Payne County Bucket Calf Program

 

Pictured above are my two daughters - Aubrey on the left with Rodeo, and Lillie on the right with Bullet.  Rodeo and Bullet are 'bucket calves' and were 'shown' by Aubrey and Lillie at the Payne County Fair in 2008.  I am using this post to describe how Payne County (OK) runs their bucket calf program, and the enthusiastic support my wife and I have for it.  (Disclaimer: This is not an official description of it, but I think it is generally accurate.  If you stumble upon this blog searching for 'bucket calf'' or other similar search strings, this is a good place to start.  If you want more official information, please contact the Payne County Extension Service.)

The rules for our bucket calf program are summarized here: 4-H (or Cloverbud) children ages 7-12; purchase of a 1-10 day old calf in May preceding the county fair; calf is nominated by mid-June; child must keep a weekly journal of experiences; child must actively participate in feeding and care of the calf; child turns in the journal and an expenses summary approximately two weeks prior to the fair; child shows the calf at the fair following a morning of meetings, personal interviews, washing and preparing the calf, and cleaning their work environment.

The results of our bucket calf program are summarized here: every child who completes the program wins a trophy with rosette, a small county fair monetary award, a larger 'add-on' monetary award, a thematic 3 gallon bucket, a T-shirt, and a significant bucket of door prizes useful for future livestock projects (feed buckets, halters, brushes, etc.).  The 'add on' money comes with a classic 'carrot and stick' philosophy as the children have to personally write 'Thank You' notes to a subset of the various donors prior to the awarding of that money.

All of the above awards are given on a non-competitive basis.  But, there are competitive awards given, as well, for:

1. Interview segment (currently $100 and plaque),

2. Herdsman awards for multiple participants (monetary award and gift), and

3. Showmanship awards by age division (monetary award and belt buckle.)

If you have any associations with regular youth livestock shows, now or in the past, you might recognize all of the elements described above, except: 1. The interview, 2. The journal and expense account, and 3. The non-competitive nature regarding the merits and attributes of the animal.  Although current formulations of 'youth livestock shows' are high quality experiences for young people in agriculture, the competitive nature (and the concomitant monetary rewards) can taint the true purposes of the experience, and has even led to some spectacular instances of fraud, sad to say.  The structure of our bucket calf program truly places the child participant back in an environment that youth livestock exhibitions were intended to be - participatory, educational, and fun.

The opportunities for advantage-seekers (or even fraud) are not merely discouraged by the rules and structure of the program, but by the usual selection of the animals themselves.  If you re-visit the rules above, you will note the calf has to be purchased between 1-10 days of age.  For those unacquainted with livestock and production agriculture practices, this is 'code-speak' for dairy breed bull calves - the absolute lowest 'caste' in the bovine world.  Dairies only want female calves for future replacement cows, but genetic frequencies being what they are, half of these calves are born as boys, and because most dairy cow breeding is done using proven bulls with artificial insemination, the life of most dairy bull calves is pretty dull.  These poor dairy bull calves couldn't win a beef-focused livestock show if their lives depended upon it - even if they were given the best feed, the best hair care, and a few unethical (frequently illegal) injections of X,Y, and Z.  Because they are largely unwanted, a family can buy one (usually $25-125) from a regional dairy for a fraction of the cost of a comparable beef breed calf.

Why are they called 'bucket calves' and why is it the 'bucket calf program'?  There are many farmers in the business of mass-rearing these dairy bull calves who use a bucket feeding system, adapting the calf to slurp and drink milk from a bucket to decrease the labor input required by bottle feeding a calf.  However, most families usually opt to bottle feed a calf primarily for its simplicity and ease of success - bottle feeding the calf is completely permissible in our 'bucket' calf show.

To summarize, why do my wife and I like the program so much?  The interview segment teaches them how to think 'on their feet' and how to respectfully interact with an adult.  The 'Showmanship' and 'Herdsman' awards on the day of the show encourage them to prepare in advance by halter training their calf so they can competently show him in the show ring, and also to encourage them to keep their animal's environment clean at the fair.  We like the 'economic scale' of Holstein steers and find that if we carefully watch expenses, that we can make a small profit on each animal, further augmenting the child's monetary return (which largely goes to the college fund!).  We like that the animals themselves are evaluated non-competitively, which eliminates the 'rat race' of special feeds, special hair care (termed 'fitting' performed by so-called 'steer jocks'), special halters, and enormously higher input costs (thousands of dollars) to buy a champion steer prospect.  We like how the organizers delay award of 'add on' money to encourage children to learn how to express gratitude in the written form to the generous sponsors.  The journal requirement not only teaches and re-inforces writing skills, but engages them in the project, provides a keepsake for years to come, and even sometimes provides a few humorous moments when you go back to read an 8 year old's perspective on bottle feeding, dehorning, and castration.  The final expenses worksheet re-inforces applied basic mathematics, gives them a basic introduction to business and agriculture, and gives them a real-world production agriculture perspective that is sadly lacking in the more popular youth livestock projects - where the 'bonus sale' hopefully subsidizes and defrays the high input costs.

Judging by what I see in a handful of other Oklahoma counties, the Payne County program is almost one-of-a-kind.  We've heard of other counties coming to our program to get ideas to institute one of their own in their county, and I hope this summary aids in getting the word out.  The unique experience and success of the Payne County Bucket Calf experience would not be possible without the vision of some key founders (whose names escape me, but I might update in the comments below) as well as several key sponsors and donors, including the Payne County Young Farmers and Ranchers, Swank Land and Cattle. Farm Bureau, Payne County Extension Center, The Territory, Atwoods, Stillwater Milling, Pickens Auctions, Farm Data Services, some regional banks, and several others I've failed to mention.  Finally, the $100 Interview Award is funded in honor of the late David Weckler, a bucket calf enthusiast and son of Paul and Stephanie Weckler, who cast a vision with the prize to honor their son David.