So daughter is doing FFA right now with her middle school. Just had her first show (rabbit). Not sure she is really a rabbit person, but is interested in showing heifer or steer.

Is one or the other better/easier? (heifer vs steer)
Anything to be aware of?

Sounds like she can "lease" one (pay for feed, etc), and if she decides she wants to give it back she can. It would stay at the school's barn (although I may be able to talk to the inlaws about using there place if that seems a better route).

Thanks

Market Steers, at least down here, are BIG money animals. When I was on FFA 20+ years ago you couldn't compete unless you spent $10k an an animal plus feed and grooming. Breeding Heifers can be done for MUCH cheaper and take the same discipline and showmanship.

Go with pigs. Have a buddy and his so. And daughter do pigs every year and have a damn good time doing it

Friends daughter raised chickens for her 4H project. That was about 15 years ago, the parents still have chickens and he has also branched out raising quail and pheasants. All in town in their backyard.

Pigs are a lot of fun and tasty.

Cattle are expensive. You can get the same experience with other animals that are more reasonable to acquire and care for.

FFA
Fathers Feeding Animals

Goats are the easiest bigger animals to raise. Very affectionate and easy to work with. Pigs are fun also but can be a problem to raise. Also showing pigs is very competitive.
Raising and showing cattle is very expensive and the most time consuming. If you don’t know cattle it is hard to get one to show.

Bingo

IMHO, poultry and rabbits

I had a grand champion pig when I was growing up. Also won the showmanship trophy. Both teach a lot of of tenacity.

I showed steers growing up and think the local judging was dome by price and owners name most time. Did place 3rd twice with steer that came out of pasture in Oklahoma in British cross class, kinda rubbed some wrong when they found out it was plain pasture stock. LOL

Glad you brought judging. They had judging competition in 4-H. It consisted of a team of 4 form each county. My team won State.

Do your best to keep her with birds (chickens & turkeys) and the rabbits.
When you move on the pigs and cattle you are talking big, big bucks.

I am going to say this here and probably take a beating for it but I simply don't care because I see it as the truth.
4h and FFA have now become about mommy and daddy, not the KIDS.
It is no different than sports and what parents do today.......they live through their kids and don't care what they spend on a pig or calf any more than what they spend on club volleyball, softball, baseball, basketball, football, etc.

IT HAS GOTTEN OUT OF HAND in a hurry!

When go with birds or rabbits you are playing a much MORE fair game all the way around.
Nobody can tell me that the swine and cattle judges don't know which kid is showing the $10k dollar barrow or the $50k steer momma and daddy bought from a big time breeder!

My daughter raised goats, they were great and she really enjoyed them. They train up pretty good and all got to be halfway affectionate and show their personality once you start spending a lot of time with them. The're like have a really dumb dog.

Chickens and turkeys is where its at.

My wife did well with lambs, chickens and horticulture projects.

Have a long talk with the Ag teacher to find out their knowledge of showing the different animals.
It does make a difference if your kid shows cows and the Ag teacher is a swine person.
Trust me on this.

1000% Correct! No longer about teaching the kids. All about mommy and daddy spending the big bucks.

Beats the heck out of locking yourself in your room with you I-phone.

My goal back in the day was to be a County Extension agent.

This.

I would avoid cattle. They are too expensive and a pain if you have no experience with cattle.

Years ago SFA sold barrows and gilts twice a year. They were priced affordably and there would always be a few decent ones that "could" be competitive with the right work. Not sure if they're still doing it. Pigs are a lot of work, but not as much as cattle.

Goats and sheep are a decent option for someone new to showing animals.

With anything - it's all about the work your kid wants to put in to it. I see a bunch of kids that don't do squat and expect their animal to show and handle the same as one that's been worked with every day.

My boys do 4H and FFA. Like said above you really can't compete unless you spend big bucks. I recommend you keep the animal at the school. The FFA teacher will be more involved and you will have a better chance.

You will spend a fortune to have a chance at any major show. You will be disappointed to see that most of the winning animals are 100% taken care of by a parent, FFA teacher, or a professional fitter. Most won't let the kids get involved because they are too set on winning. Don't be that parent. Let your kid learn.

In the end, there is a ton of money in scholarships for these kids. I have seen 4H kids end up with $10,000-100,000 in scholarships. The key is to be involved. Be an officer. Be involved in levels much higher than the local level.

I ran the local 4H for 2 years and have been in it for years.

If showing steers, good luck. Your kids will love the smell of diesel while you hate it when realizing all that $ is gone gone.

My FFA pin from late 60s. I had capons. I wasn’t really into it so that appeared to be the easiest. I remember well the show my freshman year was in Taylor and afterwards we had a big capon bbq and beverages under the North Gabriel bridge where the NEW 35 went over in Georgetown.

See?