Since my last post alot has happened, and I have finally found time to blog about it! Sorry about the long wait, I'm staying very busy and have barely any time to write so this will be a long one!
I attended the Proserpine Show with the Camm family and headed back to Rocky with Timbrel Brahman Stud. At the prossie show, I was able to help Timbrel exhibit a few of their cattle and also participated in Paraders where I placed second. I've met some really great people over the past month and have made lasting friendships. We had a bit of a rough take off from the Prossie show, once all of the cattle and equiptment were loaded onto the cattle truck and packed in the Ute, one of the cattle trucks would not start...not going to lie, I was kind of glad it did because it was pretty cool to see how they fixed these massive trucks. Once off, we had a 6 hour drive to Rockhampton.
Back in Rocky, I had a day to wash clothes, re-pack, and prepare everything for the Junior Beef Show. This show was alot of fun and very different from our Junior shows. It is for anyone who wants to participate up to age 25. Once signed up, every Junior has to participate in every event, separated by different age groups. O and here is the catch, parents are not allowed to do the bulk of the work, basically they can be there to supervise and thats it. Kenrol brought three heifers and two bulls for the juniors to show, once there I was assigned four kids to be on my show team: Tyler, Nathan, Paris, and Axel. We had a great week, fantastic kids who grew over the weekend, the cattle did as well....I'm surprised any of them still had hair left!
Day one: On the first day we attended learning sessions in our age groups, I attended the Preg-testing session and was able to preg-test on a dummy cow. In that session, we also learned how to AI and feel real reproductive tracks from different females. Also, I attended a NLIS, National Livestock Identification System, session where they discussed the proper way to tag animals and the benefits of the NILS tags and so forth. Finally, we attended a steer and stud cattle judging demonstration to round out the day. After tea (dinner), each group participated in "Bush Olympics" which reminded me of the '08 All American in Fort Smith, Arkansas when we played "Barnyard Olympics" for the first time and everyone loved it!
Day two: At 8 am sharp, all 120 exhibitors loaded two charter buses dressed in slacks and sportscoats, headed to the Gracemere sale yards to judge prime, it was a long morning. After judging four classes and each age group speaking on a different one, we headed back to the show grounds for lunch and to judge stud cattle; three classes of stud cattle and reasons on one set. I was pretty pleased with myself, I placed second in prime and thrid in stud cattle for the age group 18-25. Everyone tested their singing abilities that night with team karyoke...yikes. The red stars, my team, won third!
Day three: Show day, the most important day. The morning started off with Interbreed led cattle judging and rounded out with Junior Paraders. Our team did fantastically, Tyler won fifth with Shindowa, Paris won thrid with Polly, Axel won first with the polly red bull, and Red Lady won first in class and Reserve Calf Champion. In Juniro Paraders, I placed thrid in my age group. Honestly this was the hardest showmanship competetion I've ever participated in. We walked on lap around the ring, set up, and then the judge took our showsticks away! We had to show the rest of the class without a cane! Also, we switched calves just to make it more interesting..pretty intense. All in all, it was a great show and I really enjoyed working with the young people. Once again, thank you to the Australian Brahman Breeders Association for allowing me to participate in Junior Beef 2011.
Finally, we are caught up! On Friday, I arrived at Fern Hills in Bajool, a small town on the outskirts of Rockhampton. Fern Hills is a Red Brahman cattle stud home to Brett and Janice McCamley and their two daughters Cheyenne and Montana. Satuday and Sunday, I attended my first Camp-Draft with the McCamley's. It is very hard to explain since I have never seen anything like it in the states. There are two sections of the ring, the camp and the course. Exhibitors have to first cut a calf from the camp and take it out onto the course and complete and clover leaf pattern around two pegs and finally take the calf through the gate. The first peg will earn you two points, the second peg one point, and the gate one point for a total of four points on the course. Exhibitors are also judged on horsemanship and ability to cut the calf from the camp and so one. I had alot of fun this weekend and am very excited to attened the Calliope Camp-Darft next weekend.
I will try and update my blog as much as I can, thanks for following my travels, see you all very soon! I cannot believe that it was a month yesterday since I've been here, time is flying.
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