Prepping for the County Fair - Rabbits

Prepping for the County Fair - Breeding Rabbits

Grooming

Show on Thursday, March 1st

Check In 4 pm

Show at 5 pm

You should groom your rabbit often. Grooming will help your rabbit’s temperament by allowing the animal to get used to being handled. It will also greatly improve the condition, luster, body and texture of your rabbit’s coat. It will also help you establish a trust relationship with your rabbit. The rabbit will learn to trust you and hence not become as stressed when handled. This will also help you to learn your rabbit’s habits. Also remember to cut your rabbit’s nails prior to the show.

Practice Posing

Practice makes perfect! You should practice posing your rabbits properly and going through the routine that the judges will use to check your rabbits for disqualifications and placings. This is also great practice if you will compete in rabbit showmanship. If you plan to compete in rabbit showmanship, you should say aloud each step as you practice checking and posing your rabbit. This will help you build your confidence since you will need to do so during showmanship in order to demonstrate to the judge that you know your rabbit stuff!

Some rabbit breeds are posed in a specific way, while some are not judged in a posed position. It is important that you know the proper pose for your rabbit and set the rabbit in this pose during the judge's evaluation. Practicing posing with your rabbits will help keep the animals calm while the judge is handling them. A rabbit that has not been handled will be scared or aggressive and will make it difficult for the judge to evaluate it. This could hinder your placing because it will not allow the judge to see your rabbits best qualities. The Domestic Rabbit book has a tutorial that states the pose and handling of various rabbit breeds on pages 227-231. It also has detailed information regarding the different poses and how to set the rabbit on the pose from pages 221-226. Use this resource to learn how to pose your rabbit.

Transportation

Transporting the animals to and from the show should be done as comfortably for the animal as possible. Exposing the rabbit to extreme heat or cold can be damaging to both the animals condition and health. Make sure that you take water bottles, feeders, feed and water to rabbit shows the rabbit show. If the rabbit it traveling in an air-conditioned car, make sure that the A/C vent is not directly blowing air at the rabbit as this can make them sick.

Be on time - Check in is 4 pm but you need to be alittle earlier if you have not done early entry. You can pick up an extra entry form at the extension office or online at KCJLS.com

It is your responsibility at a rabbit show to make sure your animals reach the judging table at the appropriate time. In order to accomplish this, one must pay attention to the order of judging, which judge will be handling your breed, and which variety and class is to be brought up for judging next. Make sure to double check your tattoo

What to Bring - Just a few items. Water, Feed, Treats (just in case the show is big and they need a snack),Rabbit grooming supplies (brush, nail clippers, rinse-less shampoo, baby wipes and a towel.), apron for you, and lint roller to clean your apron before showmanship. Just to name a few!!

Great resource for new showman is http://tx4-h.tamu.edu/explore/Explore_Rabbits.pdf

Also Texas 4-H'er has put two great videos on prepping for and doing the showmanship class. You will pay $5.00 at the gate for the class. Pee Wee do not have to pay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-JQQRrh0j4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK3RsRz59ME

