Junior Nationals Hang Over

Not a literal hang over but truly it has taken a little more than a week to recover from the eight day circus known as Junior Nationals.  It was our fourth trip to a Junior National and our one of choice is the combined Maine Anjou/Chi Junior National although there a variety to choose from.  Lucky for us it was our second adventure back to Grand Island, Nebraska and folks I could write a whole book about those facilities.  If you want to see a barn done right for cattle, the Nebraska State Fairgrounds Beef Barn is my pick!

Junior Nationals is our summer family trip and by time the week is over I am wondering if I need my head examined.  We get up every day around 6:30 am or earlier on some show days, and we rarely leave the barns before 9 pm.  The heat and other factors require us to spend pretty much all day in the barns with the few head we’ve taken.  So life revolves around the cattle and whatever kid activity is designated for that day.  In many ways, a way slower pace than most other days for us.  So we get plenty of QTT (quality time together) and enjoy the week with each other and other show families we've met along the way.

So why a working vacation for us?  The answer for me is three part.

#1  The learning opportunity-We tell the kids, how else do you learn from the best in the business but to go hang out and watch the best in the business.  Keith and I didn’t grow up showing cattle like this.  We started out behind the power curve.  All five of us learn something(s) that we did not know before we got there.  Each year we get a little more under our belt and each year I feel like we tackle something new that one of the “old pros” taught us.  My kids will know way more about this industry by the time they graduate high school then I do today, and that is awesome!  By then, I'll be in a lawn chair full-time watching them work, I hope.

#2  The Contests-Junior Nationals is about so much more than just showing the cattle.  The kids get the chance to participate i

n Showmanship, Quiz Bowl, Livestock Judging, Fitting Contests and many more contests that enhance their knowledge about our industry.  I can’t tell you how much they have learned but I learn each time I sit through a Quiz Bowl match or read over their Stockman’s Challenge test.

#3  The People-And I would say that this is by far my favorite reason for going to Junior Nationals.  Each year we meet at least two or three new families that enjoy ranching or showing cattle as much as we do.  We have met people from across the country and all over our state that make the annual trip hard to miss.  We hang out with other people from our state that we see at other shows but rarely have time to visit with.  We get to know other good kids and are amazed at how much they grow in knowledge and skill each year as we come back together.  We laugh together and lean on each other when we need too and I have another network of friends through out the country.

So highlights from this year included driving all night because of the heat, a blown tire on the stock trailer on I-35, the hubby leaving me for two days to fly out for a work ‘thing’, a heifer with a serious attitude and YES we’ll do it all over again the next chance we get!  

If You Give a 4-H'er a Calf...

If you let your 4-H'er get a calf, they will fall in love with it.

If your 4-H'er falls in love with it, they'll want to spend lots of time with it.

If they want to spend lots of time with her, they'll get up at 5:55 am to go to feed her.

If they go to feed her, they'll want to brush her.

If they brush her, they'll think she needs a bath.

If she gets a bath once, they'll think she needs a bath every morning.

If they give her a bath, they'll want to blow dry her.

 

If you let them blow dry her, they will want a fan hung in the barn to keep her cool while they are at school.

If they get up to feed her to keep clean they will wear wind pants and a hoodie over school clothes.

If they wear clothes over their school clothes, you will have to pick them up at the barn because they won't come back to the house until they need to go to school.

If you pick them up at the barn, they will strip off the top layer of clothes as you drive them to school.

If they strip off the clothes, your truck will be full of clothes.

 

If  your truck is still full of clothes when he gets in after school, they will want to go back to the barn.

If they want to go back to the barn, you can make them do their homework before they visit the barn.  Homework will be done the fastest ever!

 

If they are more motivated to do their homework, they might reach their reading goal for the month before the last day of the month.

If they get their reading goal done before the last day of the month, you might let them show the calf at some shows.

If they make friends at the shows, they will want to go to more shows.

If they want to go to more shows, they will find there are other things to show other than cattle.

If they find there are other things to show, they will want another animal.

If they keep doing their homework, feeding and grooming the calf, you will let them them have a lamb and then you will find out what happens when you give a 4-H'er a lamb.

  

 

Thank You Daisy!

So, we had been battling digestive upset and bloat on The Princess what seemed like all week when we decided to take her for a trailer ride over 2.5 hours to the Oklahoma State University Veterinary Hospital. 

We arrived at 9:30 that night and were promptly met by a doctor and student.   

They gave her a thorough exam finding that she indeed did not have any rumen activity.

 

Her rumen pH was in the normal range and that most of the lymph nodes on her right side were swollen.

