HOST:

It’s that time of year again, the 155th time to be exact. Get ready for “The best day ever” with a trip to the North Carolina State Fair. While you may be thinking about the 87 different rides and more than 150 food vendors, the Animal Science Club at NC State has been thinking about how to help their show cattle put their best hooves and udders forward. You can find them at the Milk Booth, teaching willing visitors how to milk cows while answering questions about the dairy industry, and at the N.C. Cattlemen’s Associate Booth, where they can tell you all about the beef industry. You’ll also find them in the ring in Graham Building, showing off varieties raised and trained for showing. A handful of cows and their student trainers will make the trip from the NC State Howling Cow Dairy Education Center and Creamery with hopes they have the chops, and the hips, to win a blue ribbon.

Today on Farms, Food and You, we chat with junior Olivia Mabe, who will be showing her halter-trained heifer. She tells us all about what makes a prize-winning cow and why you and your family should take a break from the rides, games and delectable fried treats to check out the exhibition.

MABE:

I’m a junior in animal science. I’m on the pre-vet track, so I’m hoping to go to vet school after this. I’ve been working on the farm for a year and a half now. I started during the spring semester of my freshman year, so a while.

I mainly feed calves and milk cows and I love doing both of those things. It’s really fun.

HOST:

Mabe started showing cows her freshman year after a friend convinced her to get into it. With no prior experience, it only took one trip to the Dairy Education Center on Lake Wheeler Road for her to find peace and purpose in working with the cattle.

MABE:

I really didn’t have much of a passion, honestly, for dairy when I started. I honestly had very little cattle or livestock experience at all, which is why this is really nice because we invite everyone, even if they’ve never touched a cow. They can come and try out for the team either way; we’ll teach ’em what they need to know. But I didn’t really have much of an interest at first, and my friend convinced me. I’d worked with beef cows a little bit before, so I was like, ‘I’ll try it.’ And I definitely fell in love with that, going out to see my heifer every day and building that kind of bond. And that definitely was a catalyst for me deciding to work there and do everything I’ve done since. So I’m really grateful for that.

HOST:

So, what does it take to show a blue ribbon heifer? 

MABE:

Price-winning cows, ours, aren’t the most beautiful cows in the whole world because a lot of farms have actually show typey cows that they just breed to show. But since we’re a production farm, we’re more focused on them milking and doing their job versus being the most beautiful. But Devin has done a really, really good job since she’s been working on the dairy of focusing on genetics, and she’s been super into the showing, so she’s bringing in some of those show genetics, so we can have good show type as well as good production type. Mainly, it’s all in the confirmation, body size and frame. Feet, legs and hips are really important for the production of cows and, of course, for cow’s udders and for heifers more so like that body size.

Good hips usually in dairy cows mean wide and level because, of course, in dairy, the number one thing that’s important is reproduction. So, we want them to have the widest hips possible. So having babies is easy for them because if they have calving issues, that’s a big deal, especially if we’re trying to take them to the fair and they’re having issues right before they’re supposed to go. In the udder, they’re just looking for overall confirmation and how even it is and how well it blends into her body, and how nice and tight it is up against her body. Those are all traits that they need to last a long time in the parlor and go through several lactations.

They need really good leg confirmation because most dairy cows live on concrete in barns and stuff like that. So, if they can’t be able to stand and walk well on concrete for several years, they can’t last very long in a production setting. We set up their feet in a specific way. In heifers, you’re supposed to have their feet open to the judge and then cows, you’re supposed to have them close to the judge, but this is really just a showmanship thing that’s been going on at dairy showing for years and years, but it lets them see how they walk and how their legs are set. 

HOST:

Beyond the cow’s physical attributes, showmanship and prepping the cow can really make a difference.

MABE:

So there are two types of shows. There’s a class show and a showmanship show and we’ll be showing in the class show this year. That’s when the cow was more so judged. And then the showmanship show would be how well you present them. So you don’t have to have a pretty cow. You can take whatever cow you want to take into the ring for that. It can just be one that you like and you’re judged for showmanship, how professional you are, how well you’ve made your cow look with trimming and washing and stuff, and just how professional and how well you can answer questions about them, too.

Some of Maybelline’s good attributes are that before the show, she’s definitely going to need to be clipped really closely and groomed really well because she’s almost an all-white cow, and I think she can look really, really good if she stays clean. So I’m going to try to get her clean and keep her clean. And then in the ring, she can stride really well, so I’m going to try to make sure I can keep that slow pace and set her up as quickly as possible because she’s a really nice cow, so she has a lot of good to show off.

HOST:

At the farm, that also means getting the cows used to noise and people staring at them, but the Animal Science Club has a method for getting them in a place where they can tune all that out.

MABE:

We have played music at practice before. It’s kind of funny because if people show up to the farm, we’ll be dancing around our heifers. It looks like some weird ritual is going down. We’re going to have ’em try to walk over things. We’re going to put some mats down and try to get ’em to walk over it just to get used to walking on different types of surfaces because, like horses, they can be really, really weird about where they walk and what they step on and what’s around. So it’s pretty good to try to desensitize them before we get there.

HOST:

Mabe tells us that while it’s not difficult to show cows, it is the practice that helps show off your animal and NC State’s program.

MABE:

No matter what, we’re always preaching showmanship because you don’t have to be anyone special just to lead a cow around, but it definitely takes someone special to learn all these showmanship traits. And it also makes your animal look so much better if you show them well in the ring, whether or not you’re being judged for it. So, in dairy showing, it’s different from a lot of other showings, but we walk backward as we show them around. So you want to have them turn completely backward, not walking sideways, like making eye contact with the judge at all times. Walking really, really slow. And when the judge stops you, you want to be able to set your animal’s feet up as quickly as possible so you can show her udder off if you’re showing a cow.

HOST:

All of this walking backward cow showing has a deeper purpose than just going after those coveted ribbons and prizes. The State Fair is their chance to show what the dairy program at NC State is all about and educate young people about the industry.

MABE:

So it’s really important, especially right now. The dairy industry in North Carolina is kind of a dwindling industry, unfortunately, and we don’t have many people wanting to go into the dairy or even the ag industry in North Carolina. So we’re really trying to make this look like a fun thing for youth especially. And we’re also a school that doesn’t have a very big dairy program. So some people, when they’re making their college decisions, if they really want to go somewhere with dairy showing and dairy judging and stuff like that, they might pick somewhere else besides NC State for now. So we’re really trying to create that here so more people will come here to do that kind of stuff.

It’s so fun. My boyfriend has some friends who are from France and Italy that came last year and they got to milk a cow for the first time ever, and they thought that was the coolest thing. So it’s really fun to pass that on to the kids and to people who’ve never done it before. 

HOST:

The other reason students like Mabe are drawn to the farm and the Animal Science Club is simply because it’s fun.

MABE:

You don’t even have to be an animal science major. We’ve had criminology majors and stuff like that show in the past just because they like animals, and it’s a good way to debrief. And honestly, for me, it’s good for my mental health and it’s good for other showman’s mental health, too. We just go out and we get to play with cows and we don’t take it too seriously until it’s time to get to work.

HOST:

It’s also helped Mabe decide her career path.

MABE:

I grew up thinking that I definitely wanted to do small animal stuff. Then doing all this has made me realize that large animal is what I really love.

HOST:

Go see Mabe, the NC State Animal Science Club and their dairy cow friends at the State Fair October 12-22. 

Thank you for joining us on Farms, Food and You. This podcast is a product of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University. If you would like to support the show, please share this episode on social media and leave a review on your podcasting app of choice. Let’s talk soon!