Prepping for County Fair - Market Broilers

County Fair Prep Time!!! We are only 3 weeks away from county fair. This Post is for the Market broiler exhibitors. We are now just short of half way through the feeding program. You need to weigh all broilers and cull the bottom 10-15% of your pen. You can cull harder is you only entered 1 pen of 3. Birds should be rigidly culled to optimize performance. Small, sick, stunted or deformed birds should be removed when detected. Reduce flock size at 3-4 weeks of age by removing the smaller and poorer fleshed birds. Keep two or three birds for each one to be shown. Fleshing, uniformity and finish will be improved by the increase in floor and feeder space and the reduction in social pressure. Trim nails to help prevent carcass damage. Leg band the birds kept for easy identification when selecting the show pen.
UnLike other meat animals, broilers and sometimes roasters are shown in pens of three. This exhibit is intended to determine if the exhibitor understands the basic principles of meat chickens. Pens are intended to be matched as closely as possible.
This means that they should appear as ―peas in a pod.‖ A pair exhibit simulates the industry’s need for uniformity in birds that ultimately produce a uniform product that the consumer demands. The industry has uniform methods of processing millions of broilers and the consumer demands that each broiler or cut of meat purchased be identical to the previous.
The amount of muscling is determined by feeling the width of the breast and back particularly over the loin region. The breast meat is the most valuable cut of meat on the meat chicken because it yields ―white meat‖ which commands the highest market price. The width of the loin is an indicator of muscling throughout the carcass much like the loin eye area of a beef steer or market hog. The thickness of bone also indicates muscling due to the fact that the more muscling an animal has the larger the bone must be to hold the muscle. Excessive bone is not desirable because of decreased dressing percentage.
Most broiler starter rations are crumbles, which contain 20-23% protein and are fed the starter ration for about 3 weeks. Then switch to a grower ration for the remaining period. Grower feeds should be pelleted and contain 18-20% protein. Be sure to follow any label recommendations if you use medicated feeds.
Some participants develop their own special formulas for feeding their broilers. One point that is important to remember is that food intake will effect the growth rate tremendously. Therefore, any method that you can think of that will increase food intake will probably increase the growth rate of your birds. One example would be simply working with the birds and moving around the pen. This disturbs them and makes them move around the feeders and waterers. Stirring the litter will move the birds around. Keeping the birds from becoming overheated will stimulate them to eat more feed. Anytime you see the birds with their beaks open and breathing heavily you should suspect that the birds may be too hot.
Another way to stimulate feed intake is to give the birds small amounts of feed that have been moistened with water, milk, or cooking oil. You can do this several times a day. It has been observed that broilers prefer feeds with higher moisture levels, however, this additional moisture can also lead to mold and spoilage. If you are going to moisten feed then you should only make enough that the birds will consume it in about 15 minutes. Then it should be removed from the pen. You can feed the leftover feed to other birds or the culls.
Be sure you have enough feeder space so all birds can eat at once. You can use the pan or tray type feeders for the first seven days. To help them find the food, use a baking pan or a piece of paper with some feed spread across it for 1 or 2 days. After about 2 or 3 weeks, consider feeding the birds from a tube feeder. Tube feeders can easily be adjusted as the birds grow. A rule of thumb is that the feeder height should be about the height of the back of the bird when it is standing upright. Dry feed should be available at all times. If the exhibitor allows the feeders to become empty, their birds may grow at a slower rate. And fresh clean water needs to be available at ALL times.
With only 3 weeks to go remember you will need 3 “handlers” per pen entered. So start talking with your friends to see who will help. 
If you have any questions, the best way to get ahold of me is by email cl-sharp@tamu.edu.

Prepping for Kaufman County Fair - Market Steers

Prepping for the county fair. On Wednesday, February 28th will be move in day and also weigh in day for ALL projects with the exception of Breeding Sheep, Breeding Does, Dairy Goats, Rabbits, Market Pens, Market Broilers and Wether Does. This posting will focus on prepping Market Steers for the County Fair. Market Steers that you know will weigh over 900 pounds will need to be "slick". (Prospect Steers are steers that will not make the 900# weight. The prospect steers can be shown with what we call a Blow and Go show. ) The the Market Steers this means that all hair with the exception of the tail switch needs to be 1/4" or less. The Tail switch you can leave up to 10" up from the bottom of the tail.

The easiest way to do it in my opinion is to get "Texas" blades for the old Shearmaster clippers from Sullivans. Direction doesn't matter much and it all has to come off. You pretty much have to go completely against the grain of the hair to get it all. Lines disappear after 2-3 days. So prepare ahead of time but no more that 2-3 days as the hair will start to regrow. Some guys are doing it now with the little Andis clippers using T-84 blades. Typically they'll do it a week early and let it grow out a little. You can buy other Andis blades of various length to adjust to your preference. The T-84s are a little short for some project members as it is harder to hide the lines if you get alittle off.

Here are two youtube videos to help with the "how to"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6BW2FldVZ4

If you need any help please contact Carrie by email at cl-sharp@tamu.edu