Rosie the cow can best be described as cute.
Big, dark eyes. Long eyelashes. Large fuzzy ears. And a soft, shiny black coat that makes her look as if she’s draped in velvet.
She is a heifer as drawn by Disney.
“This is just like the model before the photo shoot,” said Bill Bowman, whose daughter, Lindsay, is Rosie’s handler.
That is, of course, except for the big glob of snot dangling from Rosie’s nostrils.
But with a whip of her head, the imperfection is gone, and Rosie – officially known as Prairie Rose – is ready for her turn in the ring at the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo’s Maine-Anjou Junior Heifer Show. Rosie was just one of dozens of Maine-Anjou heifers to go into the ring Sunday, a day that also saw shows for two other breeds of cattle. In all, there are 19 cattle breeds being shown this year at the stock show, competing in a kind of beauty contest where things like rib depth and body length are paramount.
The winner of Sunday’s Maine- Anjou show, Chase Ward of Bartlesville, Okla., said of his heifer, Miss Bourbon, “She is a big-boned, big- bodied heifer; she has good traits.”
While most of the shows highlight the familiar tale of kids raising animals and growing up right, they also highlight part of how business is done at the modern stock show.
Lindsay Bowman owns Rosie through a partnership with the Sidwell Hay & Cattle Co. in Gill, where Lindsay lives. Rosie lives at the Sidwell ranch, and Lindsay comes over just about every day to walk, train and groom her.
When Lindsay does well at a show – and she has won at state and national competitions – she brings good publicity to Sidwell Hay & Cattle, a boost to its breeding operations.
In turn, Lindsay has accumulated a small herd of her own, about a half-dozen animals. Recently, she said, she sold a bull calf born to one of her heifers for $4,800. She is conversant in artificial insemination and embryology. The eggs from one of her heifers could fetch tens of thousands of dollars.
Oh, yeah, Lindsay’s only 13.
“A lot of it is going to go to college,” Lindsay said of the money from her heifers. “I’m going to keep investing it in cattle and sheep, too – but that’s kind of a side thing.”
It takes a lot of work to get Rosie looking so good. Lindsay’s whole family showed up at the stock show at 5:30 Sunday morning. They wiped Rosie down, rinsed her off, dried her hair and then fed her. Next came combing, lots and lots of combing. Then there’s the spray to make her hair stand up and shine and the black spray paint to cover any lingering dust around the hooves.
Rosie won first place in her class – she was the only one competing – but she finished out of the running in the finals.
Lianne Bowman, Lindsay’s mom, gleams when she talks about her daughter’s work.
“She’s learning a lot about money and business and partnerships,” Lianne Bowman said. “It’s going to shape her future.”
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
