I am also part of the Maine Animal Club on campus. This club is in charge of the Orono Royal that will be occurring on April 27 at 9 AM. For the Royal, we are all assigned one of the heifers in the barn and we train them for several weeks before the show. To train them, we have to teach them to walk on a halter, to stop, back up, walk slowly with their head up, and to set their feet up in a show stance.
The Royal is really important to Witter as these heifers will eventually become part of the milking herd. As these heifers get bigger, they become more difficult to handle, which makes milking and even walking them around a struggle to the students and employees of the farm. If they get trained at a young age, they will have the basics and have been handled, so they are more likely to cooperate with us as we train them to be part of the milking herd.
This year, I was assigned to a heifer named River who will be a year old in May. When I first started working with her, she didn't really know what was going on. As I have continued working with her, she has become the biggest baby who will follow me where ever I go. Working with River has really impacted me because I grew up around Milking Shorthorns and have always wanted to show a Holstein. She has proven to me that hard work really does pay off, as she started out barely halter broken. Now she will do almost anything I ask, except for backing up, but we are working on that!
Before the show, we have to give them a bath to make them clean and very white for the show. We then have to give them a hair cut for the show. Clipping them before the show not only makes them look nice, but it helps them stay cool as we get into the hotter months. After they get their haircut, they get a funky mohawk on their back. This makes the heifer look like she has a straight back in order to make her look more dairy. This is one of the most important parts of fitting a heifer for show.
Since the show is right around the corner, it is a very busy time for the students participating in it. We continue to work with our heifers and are beginning to train them on a show halter, which is a very pretty leather halter that is more formal than the typical rope halter we use in training.
We hope to see you all attend the show this weekend!