Students and their heifers take to the ring at the fair

For the first time, after showing two steers, Clay Vogel took the stage to show his first heifer.

As others washed, blow-dried and brushed their cows, the 11-year-old Nolan Middle School student was filling up Big Mama’s water bucket Friday evening at the Manatee County Fair.

“I wanted to have a baby,” Vogel said. She’s bred, meaning she’s pregnant. Vogel wants to name the calf Annabelle.

As the sun set, kicked-up dirt hanging in the columns of sunlight, students from all over Manatee County took their heifers — some unwillingly — through the process of the 4-H and FFA beef breeding showmanship, where judges would score them on how they handled their cows. Later, during the show part, the cows would be the ones judged.

The right hand guides the animal by the muzzle while the left grips onto the show stick, a long thin rod with a hook on the end. Students gently tap with the stick to get their legs to move or to relax them. Some heifers are shown with their calves.

Standing in a line with the cows’ rumps facing the audience, judges select just a few to go onto the next round.

This is also Lakewood Ranch High School student Kora Turner’s third time showing at the fair.

“I’ve been around cows all my life and like, it’s my second nature, cows,” the 14-year-old said.

Turner likes cartoons and comic books, and she draws inspiration from them when naming her cows. The calf that got her “hooked,” as she says, was a white calf that she named Tinkerbell. Because Tinkerbell wasn’t bred in time, the heifer she showed Friday is named Black Widow, or B.W. for short.

B.W. wasn’t so nice in the beginning. Turner thought the name was fitting.

Even if she loses her class this year, she won’t be disappointed. Last year she won Reserve Grand Champion in her intermediate showmanship, but it’s the first year she’s showing in the senior division.

“People think it’s just about when you get in that show ring and when you win or when you lose. It’s not about that. It’s about your yearly commitment to these animals.”

This story was originally published January 19, 2018 at 8:41 PM with the headline "Students and their heifers take to the ring at the fair."