I don't feed my animals ground up dead animal parts and, therefore, have virtually no chance of ever getting BSE in my herd. While there may be many economies realized by huge cattle feeding operations, the ultimate cost of their more deleterious practices should be borne by them, not their smaller, family owned competitors.
But, back to the subject of this article, it was wholly legitimate of the fair board to require that entrants be able to prove where the contest animals came from. It would shock many of our suburban brethren, but some little girls don't really raise their own 4-H steers.
That’s true...they set the rules, so she has to abide by them. Although if I were on the board, I’d ask if maybe a compromise could be made, and verification could be done by some other means. If she doesn’t have any verifiable records, then yeah...don’t give her the award.