Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

I read with interest the article on the grand champion 4-H steer in this past weekends’ Register and it made my mind start thinking and pondering one of my hot button issues. In case you missed the article, the gist of the story centers around Tyler Faber, 17, who is the son of David Faber, president of Trans Ova Genetics of Sioux Center, a leader in advanced livestock genetic reproductive techniques. But Tyler really isn’t the big deal in this story which centers around 2008 4-H Grand Champion “Wade” and this years champion “Doc” which is a clone of “Wade”. Confused? Yeah, I am too.

Genetic cloning of livestock has been around since Dolly the sheep and even though some livestock breeders feel that it’s another evolutionary step in the never ending rush to improve breeding and genetics, it still seems unethically wrong when you consider that cloning can cost anywhere between $15,000 and $25,000 per embryo.

I grew up on a livestock farm. Granted it was a small family farm, but my Great Grandparents, and Grandparents were proud of the livestock they raised. I would dare say that until I was a teenager and the farm had been split up and sold off, one would have had a really tough time looking through any photo album in the family and not find a cow picture on nearly every page. In a box or two in the basement there were a few trophies and ribbons long packed away, reminders of my ancestors success in the show ring.

When I was old enough to become a 4-H member, I couldn’t wait to get started with a steer, move my way into that show ring and bring home the purple ribbons and the hardware that seemed to be my destiny. Imagine how surprised I was, to take that first trip to find a club calf only to be paired up with a Swiss cross steer named “Tellstar” who not only was proud of his dairy ancestry more than he was about being a beef steer, but he seemed to have a way of not gaining weight, which I suspected after reading enough Far Side comics was really the beginning of bulimia in cattle.

I earned that white ribbon..or was it red..I can’t remember now…but I earned that ribbon every day. Doing chores, breaking him to lead, washing him and making sure he got enough feed. I didn’t stand at the south end of that show ring when it came time to hand out ribbons, but I earned that ribbon far more than the calf did. That is the way it should be. Any 4-Her or FFA member, should complete their own project, should learn the ins and outs of agriculture and earn that ribbon.

It didn’t take long to learn that in those organizations, but especially 4-H, there were two kinds of kids. Those who had projects that they worked hard on, took pride in and earned their ribbons, and those who were really just there at the county fair to show their parents projects. There is no reason whatsoever, in my opinion, for any young person who is learning about the industry to compete against fathers, and in some cases, mothers with money to burn, who travel the country and spend upwards of $10,000 on a calf in order just to win a $40 trophy at the fair. Are those young people really gaining anything from the experience, other than the belief that they are just a little bit better than they really are?

If the main goal is winning for parents, or family name there are plenty of open livestock shows for them to participate in. I firmly believe that when we take the money road with our young people only in the name of winning, that we really are doing everyone a disservice because those young people won’t learn about the hard work it takes and the dedication one needs to carry agriculture to the next generation.

So we see it today at State Fair…Our State Fair, no less. The place where it should really be; especially in the 4-H and FFA shows, about young people displaying their hard work and determining who really is the best amongst them. Cloning, or for that matter, spending outrageous amounts of money on a club calf seems to be tolerated though, which if we look at it from the standpoint of this is one youngsters project really is wrong. If one took a quilt made by their grandmother, or entered a restored tractor that they had no part in restoring, there would be screaming to high heaven from other exhibitors, because they are passing off work that isn’t their own. Instead, it’s become common practice, a blind eye is turned and everyone who wants to compete at that level has to mortgage the farm so to speak to keep up with everyone else.

That, my friends, is a real shame. For I can tell you, that even though I didn’t ever win a trophy, spent plenty of time in the bottom half of the class, I for one learned just what it was really all about, the love of agriculture and the satisfaction of learning more each year so that next year’s project was better. It wasn’t about being handed a show halter at the edge of the ring and handing it right back as soon as the show was over as I lugged some plastic victory laurel to my show box. It was really about the satisfaction, knowing that I saw that project to the end, win or loose. Isn’t that the lesson we really should be teaching our young people? If they happen to win that big purple rosette, well, that should just be icing on the cake.

See you next week…remember, we’re all in this together.