Rosemary Chamness is seldom happier than when she’s spending time with her family’s cow/calf operation near Blairsburg.

BLAIRSBURG — Spend a few minutes chatting with Hamilton County 4-H’er Rosemary Chamness and one will start to feel pretty good about the future of the beef industry, and perhaps the future of her young generation as a whole.

At 13 years of age, Chamness is already an experienced hand working with the family’s cow/calf herd in rural Blairsburg.

“I like how fun the cows are to be with,” Chamness says. “They’re like people; they can’t talk to you, but they all have their own personality, and they’re really interesting to be with.”

A member of the WHH 4-H Club, Chamness is the daughter of Gary and Nicole Chamness and is a seventh grader at Webster City Middle School. She gives credit to her parents and older siblings for helping her learn how to care for cows and their calves.

“I started with my older siblings,” she explains. “They were in 4-H before me and helped me learn a lot.”

Chamness entered a mini heifer in open class before moving on to the highly-popular 4-H Bucket/Bottle calf program a few years ago, and then the regular Junior Beef Show at the Hamilton County Fair.

While 4-H’ers make headlines every year at county and state fairs, it’s the work they do all year long that gets them there in the first place. With May celebrated as Beef Month in Iowa and the nation, it’s a good time to learn more about the year-long effort to care for a livestock project.

“I do help at calving season,” Chamness says. “I haven’t helped pull a calf yet. I’m not that brave and I’m actually not that strong, but I help get things ready, like medicine if it’s needed.”

This young teen has also developed an eye for learning to detect the signs of when a cow is getting ready to give birth. The udder will become enlarged and the rear-end may have a discharge or different appearance. The goal is to get the cow inside where it’s warm and help is more readily available if needed.

“I walk the pasture to see if any of them are getting ready to calve so we can get them moved inside,” she explains.

The past season was a good one for the Chamness family when it came to calving time.

“We did have an easy winter of calving because no one had to be put in the warming pen and we didn’t have to pull any of them up in a sled,” explains mom Nicole Chamness. “Other winters, Rosemary and I have put a new calf in a sled and pulled them up to the barn.”

That can be a very trick job, especially when a mama cow gets involved.

“It’s a lot of work. The calves are very heavy, and wet, and sometimes have a very protective mom,” Chamness says. “There’s times when they are really protective, and then there’s other times when the mom will move to the side because they know that you are helping. But they are always aware of where their calf is.”

A calf that doesn’t want to stand and nurse is a major concern on any beef operation. For Chamness, that was just another lesson to learn.

“We had a calf that I named ‘Raisin,’ because it didn’t want to stand. So, we put a plastic feed bag underneath it, and then a bucket, and raised it up so that it could nurse. We put the mom in the chute and raised up the calf and got it to nurse,” she explains.

As spring finally warms, Chamness will be spending even more time with the cow/calf operation.

“I have three heifers this year,” she explains “I normally start in May, putting a halter on them and let them run around the pen. Then I tie them up and stand next to them for awhile. Eventually they will start to relax and they’ll let you come up and pet them.”

At the advice of her older sister, Chamness has also been known to spend time reading to her calves. They get to know her voice and that can help build trust and soothe an animal in the show ring.

In the summer, she will be up and outside by about 6:00 a.m. washing calves, brushing them, and training them. In all, between morning and afternoon chores, she spends about four hours per day with the cows.

“Some of my friends says I all I do is be with my cows, but It love it,” she says with a wide smile. “It’s so much fun.”

The only hard part is when sale day comes and the animal she has spent so much time with suddenly goes away.

‘It’s so hard when you have to sell,” Chamness says. “I had one that I named ‘Freedom’ and it was very sad to let him go because he had the sweetest personality. He would come up and nudge you and he was the cutest thing.”

From birth to sale day, it’s a learning experience like none other. For Chamness, it could also be preparation for a career.

“I would like to be a veterinarian,” she says. “That would be great.”

But even if her career takes another path, Chamness and her parents are confident that the experience will reap long-time rewards.

“I’ve learned how to talk in front of people, especially like with a judge,” says Chamness. “They will give you new ideas on how to set up the feet or how to brush them.”

Mom Nicole Chamness also sees the benefits for all of her kids that have been active in 4-H and the beef program.

“It gives them a lot of discipline, learning to be responsible for animals,” she says.

And with Chamness on the job, reading to them, brushing them, and even offering a hug around the next, the cows seems to like it, too.