We have one daughter who retired from showing cattle in 2016. She graduated from high school, took off to college, and never looked back.

We have another daughter who retired from showing cattle in 2021. She graduated in 2018 and kept going. By 2021, she was ready to move on. Her friends had aged out and she was feeling like she was surrounded by kids, which she was! 🙂

It’s 2024. My wife and I are showing Brown Swiss on Saturday, then at the State Fair.

#goodgravy

Tell me about it.

The friends we made when we first started have kept up with their Swiss, buying and selling and showing, even though their youngest was done in 2019. They truly love doing this, and it’s cool to see people who follow their passions.

My wife has been showing for the last couple of years, and I was asked to do so last year at several shows. This year, they asked if we would both show for them, to which we happily agreed!

Tonight, we went over to interact with the animals so they are used to us and just have a quick chat. Our friend told me that it’s nice to have us show with them. Their kids are out of the house, just like ours, so our adult contact has gone down, just like theirs. He said it’s nice to just have those around you who have similar interests, which was pretty cool.

Anyway, as I watched my wife struggle tonight with a heifer that usually loves her, it just struck me how this so much like teaching.

#showingcowsisliketeaching

Absolutely!

You have to do many things to have a good show experience:

  1. You have to have a good relationship. I’ve seen heifers who cringe with those showing them raise their hands, tell me they’ve been hit more than once. As a teacher, you must create a good relationship with your students. As a shower, it’s the same thing!
  2. You have to work to form those connections. We’ve not been around as much because a show got canceled, so the last time we were around the girls was in May. Thus, we are catching up right now. But, they remember us, so those connections are being reformed as we stop by each night.
  3. Positive reinforcement matters. This is pretty easy to understand.

My wife was scolding her heifer like she would a kindergartener, and the heifer pouted! It was hilarious, but it just struck me how much teaching is like showing.

Just another observation for nowhere Iowa! 🙂