23Z

by Johanna Dwyer

This past September I sold a market steer at the Renfrew Fair.  And with an extra pile of cash sittin' in the bank account, Dad suggested I buy a pure bred, full french Charolais heifer from Chester Patton.  Then I could show it as my 4-H project next summer.  Great idea Dad...I thought.  I loved the heifer I'd shown this past summer and she too was a heifer from Patton's.

So this past Friday I got to skip school and go to Chester Patton's farm to select my new heifer for the next show season.  Dad took my brothers and I and our neighbour Dalton for the 6 hour trip, we left at 9:00am and got there around 2:30pm.  When we arrived on the beautiful farm, Chester took us to his heifer barn so we could pick out our animals.

I was overwhelmed with excitement and felt right at home standing in the pen filled with wide eyed heifers all staring at Dad, my brother and I.  We used the tags in the heifers ears to tell them apart.  The tags had their registered numbers on them.  23Z, 10Z, and 17Z caught my eye right away.  The 3 of them were all showy heifers and were well built.  My brother was looking at 12Z, but when I pointed out 17Z to him he decided to buy her instead.  So I was left with 10Z and 23Z.  10Z was kinda timid and afraid of me, but 23Z was curious and coming up to me.  It would be easier to work with her if she wasn't afraid of me... I thought and she has a stubby nose.  (Cows with long noses are ugly in my opinion.) So 23Z was the one.

After the decision was made, Chester showed us his bull calves and some of his other cows.

Dad then took us to Cookstown for supper and after that we went to the Cookstown sales barn and watched the sale for awhile before heading home.

It was a great day away from school, and a good experience.  I'm looking forward to her arrival home so I can start working with her for next summer.

Johanna