In an effort to repopulate the microorganisms in her rumen, they went to Daisy.  Daisy was donated to the hospital in December and replaced a five year old Angus steer who was retired to the Dairy Farm on the university campus to a life of luxury in a private pen with his own bale of hay.

 

Daisy has a hole from the outside straight into her rumen.  

Through this hole, they can collect rumen fluid from Daisy full of microorganisms that digest feed in the rumen. 

Daisy didn't seem stressed out at all about this.

 

Here is the fluid all collected and ready to be pumped into our princess.

A hard tube was placed in her mouth so she could chew on the flexible tube that was put into her stomach.  The veterinarian blew into the tube while the student listened.  She heard bubbles in fluid which meant he was blowing into the stomach and not her lungs...that was a good thing.  We didn't want to pump two gallons of fluid into her lungs!

Transferring rumen fluid from one cow to another is actually called Transfaunation.  The princess got three of these treatments before she came back home.

The next morning she was eating hay again and seemed to be doing well.  That was on Friday morning and we decided to leave her in Stillwater over the weekend to make sure she really was going to be better.  The attending veterinarian thought if baler twine or hardware (metal in the stomach) was causing the bloat, she would bloat over the weekend, so we left her until Monday.  

My mom once again loaded up into the truck with me to road trip for a heifer again.  She sure was happy to see us and get to see the light of day.  We were given strict orders to feed her only hay for the next week and to slowly increase her feed after that.  We also fed her poloxalene which prevents frothy bloat as well...just in case.

When we were told the price at OSU, we both laughed out loud.  Would you like to guess how much four days in ICU and three rumen transfaunations cost?

The Princess and The Bloat

I have taken some time before sharing how our farm princess spent some time being severely ill, because I wanted to make sure she really was healed before I bragged.  There aren't many pictures, because honestly, I was too stressed to think about taking pictures.

Let's start at the beginning.  This may take more than one post, so bear with me.

The farm's special show heifer that my oldest son is showing this year is known to eat a bit more that she is supposed to.  She was supposed to be in heat (ready to be bred) on a Saturday, so we turned her into the yard in front of the barn with one of the steers.  He would tell us for sure when she was ready to be bred.

All day we kept watching and we never saw anything, but they just kept eating all the green goodness in the yard.  That evening she was a little bloated.  I mean she was a little puffy on her left side up high, but we weren't that concerned and gave her some prairie hay.

When we went back to check her before bed, she was bloated more, so we tried to run a tube down her to relieve the air, but we didn't get any air which meant she had a frothy bloat.  (Remember the Gas-X commercials?  She had a lot of foam built up in her stomach that wasn't letting the air out.)  We gave her a bottle of Thera Bloat that should have brought the bloat right down.  We went to bed, but I couldn't sleep, and checked her again a little after midnight.  She was BIGGER and was showing bloat on both sides which is absolutely not good.

We tried to get a tube to relieve air once again, but got nothing.  We gave her another bottle of Therabloat and nothing.  In a last ditch effort before I called the veterinarian at 2:00 am, I poked her side with a needle.   The needle started to relieve gas, but the needle wasn't long enough once the stomach started to pull away from the skin.

We finally called the veterinarian at 2:30 am.  He tried a tube and said we were correct in thinking that it was a frothy bloat.  He gave her another bottle of Thera Bloat and continued to watch her.  The bloat didn't come down as much as he like, so he gave her another bottle.  At 4:30 am, she came back home and we tried to get some sleep.

At 8:00 am, I went to check her to find that she was still bloated.  Remember, one bottle of Thera Bloat should have brought bloat down on a calf her size and at this point she had been given THREE.  I consulted with my neighbors that used to have dairy cows.  They decided they would gather any supplies left in their barn and come right over.  They looked at her and agreed we HAD to do something more.  We used a stomach pump to add 1 gallon of mineral oil and two MORE bottles of Thera Bloat to her stomach.  We also had our son continue to walk her around the pen.  As he did, she started to pass gas out both ends.  I never knew that those sounds could be music to my ears.

Her bloat finally came down!  Success or so we thought.  I fed her a little grain the next day and she bloated again.  We tried some other remedies recommended from friends.  She continued to eat hay until Thursday.

On Thursday, we couldn't get her to eat anything and I could tell she really didn't feel well at all. She was sweating down her back and she looked like she felt absolutely terrible.  My wonderful neighbors came over again this time with a stethascope.  As they listened, they didn't hear any activity in her rumen (the biggest compartment of the stomach where the fermentation takes place).

