BIQ-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 18, 1992
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
MOUNT JOY (Lancaster Co.)
“When you wash your steer,
make sure you get it clean under
the briskets and flank,” Debra Hess
told members of the Red Rose 4-H
Beef Club.
It was hands-on practice for
about 22 members who gathered at
Bob and Debra Hess’s Mount Joy
farm to leam the proper way to
clean and fit a steer for the show
ring.
With hose, water bucket, and
brushes, the Hesses ten-year-old
son John demonstrated the proper
way to scrub a steer. Rocket and
Astro stood patiently in the hot
summer sun seemingly enjoying
being splashed and hosed with cold
water, but John said that he has
been kicked plenty of times.
“Some (steers) are touchy at the
feet. And, you gotta watch that you
don’t get water in their cars or they
will jump,” John said. “You gotta
close their ears,” he added as he
demonstrated how to squeeze the
steer’s cars together to keep water
from going into them.
After John scrubbed the steers/
he threw buckets of Laser Sheen
over the steers. John mixes the Las
er Sheen himself. He said that it’s a
mixture of vinegar and water to
keep bugs out of the steer’s hide
and helps prevent dandruff.
John spends 4 to 5 hours each
day with his steers. “It’s a full-time
job,” he said. “At first the steers ran
away from me when 1 went toward
them, but now I got ’em tamed and
used to being washed.”
John walks his steers about two
miles everyday to keep them in
Finish drawing this calf so it looks like the one above it.
Kids Fit Beef For Show Ring
shape and get them used to walking
with him.
Rocket and Astro are purebred
Polled Herefords purchased from
Salunga Acres’, owned by John’s
grandparents, C. George and Dor
othy Metzler.
“I like red ones (Herefords)
because they are real friendly,”
John said. “One thing I don’t want
is a black one. They are so stub
born. If you tell them to move, they
won’t. Once a got kicked in the
brim of the hat by one.”
John’s parents are leaders of the
Red Rose 4-H Beef Club that
includes members from Elizabeth
town, Marietta, Mount Joy, and
Manheim. This is the first year, that
the club did not sponsor a tour, but
instead held the workshop to teach
members how to clip and dress the
steers for the show ring.
Members watched how leg
adhesive sprays are used and hair
pulled up to give the steers a classy
image. After they got a chance at
hying their hand at it, the members
wor 1 ""' 1 "" which
included using show sticks.
Last year, the first year John
showed, he placed third in Junior
Showmanship at the Pennsylvania
Farm Show. It is unusual for a first
year exhibitor to place in show
manship, but John credits his
parents for teaching him all that
they had learned from the lime
when they were in 4-H competi
tion. John also had the champion
preview steer and the champion
4-H carcass lamb at the Manheim
Fair last year. He is also a member
of the 4-H judging team.
V
Color both calves.
0
u 6 w^u S ! ra J es P re P ar,n fl a steer for the show ring while his siblings and
cousins watch. With John, from left, Nicole Hess, 7, sister; Jesse Hess, 10, cousin-
C.J. Hess, 8, cousin; and Christopher Hess, 5, brother. ’
According to John Hess, a bucketful of Laser Sheen, a mixture of vinegar and water
keeps bugs out of the hide and helps control dandruff In cattle. ’
Bob and Debra Heat of Mount Joy lead the Red Rose 4-H Beef Club of which their
son John, center, Is a member. Another leader, Greg Muster, Is not pictured.