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Tempo • Calumet County Fair 2016 • Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Juckem
worked at Forest Brook Farms for nearly three years before returning to Missouri. After he left, the Juckems have reduced their herd numbers somewhat. Karissa, who has been showing for seven years and who will be a sophomore at Chilton High School, also credits Jeremy Smith, who is an area show helper and fitter who has worked with the Juckem family. One of Karissa’s major achievements was winning the national judging contest against about 300 competitors at the Simmental junior nationals show at Louisville in 2014. Peyton, who will be starting fourth grade, is showing a market animal at the County Fair for the first time. He previously showed in the Open Class, which is available to youngsters before they reach 4-H eligibility at age 9. Animal selection The Juckems do not take animals from their home Simmental herd as the project steers for showing at the County Fair and the subsequent Market Animal Sale. Selecting the next animals for the market animal project is a family effort for the Juckems. What are commonly known as “club calves” are purchased from other breeders, usually in Wisconsin, during September in the year before the next County Fair. They then have their first weigh-in at the county fairgrounds on a Saturday in December. Karissa’s steer for the 2016 fair and Market Animal Sale is a beef crossbreed (red skinned). For Peyton, a major criterion for selecting his steer (a Simmental) was that it be tame and easy to handle in
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the show ring. Daily chores As the time for the fair and Market Animal Sale approach, the goal is to have the steer at the desired weight—1,300 to 1,350 pounds, Jay points out. That means providing a ration which allows the steer to “finish at the right time and look the part at show time,” he explains. This requires ration ingredients that fill the animal but do not make it too fat, he notes. As is expected of the exhibitors, the Juckem children spend between one and two hours per day in the weeks heading into the fair washing and blow drying their steers and feeding them. On hot days, they provide fans and perhaps an extra wash rinse. “I’m not working with them now,” Jay indicates. Forest Brook genetics After several years of experience at the County Fair more than a decade ago, the Juckems’ Forest Brook Farms began to develop its Simmental enterprise as a commercial business with the purchase of high quality females and embryos in 2008. Fruits of that effort became evident by 2011 with very high placings in several shows around the country. That success continues today with the ownership of the FBF1 sire Combustible, which is in the top 10 for semen unit sales for Simmental sires in the U.S. Combustible was the reserve champion at the Western National Stock Show at Denver in 2013. Other notable achievements have been the breeding of the sires FBF1/SF Igni-
Karissa Juckem is one of three Juckem children to win the Carnahan Showmanship Trophy at the Calumet County Fair. Ray Mueller photo
tion and FBF1 Absolute, both of which have been supreme champions at the World Beef Expo held at West Allis. Forest Brook Farms also bred a reserve champion at the Louisville show held in 2011 and is a co-owner of FBF1 Su-
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premacy, who is another Simmental sire producing top quality offspring. For more information check the www. forestbrookfarmllc.com Web site, send an e-mail to jdjuckem@frontier.com, or call (920) 378-3698.
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