I started texted my friend +Dairy Carrie looking for any suggestions at all.  She was discussing the Princess's symptoms with her veterinarian as my neighbor Cindy called her vet.  I had already talked with two other veterinarians that afternoon and was out of ideas.  As we contemplated all the suggestions we had received, I felt the only thing would be to take her to a veterinarian hospital. 

A quick call to the Oklahoma State University Veterinary Hospital confirmed that they agreed with everyone else.  She possibly had a blockage causing the bloat, baler twine in her stomach causing the bloat or tumors on her esophagus not letting the air escape...something.  If any of these were true, she needed more specialized treatment than what we could get locally.

I had not been sleeping much at all checking her all night, so I decided to load her in the trailer and take her to Stillwater, OK that night.  My mom graciously agreed to jump in the truck with me and keep me company.

Check back tomorrow to see what the OSU Veterinary Hospital Staff did to save our Princess.  

Thank You Jerry!

It was the first week of June.  I had just driven over 3 hours south into Oklahoma pulling a trailer with the youngest calf we had that was halter broke.  We arrived at Conners State College in Warner, Oklahoma and it was 98*.  The humidity had you sweating as soon as you stepped out of the truck.  Why on earth would not only me, but parents to 120+ other kids unload the truck and trailer of kids and cattle and leave them in that heat for 4 days?  Why would we leave them to work in a barn with no air conditioning?  Why would we leave them when we knew the schedule had them at the barn at 7:45 am working and busy until 11:00 pm?  Just a three words… Be A Champ.

For 35 years, Jerry McPeak has been a motivator and mentor to thousands of kids from all across North America.  From what I can tell, the stories and speeches haven’t changed much over the last 25 years.  You see because of a great friend that lived in Oklahoma I found out about this camp where kids were taught how to clip, fit and show cattle.  I think I was one of the first kids from Kansas to ever go.  Some 25+ years later, I look at the camp totally different.

Jerry says he doesn’t understand why his camp is more successful than others.  He doesn’t understand why kids from 15 states were in Oklahoma the same week my son was to sweat their tails off.  As a parent and past camper, I can tell you.  When you walk in that rodeo arena at Conners State College, everyone is equal.  It doesn’t matter if your calf came out of your dad’s commercial cow herd or was purchased for $50000.  Everyone is treated the same.  He believes that every one of his campers can and will get better.  Every single one of them will believe at the end of the week that they can do great things.  Every single one of them comes out of the camp changed.

No parents are allowed to stay at the camp, because guess what?!  The kids ARE capable of taking care of their calves without someone hovering over them.  They are able to actually get a calf ready to go to the show ring without an adults help.  I have heard they are capable of repairing tents when 65 mile per hour winds tear them down. 

The campers are put in groups based on their age and then they are paired with a partner who they are responsible for all week.  The kids do learn how to clip, fit and show cattle, but they learn so much more.  They learn a bit of work ethic.  They learn that they are capable of so much more than they have convinced their parents they are.  

A word of warning though.  If your kid can’t take getting yelled at, they might not like it.  If they don’t like getting a hug, they might not like it.  It is very possible that both will happen within 5 minutes of one another…just like at home.  They know how to push the kids to get them to us their talents to perform to their potential.

Jerry’s staff are all adults that went through the camp like I did.  In fact, one of the group leaders the week my son was there was one of my partners.  Matt was actually my favorite partner.  After camp, we kept in touch and actually travelled to one another’s county fairs to help one another fit cattle.  He even helped me find my heifer to show the next year.  My son reports he is a bit onery which hasn’t changed over the years.  If I remember correctly, Matt started going to camp when he was seven years old.  He has missed one year of camp in all of those years.  That is dedication to the future of agriculture for a rancher from Pawnee, Oklahoma that leaves his ranch behind for a week each summer.   

My son’s partner won the award that I never won.  The most coveted award of all Be A Champ campers, The Effort Award.  My son who works at his own pace (not fast) was probably pushed a little by this go getter.  As I watched them fit their calf the last day, I knew he had what it took to get The Effort Award.  He had drive.  He had desire.  I hope a little of it rubbed off on my son.   

That sweet boy even gave my son the showstick he won in showmanship, because the Effort Award was what is was most proud of.  Stone Manufacturing has donated prizes to the campers over the years.  I remember the week I attended when the owner of the company visited all week.  He is a former NFL football player that believes that all NFL players should have to live through Be A Champ before they can play in the pros.  Jerry runs a "tight ship," but also knows how to let the kids have fun, too.

