AGM 2013 PHOTOS

[Gorignak]

I moved this from C Townson's thread and brief update.....HE DESERVES ALL YOUR CONGRATS....I THINK IT WAS "GRAND CHAMP" THAT THE OTHER COW WINKED AT THE JUDGE AND BESTED HIM.....

But...........................


Charles left out how hot...but you all have probably seen worse. The temp dropped considerably overnight, and outside the arena it was really bearable. The typhoon fans did not keep up with the building heat through the day.

We have start to finish amateur video....full of glitches, bumps, in and out of focus.....needs to be edited for the valuable content. We filmed non stop from 9 AM to 3 PM with two capable cameras..........

I am not afraid...being a novice....to criticize.....WOW...it was great. I am terribly disappointed at the audience turnout. Basically about 15% of a small facility was occupied. You all will need to address that..... For us, the education was "fast and furious" . The second judge was a far more knowledgeable Dexter judge, and he didn't disappoint..... I do not understand not having a panel of judges and a scoring system...but, I'm sure I'll be set straight.

Kudos to all....I saw cattle I could not bear to look at....sorry, and cattle I could not take my eyes off of.
BY INCLUSION...I AM NOT EXCLUDING.... I have a very brief window here to comment before I collapse. BEAUTIFUL CATTLE....BEAUTIFUL PRESENTATION..... ALL DESERVE MORE GENERAL SUPPORT THAN I SAW THERE.... I realize how difficult it is to show up....anyway.

I want to single out one set of cattle....AND, I will phrase it so as not to display my overwhelming enjoyment and pleasure in seeing them...... I didn't take the time to ascertain if it was one or several exhibitors who showed up with the Dun and Black shorties. I never thought that I would be able to personally view Chondro positive animals of that conformation....Old World.

Incredible courage to show up with animals of that caliber, to almost certainly get trounced by the overwhelming tide of larger-framed and sleeker, polled animals.... I have nothing but respect for them allowing me to see animals that are extreme by any standards...and have reset the bar for me, personally, in my acceptance of what this breed has, and must be allowed to have, in its genetic pool.I don't want to own cattle that look like the incredible shorties I saw...neither do I aspire to the refined lines of the "latter day saints" of the polled , heavy bodied lines.....A beautiful black, horned shorty was the recipient of a win, or second place in one class....and a rumble of clapping and cheers  was heard when acknowledged, and it was my personal favorite (because it looked so much like all my cattle).
There were three or four classes with over 10 animals....one had 16....AND THE RAINBOW OF COLORS AND CONFORMATIONS WAS NOTED BY THE JUDGE....DUH....IT WAS OUTSTANDING..... Spectacular diversity. WHAT A PLEASURE TO SEE THE LINEUP.

Sorry, I was focusing on the filming too much to commit all the classes and wins to memory. I'll sort them out and post.
Charles had a good day and a narrow loss, that the judge admitted was really a flip of the coin.....PRETTY LADY, Charles. The cow that bested her was VERY easy on the eyes....near supermodel caliber. The judge admitted that he was smitten, and youth won.
The Hutchinsons had a VERY,VERY good day.....Glad the Dr. works for the VA and I don't get a bill.... he might be moving up in the world....Congratulations to his children and their well behaved animals....

I don't now how much I can pressure the three kids to collate and post some of this....but they have the day off tomorrow to do that....

Thanks to the miracle of well disciplined children.....We present, in no particular order or importance....AND NO SHOW OF FAVORITISM....We just chunked these up.....

The first of the AGM pictures................s1247.photobucket.com/user/Upside_Downs_Farms/slideshow/AGM%202013

[legendrockranch]

Mike thank you soo much for the photo's, they are wonderful.

A few comments I would like to make. For the most part "some" animals that are shown are sometimes fed to the max giving them the beefiness and potential an animal can reach. Some folks have a "show string" of animals that go to several shows a year. Some people like the look of a natural coat on and animal while others will trim their animals to make them look their best, also called fitting. I'm not sure how many animals were polled or just dehorned.

There are a lot of factors you have to consider when looking at these animals, no matter what it looked like a great time.
No matter what there looked like some real nice animals shown.

Barb

[ctownson]

Thanks for the comments and photos! The Sale is today and then we are heading home Sunday.

[Gorignak]

Good luck at the sale. I really appreciated the effort put into the production. there were so few people there, I feel guilty.....I got a Million Dollar education. YOU ALL MUST DO SOMETHING IN THAT REGARD....over half the questions on the forum could be answered by watching the videos we have.
GRUMPY....I'm sure they looked....BUT.....feet were mentioned only once
HAPPY....though tails were casually referenced...BOY, did we learn a lot.
HAPPY....."Spring of Ribs".....well. my cow had a calf, and you couldn't even tell....she NEVER changed shape. She has an enormous "spring of rib" that the judge commented on over and over as one of the focal points for judging heifers and cows.

Barb...you are right....there were a lot of dehorned animals. We are getting good at telling now....polled from dehorned. Only a couple of sets of horns present.

