Dairy Cattle
Dairy Cattle Show
If you are showing a dairy animal the biggest thing to make sure is that it is 100% a dairy breed. You can only show females in the 4-H show. You will want to try to find calves born in early March, early June, early September, or early December for the best results. The classes are broke down by birthdates and to have a mature looking calf you will want to aim for these times. With that being said the range is March-May, June-August, September-November, December-February. After your heifer becomes a cow you will be divided into years and dry or milking classes.
If your child is showing a registered heifer or cow it is best to have the registration paperwork in your child's name or for sure in you family name.
You can also show dairy in grade classes for some breeds which do not require registration paperwork.
Preparing for the Show
You will want to keep you dairy heifer feminine looking while preparing for the show. You will clip most of the hair off of your dairy cattle leaving under the belly to give her more depth.
It is best to have a leather show halter that somewhat matches your animal to show in the ring with.
Standards for showing change what seems like daily so you will want to take a look at the most recent World Dairy Expo videos or pictures to see what today's standard of showing will be. For 4-H the kids usually wear a white shirt or provided t-shirt with white jeans. My kids wear black jeans mostly because we show a lot of animals that day at the county fair. We have not taken our dairy cattle to the South Dakota State Fair however I was involved in the that world growing up.
Other Ideas
Remember you can always enter a poster on anything related to dairy cattle, milk, milk production, etc. Or anything you would make to use with your dairy cattle.
South Dakota State Fair Handbook - Page 29 & 64
Youth-In-Action - Dairy Skill-a-thon
Dairy Skill-a-thon will test the member's knowledge on dairy animals such as items used while working the herd, breed identification, judging, reasons, and check-type reasons.
