By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN
Michigan Correspondent EAST LANSING, Mich. — At first glance, Kelsey Casebere looks like a normal teenager. With her long, dark hair pulled back into a ponytail, the 13-year-old from Clare, Mich., has been enjoying hanging out with her friends this summer. Last week, in fact, she was sitting in a lawn chair playing cards and chatting with youngsters her age.
The difference, however, is that Casebere was hanging out with her friends in a barn full of cattle during the Michigan Dairy Expo at the Michigan State University (MSU) Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education in East Lansing. Casebere was one of about 200 Michigan 4-Hers who exhibited her dairy cattle and competed in dairy judging, dairy quiz bowl and dairy management contests during the event.
The daughter of Ken and Mary Casebere, she had a successful time showing. Her heifer, Capri, earned reserve junior champion of both the 4-H and open shows. But Casebere said that while she likes the competitiveness of showing, winning isn’t everything.
“It’s a little bit about the competition, but that’s not all,” she said. “I like to show. It’s fun. You learn responsibility.”
Casebere said the first time she showed a heifer, she didn’t earn a placing.
“I got the taste for showing. I wanted to come back the following year so I could win,” she said, with a smile.
However, she is low-key about her success. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. You have your days. It just depends on the day,” she said. “You can’t win everything.”
Casebere got her start in the cattle business at a young age.
“Our neighbors own a feedlot. They had a load come in with a baby on it, and they don’t really take care of babies,” Casebere said. “We started taking care of it, and I liked it. So, we kept getting more and more of them and it turned into a 4-H project.”
That was about seven years ago, said Casebere, who joined 4-H when she was eight. Today, she has about 10 dairy animals. The heifers are kept at her family’s farm, but her milking cows are divided between two dairies – one in St. Johns and the other in Byron Center.
Casebere, who will be a freshman this fall at Clare High School, said she isn’t really into many school activities because she prefers working with her animals.
She attends four shows per year, including Dairy Days during the Michigan Dairy Expo and the Spring Holstein Show – both at the MSU Pavilion – the District 7 Holstein Show in Mount Pleasant and the Clare County Fair.
When she’s showing she gets up early, usually around 5 a.m. “I have to clean their stalls, wash and feed them,” she said.
“Whatever order you like to do things in, but it all has to be done.”
But, taking care of her animals is a daily chore for Casebere. She feeds and waters them and has been “halter-breaking them since they were babies. I work with them and tie them up pretty much every day.”
Casebere said preparations for her trip to East Lansing started about a week before the show. Cattle had to be clipped and show supplies were packed.
“It took me a while. I started clipping last Thursday and finished Sunday night,” she said.
All told, Casebere exhibited six animals during this show. A member of the Country Neighbors 4-H Club, Casebere still is looking forward to exhibiting at the Clare County Fair, which is the third week of August. In addition to dairy, she also shows beef and craft projects.
Raising and showing cattle seems to be a natural fit for Casebere.
“My dad has worked on farms. He had worked for a semen company. He works for a feed company now,” she said. “I’ve grown up with animals and around cattle.”
Thinking back to that first calf, Casebere said, “I didn’t think we’d end up like this.” But, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
This farm news was published in the July 25, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
