Selecting My First Dairy Heifer

At the 2019 Manatee County Fair I will be exhibiting a diary heifer. I leased my heifer, a 7 month old Holstein I named Clarabella, from Dakin Dairy, and today I picked her up and brought her to the school that I keep her at. I haven't worked with her much yet, but already I can tell she is going to be a very sweet cow! It may be because I'm used to beef cattle which tend to (but aren't always!) be less docile than dairy cows, but I was pleasantly surprised when she let me walk up to and pet her after only having her for a few hours. I'm very excited for this fair project- both because I love cows and because it will be very interesting to learn the differences between beef and dairy when it comes to show and showmanship. A few differences I've learned thus far is that you use a show stick to set up beef cattle, but your foot to set up dairy, and that dairy cows are shaved completely, but beef cows are groomed to have a lot of fur so that you can make them appear more filled in.