judged for showmanship with other kids in her age group.  The second time she was showing the calf against other calves in the same breed and weight class.  This calf is a Simmental  breed and weighed around 460 lbs.

Leading Sadie (the calf) into the ring.

Trying to get her lined up.

They use the stick to get their feet "set"....

.... and then they rub their belly with the stick to keep them calm.  

We are happy to say that the calf got 2nd out of 4 calves in the class and Renae got 4th for showmanship in a class of 9.  For first timers, we were very pleased with these results!