Tehachapi News

4-H steers getting ready for their close-ups

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Veteran 4-H livestock competitor Devinann Sherwood of Tehachapi is preparing two steers for show this year - a Black Angus cross called Malibu Magic and another Black Angus cross named Apache, who happens to be black and white.

With all the pampering and good food they get, the critters should be ready for their first show, the Bakersfield Holiday Classic on Dec. 12-13.

They are both near 750 pounds and will be shown as prospect steers, the ones that are not finished developing. When they get to be 1,000 pounds, they will be shown as market steers.

Devinann spends two hours every day working with and grooming her 4-H steers.

“You always have got to be calm,” said Devinann, 16, a sophomore at Tehachapi High School. “If not, they get all worked up.”

With the head secured by halter to a stanchion, she uses a long hose to blow dust and dirt off the animals' skin every day.

The grooming routine includes washing, blow-drying, treating the hair with conditioner, clipping the hooves, pedicures, administering a product to make the hair shine and - just to make them happy-back-scratching.

Preparing a steer for a show is work.

The goal, Devinann said, is to amplify the positive in the calf and downplay the negative. That means making the rump look square and the legs look like 4x4 posts, she said. The back should be level.

“A level back means good loin,” said Devinann, referring to the cut of meat within. The back also is the location of prime rib, filet, porterhouse and t-bone steaks.

A proper show haircut, she said, takes 18 hours.

“It's an art to itself,” she said.

Her brother Branden, 14, a freshman at Tehachapi High School, is the expert on show preparation. While he's not raising his own steer this year, Branden will be presenting his sister's black and white Angus cross in the showmanship class at the Bakersfield Holiday Classic.

The animals' diets are carefully controlled.

“It's a corn-based diet,” said Devinann, holding out a handful of what looks like granola with some flaky pieces. It is crushed corn, distilled corn (a by-product of distilleries) and cotton hulls. The mixture provides fiber and also oil for shiny hair.

Also on the steer menu is protein-rich barley, “held together with molasses that makes it sweet and scrumptious.”

Devinann adds some hay that is used “for scratch in the belly.”

“They have four stomachs. The roughage keeps it all moving and functioning,” she said. “Without roughage, they get acidosis and the food ferments.”

In all, she said, it's high-energy feed, with lots of protein in the grains.

Fifth year to show

This is Devinann's fifth year to raise and show steers, and the first time she is raising two at the same time.

At last summer's Antelope Valley Fair, Devinann's steer 1,391-pound won the 4-H Reserve Grand Champion and Supreme Reserve Grand Champion titles. It solde for $4.75 a pound to Hanes & Associates of Lancaster.

Devinann's parents Todd and Kelly Sherwood financed the first steer for both their children. The money from the auction of the animals financed subsequent livestock.

Todd is an engineer for Northrop Grumann as well as the Four Seasons 4-H Club leader and Kelly is a 5th grade teacher at Cummings Valley Elementary School.

“Our kids have to buy their own animal,” Todd Sherwood said. “They pay for feed and vet bills and entry fees. We pay for equipment and transportation.”

Devinann is one of 10 Four Seasons 4-H, Independent, Kern Buena Vista Grange and Tehachapi High School Future Farmers of America youngsters who showed livestock at the 2009 Antelope Valley Fair and collected numerous prizes for steers, swine and lambs.

“It was the best showing Tehachapi ever had,” said Todd Sherwood.

Sherwood grew up on a farm in Minnesota and is on a mission to get youngsters involved with raising livestock.

Most of the competitors are girls these days, as teenage boys tend to discover other things to do, he said. There's also peer pressure from classmates who don't understand raising an animal to be sold for slaughter.

“They get teased. The information is all negative,” Todd Sherwood said. “They focus on the butchering part. At the fairs, people are amazed it is a market show, that kids let them go to market.”

New at this

One recruit to the 4-H livestock world is Ellie Bewick, 15, a ninth-grader at Tehachapi High School, who moved to Tehachapi not long ago from another state with her dad Chris Bewick. A novice at raising cattle, Ellie keeps her orange-brown steer, Pumpkin Spice, on the property of Tim Sturm, whose daughter Amber raises livestock.

Amber's triumphs at the 2009 Antelope Valley Fair included the Supreme Grand Champion Swine title. Amber's steer this year is Black Jack.

Ellie is doing well in her new endeavor, Todd Sherwood reported, preparing Pumpkin Spice for the Bakersfield show. With no animal showing experience, Ellie had to start from ground zero, learning how to put the halter on and how to make him walk.

Ellie isn't quite sure she will be able to part with her steer when it is auctioned at the end of the season.

“Me and Pumpkin are going in a trailer and drive off so he doesn't get killed,” she said.

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Interested in raising livestock?

The United States Department of Agriculture has low-interest loans available to  youths age 10 through 19 for livestock projects (steers, swine, lambs, poultry, goats, rabbits) that can be paid back after the animals are sold at auction.

For information on local activities and how to get involved, call Four Seasons 4-H leader Todd Sherwood, 661-886-9313.