Early this year I was sitting in my Ag class talking to classmates about their plans to scramble in several Livestock shows for their chance to catch a calf. I had been to The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo several times and had always thought that the calf scramble was my favorite part, so I decided to sign up and see what would happen. Never in a million years did I think that I would be chosen as a scrambler and never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would catch a calf on the biggest stage. I am about 5’2” and maybe 110 pounds soaking wet. The odds were definitely not in my favor but luck was on my side, or maybe it was the high five from T Parker before the scramble, but March 2nd I caught my calf. I was the last scrambler that night to catch and pull my calf across the line. I was out of breath, exhausted and could taste nothing but dirt. As excited as I was that I had done what I thought was impossible, I knew this was just the beginning of my journey.
Catching my calf that night was exhilarating and it seemed like a whirlwind. I had talked to my parents and decided that I wanted to do a heifer for my project but all that changed when I met my donors. The Cowboys for Heroes organization was amazing that night. They were so excited for me and told me and my parents about their organization and all that they did. My parents and I decided that if we were to truly honor their donation to the scramble program and their mission we should do a steer instead of a heifer. That night on the car ride home we started researching breeds and breeders around us. We knew we wanted to raise a steer that would produce quality beef, could handle the Texas heat, had a good temperament and was preferably hornless. When doing my research I knew there were several breeds I could look at. I narrowed my search to Charlois, Shorthorn, Brangus and Angus. After contacting local breeders and looking at many calves we had narrowed our search down to three.
The first breeder we went too was a friend of my dad’s. He had a charlois cross that was really nice and moved well. His conformation was near perfect but he was already really big. The second steer we looked at was actually one raised by one of our local veterinarians. He was also a very nice calf but was a little out of our price range. The third breeder we went to we have purchased several animals from. Mr. Barnett was happy to see us when we got there and took us out to the pasture with his calves. As we approached the calves some were very standoffish and hid behind other calves, but not one of the shorthorn. He walked right up to us and began sniffing us. As I moved around the pen trying to look at all the calves the red and white steer kept rubbing up against me and licking my hand. He followed along next to me every step I took until he was the last one left to watch move. This was a problem because he had been bugging us trying to get our attention the whole time but would never move away for us to see how he moved. Mr. Barnett laughed and said every time he went out to the barn that calf would come over and bug him just begging for his attention. That’s when I knew this calf was coming home with me and his name would be Bugsy. He was perfect in my eyes. He had a great disposition, he loved to eat, moved well and with him being a big love bug his size wasn’t going to be too concerning. Since he has been home he is the same sweet calf and I enjoy our time together in the barn. I know there is a lot of work to do but we plan on going to jackpot shows and clinics to learn how to work best together. We intend to go to the Progress Show in November and hopefully the next time we are in Houston you will get to see our hard work and how it has progressed. We work hard every day to get better and to build a bond that will show in the ring on the green shavings next March.
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