darren mcdonald
My name is Darren McDonald, I am 14 years old. This is my second year raising a steer for fair, and my first year with FFA. I am a freshmen at Vacaville high school. I enjoy raising my steer for fair. I do raise steers at home for ourselves and I enjoy that as well.
Vacaville FFA
Darren is a first year FFA Member of Vacaville, CA. Darren will be showing and selling at the Dixon May Fair in Dixon, CA.
day in the life of darren
Daily routine: To make sure my steer has a nice coat, I have to wash, condition, brush & blow dry till he is completely dry and moisturize his hide. This usually takes about 2 plus hours. I start this process when I get home from school, so I have day light to complete.
After he is cleaned up, we spend about 30 minutes working on walking around and making sure we have our stance for judging done right. I rotate days of walking and tie ups. If it’s a day of no walking we tie up for a few hours to make sure that we get the head height for walking down right and that it come naturally to the steer. This also helps get him use to being tied up and being able to relax while he is there. I will spend days with him in his pen and do my homework while hanging out with the steer.
Before showtime: we spend a few hours on clipping and shaping the hide to look nice. He also has to go get his hoofs clipped so they are not uncomfortable to walk on.