Calves get primped by Aggies for annual sale
By Ellie Dalton
Every morning between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., Jonathan Blakely wakes up. He’s not going to class — not yet. He’s going to feed calves.
It’s not a duty he can hit the snooze button for. It’s crucial that the calves get fed a specific ration of feed in 12-hour intervals if they are going to be ready before sale day.
But Blakely, a senior in animal, dairy and veterinary science and agribusiness, is not a stranger to this kind of work.
“I grew up and spent years showing calves,” he said.
In 2011, a friend roped Blakey into Utah State University’s Animal Science club calf sale. He loved it and has been helping with the sale every year since.
“It’s a nice thing to be involved and work with the stock again while I’m down here going to school. It is something I have always enjoyed,” Blakely said.
The club has been putting on the club calf sale for more than 20 years. Every fall, club adviser Brett Bowman and Blakely receive calves from breeders all over the Mountain West. Students then care for the animals and get them ready for the sale. The animals are sold and sent to new homes.
More than 100 students are enrolled in the club, but active membership is usually lower. About 50 students came to the club calf opener and about three to five students make it out each evening to work with the calves.
The students involved in this year’s sale work with 20 calves every night for a month. The animals need to be washed, brushed and trained to lead. Most of all, they need a whole lot of loving.
“The calves come in fresh off the range and they’re usually pretty wild,” Blakely said. “The kids love on them a bit, and scratch on them with a brush so they get used to a person being next to them or around them.”
It is crucial for the calves to be used to wearing a halter and trained to be gentle because the buyers take the calves home for their kids to show in 4-H and Future Farmers of America.
“Getting a calf broke to lead and used to people, that isn’t going to run away with the kids is a lot of the reason we get buyers that come back every year,” Blakely said.
Work also goes into making the calves look their very best before the sale.
“We cut their extra hair and applying product and fluff their hair,” said Lauren Casdorph, a junior in animal science. “It’s what women do every day.”
When the cutting and styling is over, the calf is then said to be clipped and fit.
“It makes the calf look the best they can and it also allows a little bit of give to smooth the calf out and make them look thick, smooth, and blocky,” Blakely said.
The club calf program is good for students who come from an agricultural background as well as those who haven’t. It gives the students who miss showing and being around animals a chance to have some daily interaction with something they’re familiar with. For students who come from urban areas, it gives valuable hands-on experience with livestock so they can decide if it is something they want to do.
“I have seen the dynamics change as far as their background,” Bowman said. “It used to be that 80 percent of students were from a farm or ranch background to almost reversed.”
Bowman said he thinks the program is a hidden jewel that the university has.
A lot of previous students come back every year to give back to a program that meant so much to them during their college years.
“They’ll call up and want to help in any way they can. It’s kind of like little league sports. You get involved and you want to come back,” Bowman said. “I don’t know whether it’s the deep-seeded love they have for agriculture or the good they saw that that it did for them and for the 4-H and FFA kids. They want to perpetuate it.”
Each spring the club hosts the top jackpot show in Utah. The Aggie Classic True Blue Showdown is open to all showmen from the Midwest, but a special class is reserved for calves that were purchased from the Aggie Classic Club Calf Sale.
The event kicks off at South Farm on Friday with a preview at 5 p.m., dinner at 6 p.m., and the sale at 7 p.m.
“Friday is a huge day, it’s an all-day deal getting the calves ready to go,” Blakey said.
— elizabeth.dalton@aggiemail.usu.edu
@eddthegirl