When meeting Dallas Martin, 14, for the first time, I was immediately struck by his mature presence. Dressed smartly, he stood tall, shook my hand and looked me in the eye. Not your average teenager. But then he has had a not-so-average upbringing on the Martin family farm. For the Martins, raising cattle is a family affair. It keeps them close and everyone, including the parents, have been involved in 4-H. His parents, Mike and Roxanne Martin, have used the club and the market steer program as a way to teach their children about money, business and economics.
Mike grew up on a farm and participated in 4-H and FFA (Future Farms of America) growing up. The Martin children – Bill, Cailee, Lauren and Dallas – each started in 4-H as soon as they were old enough, at age 8. While Roxanne did not grow up on a farm, she quickly got into 4-H, becoming the leader of her children’s club.
This year, the youngest of the Martin children, Dallas, a freshman at Ridgefield High School, is entering the Clark County Fair by himself with the American Cattleman 4-H Club. But he has plenty of support from the rest of the family, including older sister Lauren, 22, who took over as his 4-H leader. “We all loved showing the cattle,” Lauren says. “I still show on a national level. I love the people I have met and I am pretty competitive.” She adds that unlike sports where you just get to watch your siblings play, cattle is something the entire family can do together.
“At the fair it’s hands-off and the 4-Her has to do everything, and I appreciate that,” she adds. “But at the jackpots and other shows, I get to help Dallas wash and dry his cow, and get ready for the show. I don’t think there are a lot of activities youth can be involved in that allows for that kind of relationship.”
Dallas also likes having his siblings around, in fact he says that’s one of the best parts of 4-H. “I am very competitive so I like winning a lot,” he adds. “I am not happy when I lose.”
A Real Business Experience
4-H projects are not just fun, they teach kids life skills, including leadership and responsibility. Mike and Roxanne took this a step further by having their kids treat their cattle projects like a real business. The parents own about 80 head of cattle and when the kids were old enough for 4-H, they were allowed to pick out their own cows and register them in their name. At that point, everything becomes the child’s decision, including breeding. This year, Dallas’s Black Angus heifer had his first “bred and owned” calf – meaning he owned the cow and chose which bull to breed her to. “The goal is to get bull calves so I don’t have to pay for a market steer for 4-H,” Dallas says. But this year he ended up with a female calf. He has halter-broke her and she will be shown at open class at the Clark County Fair.
“With all of the kids, we started them out their first year and gave them their first steer for 4-H and the junior livestock auction and then they had to pay for their own feed,” says Roxanne. “And then as they continued on, selling their animal at auction they make money and they use that money to buy next year’s steer and all the feed for it.”
The parents start a bank account in each child’s name and they are only allowed to use that money to buy cattle and feed. The profit that’s left over is earmarked for college tuition. Their three older children are all in college and paying their own way. “It’s a great way for them to learn how to budget money and become self-sufficient,” Roxanne adds.
A normal market steer weighs between 1200-1400 pounds. At the Junior Livestock Auction, the steers fetch around $3.50/pound. In addition, they allow something called an “add-on” donation, where people give a 4-Her a donation without buying an animal. Roxanne says her kids have all done very well at auction, averaging around $4,000 a steer with about $3-4,000 in add-on donations each year.
In order to get the add-on donations and to fetch higher prices at the auction, 4-Hers have to market themselves and their animals. So Dallas goes to businesses, explains why his product is high quality and answers questions. This year, Dallas is raising a Hereford steer and has found some added challenges. “When I go to businesses, I have to explain more about the quality of meat than I did with an Angus steer, since people are more familiar with that breed,” he says. “But it’s really all about how you feed them. If the Hereford and Angus were fed the same, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell their meat apart.” These are the types of things he talks about when he goes to a business or a family about bidding on his animal at the fair.
And while it may sound like these siblings are thick as thieves, all bets are off when it comes to business negotiations. Dallas told me he bought a cow from Lauren and when I asked how those negotiations went he said, “Well I guess technically they are still going on. We are both really competitive so it’s been a bit of a challenge,” he says grinning at his sister.
Dallas will get another steer in October, shortly after the fair, and begin the almost year-long process to be ready for the 2018 Clark County Fair. He is in the barn by 7:00 a.m. in the summer, earlier during the school year, so he can wash his cows, stand them under fans (makes the hair grow longer so they look fuller), get them used to be being tied to a fence, and work on halter-breaking and showing skills like leading and setting up (putting the steer in the right position for show).
You can see Dallas and his cattle in the beef barn all ten days of the Clark County Fair August 4-13. For more information about joining 4-H, visit the Washington State University’s Extension office website.