After hearing about camp, my youngest is ready to go next year and I am ready to send him with his brother.  Don’t be fooled this camp isn’t just about showing cattle (or lambs) this camp is about building the future of agriculture.  What I saw in that barn that hot, muggy Saturday has me optimistic about the future of agriculture all across this country.

Thank you Jerry for continuing to believe in kids and give them the opportunity to prove themselves to their parents.  Thank you for continuing to provide a camp so I can sit back like my parents used to and enjoy the livestock shows.  We will be back next year.  

Did That Really Happen?

In May, I wrote about the possibility of eating our way out of ADHD after attending the +Alltech symposium.  I have a son that has really struggled with focus and we decided to try our own trial of adding Omega-3 DHA to his diet.  We have switched back to whole milk in the house, a natural source of Omega-3.  He has been eating lots of walnuts which are also a great source of Omega-3 DHA.  He has also been taking a daily supplement of Omega-3 DHA.

We started all of this after school was out for the summer.  I have seen little changes here and there.  He isn't as impulsive and quick tempered.  He wants to work on projects.  He reminds me what needs to be done and where things are when I have forgotten.

None of these little things could have prepared me for what I witnessed in the showring yesterday.  He has shown before, but his focus has always drifted from the judge to what is going on outside of the showring.  Not yesterday.  He went in the ring with professionalism and confidence that I have never seen in him before.  He knew exactly what to do.  He only wavered once, but the loss of focus was nothing compared to the loss of focus we witnessed in his competitors and he regained focus...something I have NEVER seen him do without some prompting from outside the showring. 

He remembered how to stand, how to get his calf to stand, to watch the judge, and stayed with all of it for at least 10 minutes.  That is a long time for an 8 year old with nothing, but a 300 pound calf to keep him on task.  A calf that has less focus than the boy and would like nothing more than to put his nose down and eat grass.  It left me asking myself, Did that really just happen?

This kid has tried my patience as a parent and as his calf showing coach, but today this young man showed me that possibly with the correct nutrition he is ready to take on the world.  I can not wait until school starts to see what he accomplishes this year.

If you would like to know more about the studies that I talked about in the last blog post, go to the Alltech Symposium Audio page, scroll to the bottom of the page to the Health and Wellness podcasts.  They do take a few hours to listen to, but I certainly encourage you to take the time.  Section 1 has Dr. Patrick Wall, whom I have spoke with personally, speaking about the Omega-3 and Omega 6 imbalance.  Section 2 has Dr. Aoife Lyons, clinical psychologist, speaking on brain development and studies looking at Omega-3 DHA supplementation and its possible effects on ADHD.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

Calf Beauty Shop

As a mom, I have talked many times about how much I love 4-H here.  Most of the time I don’t talk about the livestock projects that my kids are involved in, because there is so much more to 4-H than livestock projects, but today I want to show their calves in the beauty shop.

Of course, every trip to the beauty shop starts with a good shampoo.  Big brother was getting his heifer Norma II ready to go to a show…

Little brother thought Winnie needed to get a bath, too…

The boys use a wonderful plastic massaging brush that the girls really seem to like.

Winnie didn’t like her bath at first.  I find that the calves are a lot like babies.  The first several times that I gave my boys a bath they screamed like I was trying to kill them.  The calves don’t bawl or cry, but they do pull back on their halters and try to get free.  By July, they will almost go the washrack by themselves because it apparently feels good to be clean.

Next the girls moved on to the blow dryer and got their hair brushed. 

 Perfect form is necessary...

Things have been really rainy, humid and hard to get things dried out.  Norma and my 10 year old got lots of time with the blow dryer.  He dried…

And dried…

And dried…

And dried…

Doesn’t she look lovely?!

Next, we gave her a haircut.  I am a believer that all kids should know how to clip and fit their own project.  It is not my project and I like to teach the kids how to clip their own animal.  

He has been clipping their heads for several years and is getting better all the time.  He still thinks the clippers are heavy and sometimes he wants mom to finish things up.

After her trip to the beauty shop, Norma went to her first show.  She didn’t perform quite like my little man would have liked, but I was excited how well they both worked together and  how hard he was truly trying.

I read an article last week one of my friends shared about college athletes and how the most important thing that they heard from their parents growing up was, “I love to watch you play.”  I took this info to heart and started telling them I love to watch you show.  I got the biggest smiles and hugs afterward.  Showing with your own kids is a lot exactly like coaching your own kids sports team.  At some point, in the drive home you have to go back to being mom and not coach. 

Have a great day, give your kids a hug, and tell them how much you like to watch them whether it’s soccer, baseball, dancing, or showing livestock.

-A Kansas Farm Mom