For those of
you who are not familiar with this project, it is designed to introduce
children and younger 4-H members to the cattle industry. It allows them to learn the health care and
nutritional needs of cattle, without a huge financial investment. On our farm, we feed them milk replacer (a
special powdered milk mixed with water) twice a day and leave them alfalfa hay
and water in their pen and as they get older, small grain pellets. Hay is often referred to as ‘forage.’ In order to show them at the fair, the calves
must be trained to be lead with a halter by the child so that they can be lead
into the arena for judging at the county fair.
The ‘Open Class’ is for kids not yet old enough for 4-H, which is 7
years of age. My children started at
ages 3 and 4.
So here are
5 life lessons that I hope my children gain from their bucket calf project.
1.
Responsibility
This calf relies solely on you. If
you do not show up with its bottle and a little forage, the poor thing will not
eat. If it does not eat, it will get
sick and/or die. If this happens you
will get a tough lesson in……
2.
Consequences
If you do not assume the responsibility for the project you have
undertaken and do all that it requires, there will be most likely be a bad
result. Those consequences can be minor
or major, but all of them impact what you have going on in some way or another
and you must adjust your actions in order to prevent them from happening or
repair the damage your actions have caused.
3.
Dedication
When you choose to take on this project, you must be dedicated to doing
it right and follow through all the way to the end. If you wake up one day and decide you don’t
want to take care of your calf anymore and ignore your responsibilities, the
calf feels that neglect and in the long run so will you because you will not
see that…...
4.
Hard work reaps rewards
When you are responsible and show great dedication towards a task you
have taken on, there will be rewards.
These may be tangible, like the blue ribbon you receive or the check
from the salebarn, but often there are more intangible rewards. These can include the satisfaction of
teaching your calf to lead with a halter, the feeling you get when the calves
run to greet you because they have learned you are their food source, or the
look of pride on your family’s faces as you lead your calf out to show at the
fair.
5.
Life is not always fair
Sometimes in life, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been responsible and
dedicated and done all that you can.
Sometimes things happen that are out of anyone’s control and you have to
accept that’s the way it is. Calves can
get sick no matter how well you take care of them. You could have spent weeks breaking that calf
to lead, and it still might take off spooked across the arena. You never know what life may throw at you,
but part of growing up is learning how to roll with the punches, find a way to
deal with the disappointment, and then move on.
I see my children learning all of these lessons as they work on their bucket calf project, and it gives me one more reason to be glad I’m raising them on a farm. They have so much enthusiasm and I can tell this is going to play a role in the development of their character, and I hope that it instills in them their values for life from here on out.