My daughter should add 30 more pictures this morning and then more later today. I previewed some of the video....and if I can edit out the clumsy parts, I can probably get a video together of the catwalk portion of each class....MISTAKE....I think the winner should make a victory lap as the judge describes the finer points.....the winning  announcement was followed by them leaving the pen immediately. YES, I do understand the time factor and the need to "keep things rolling"......There is a bigger picture to me....the education is paramount.

WE HAD A BLAST.....More to come

Everyone drive safely on the trail home !!!!

[jamshundred]

Mike,
Thanks for taking all those photos and your daughter is a gem as well. It is nice for those of us who love Dexters and cannot travel far to see them and so quickly! I am so partial to short legs and glad to see all of them as well.

I was happy and grateful to see the one little black bull with HORNS.

Judy

[Gorignak]

You bet Judy....I would say the carriers were well represented, and judged fairly. I disagree with some of the difficulty the judge admitted to, in recognizing the incredible conformation of several of the dun, ultra-shorty cows...GRANTED, they are not as feminine as some of the pretty carrier blacks and non carriers were. And, I do value that "lady cow" look.....But, D__n it....there needs to be an "ugly girl prom" or something for them. I saw some incredible animals....and I saw some tremendous non carriers that will have to be sought out by us to do the balancing act.

Bask in the pleasure of these cattle......I'd be seeing spots about an hour into an Angus show.....THE VARIETY IS WONDERFUL

ANYWAY....THERE ARE ANOTHER 30 PICTURES UP...WITH A LITTLE BETTER SELECTION......ENJOY

SLIDESHOW...... s1247.photobucket.com/user/Upside_Downs_Farms/slideshow/AGM%202013

AND PIC BY PIC...... s1247.photobucket.com/user/Upside_Downs_Farms/library/AGM%202013

THANK YOU ALANA, JENNY, AND CHRIS ..........

MOVIES ARE NEXT

[lakeportfarms]

Jun 15, 2013 14:50:32 GMT -5 Gorignak said:

You bet Judy....I would say the carriers were well represented, and judged fairly. I disagree with some of the difficulty the judge admitted to, in recognizing the incredible conformation of several of the dun, ultra-shorty cows...GRANTED, they are not as feminine as some of the pretty carrier blacks and non carriers were. And, I do value that "lady cow" look.....But, D__n it....there needs to be an "ugly girl prom" or something for them. I saw some incredible animals....and I saw some tremendous non carriers that will have to be sought out by us to do the balancing act.

Bask in the pleasure of these cattle......I'd be seeing spots about an hour into an Angus show.....THE VARIETY IS WONDERFUL

ANYWAY....THERE ARE ANOTHER 30 PICTURES UP...WITH A LITTLE BETTER SELECTION......ENJOY

SLIDESHOW...... s1247.photobucket.com/user/Upside_Downs_Farms/slideshow/AGM%202013

AND PIC BY PIC...... s1247.photobucket.com/user/Upside_Downs_Farms/library/AGM%202013

THANK YOU ALANA, JENNY, AND CHRIS ..........

MOVIES ARE NEXT

Mike,
The dun shorties have been well represented at prior shows...Wieringa's Paula MD is a many time grand national champion, but I don't know if Lee and Roberta took her this year, she's getting up in years.  Our bull Mike is her sire by the way.  I'm sure they brought some other shortie duns, as they have several nice ones. We would have loved to see Paula win again to tell her "proud papa" who is still hanging in there himself, but I'm sure there are some others that are very deserving winners that were there.  I wish we could have carved out the time...  And a lot has to do with the judge's preference in cows, it's not much different than some of the members of this forum!

I'm happy you enjoyed the show and getting a chance to meet a lot of the folks, and I agree it would be nice if the show was better attended by both participants and other spectators.  I'm not sure what to suggest about that other than maybe consider partnering with a local fair that same weekend.  Last year we took some of our herd to a very popular fair a little North of Detroit in August, and I think they have 90,000 visitors over the week.  We always had a crowd looking at our Dexters, and to be honest, more so the Highlands.  However the open show wasn't very well attended either.  But in talking to people they loved the little chondro Dexters.  Most couldn't believe that the waist high cow that they could go and hug was 12 years old.  They had never seen anything like that before.  So even if the show was a "bust", thousands of people were exposed to the breed.


As far as the sale, I would guess the hay shortages and drought in the past couple of years have taken their toll on some folks, and there just isn't the desire to put more out there at risk.  At the same time, the costs to keep the animals has risen, and so sellers are hoping to recover some of those costs.  Eventually the two will meet, that's how capitalism works!

[Gorignak]

The 'shorties" held their own. It remapped my trajectory.
We are uploading the first movie now....I think it is of the last 30 minutes, including the Grand Champ. I will apologize in advance for the roughness....we really can't edit 3 hours of film with any degree of finesse....The tapes are actually quite representative of being there. It will take over 10 hours to upload one 30 minute tape on my "Calcutta Bell" rural phone line. So, I started this one and choked the other 5 computers to a crawl....I'll only get away with that once. The rest will get uploaded each night, as everyone logs off....If you watch all 5 tapes, you will see about 90% of the show.

[Olga]

I'l send you my videos tomorrow, in case you can use another angle.