the once was a young boy who dreamed of raising his own purebred gelbvieh cattle...
this young boy bid and won, all by himself, his first pure bred heifer, {flying caddie}, at the age of 6!!
he was officially in the business...
fast forward a couple years he was now old enough to join 4-H and could try his hand at winning grand champion show steer!
the morning after weigh-in M29X was a little sleepy...{it's hard work being 1330 lbs of fabulousness!!}
each morning brought a fresh pile of hay, bucket full of rolled corn and barley, and fresh spring water trucked in from over an hour away...good grief you can't expect him to drink water with chlorine in it can you!?!
each morning also brought bath time...
nothing better than being showered and scrubbed down in 90 degree weather...
once the young boy and his, *amazing* *kind* *loving* *would do anything for her son including rolling his show steer's tail in hot-pink foam rollers* mother, cut, combed, and blow dried M29x's hide till it shown like a pool of reflected moonlight it was showtime...
this young boy and his steer participated in showmanship and fitting the first day and tried their hand at bringing home a shiny new belt buckle with title of {grand champion steer} the next day...
while many kids were dragged around the arena by their anxious steers, the young boy and M29X quietly made their way around without so much as a snort, tail-in-air, how-do-you-do...
much to the relief of the now, professional tail-curling mother...
the final day was spent much the same in preparation for the young boy and his steer with a different ending though...
M29X was auctioned off and wouldn't be coming home with the young boy...
the young boy was left facing an empty stall and the job of cleaning up after a best friend and a weeks worth of hard work...
many tears where shed and the young boy with the rest of his family still morn the loss of M29X...
he was the most gentle, easy going 1330 lb steer any of the prairie family had seen...
but the young boy's cowboy hat is dusted off and turned to the morning horizon, for he is in the business of raising cattle, bringing to you the best quality of beef out there...
he is already eyeing over his herd of purebred cattle and trying to judge which steer will help in bringing home his dream title {grand champion show steer}...
while during the live stock show i posted updates on my facebook page...one post was of ian cleaning out the empty stall with a caption of: an empty stall and tears being shed for a friend no longer here....
a couple of days later a comment was made along the lines: {i thought he lost his pet, it just broke my heart until i knew it was his steer}...
well he did lose his pet and best friend...
can you imagine working with a 1300 lb animal morning and night for an entire year and not feel some connections?
i hope i can help you understand how much trust {this took a huge amount on my part...considering my 75 lb boy was hanging onto a rope connected to 1300 lbs of wild animal} and love was put into the raising of this steer...
the sacrifice and life lesson that my small boy went through...
yes, we are in the business of raising beef cattle, yes, we send our cattle to slaughter each year...
but it doesn't mean that we don't {live} for those cattle while they are in our care, they are given the very best so you, the consumers may have top quality beef for your own families...
the livestock show was an *amazing* experience for my little family...
it took a lot of work and dedication from everyone and it was a chance to show how much pride we take in the raising of our cattle...
i hope with this little story and explanation you get a better sense of what my family loves and works for here on the prairie...