Hot Springs boy receives donated heifer
<p>Coby Guenzler stands with his donated heifer, Gem, at his family's ranch in Hot Springs.</p>
HOT SPRINGS - Coby Guenzler who lives in Hot Springs on his family’s ranch has been working for seven months on raising a yearlong heifer as part of a donor program called the Northern International Livestock Exposition, Merit Heifer Program .
The heifer program is a program in which an individual between the ages of 12 to 16 applies to the NILE committee explaining why they should be accepted to have the opportunity to receive a heifer to raise for a year. The applicant must either be part of 4-H or FFA. If the applicant is accepted into the program, he or she will be matched with a donor and the program winner will have his or her choice of a breed and will be able to pick out the heifer from a selection the donor provides.
The program requires that the winners of the scholarship must raise the heifer for a year. During the process of raising the heifer, the recipients must maintain the health of the animal, arrange for breeding, take records, show the animal in exhibitions and bring it back one year later showing that the breeding process has been completed.
Guenzler, who applied last year, was one of over 100 applicants that was selected along with 24 other applicants to be in the program.
Right now as part of his work on raising the heifer, Guenzler is focusing on some key aspects which he wants to improve.
“I’m seeing how I can do for my showmanship for the heifer,” he said.
He explained that he learned to take care of the heifer by working with bottle-fed calves when he was younger and then graduated to larger bovine.
“It started when I was a clover bud in 4-H. I started moving on showing calves and heifers and then I moved onto steers,” Guenzler said.
His mother, Carrie Guenzler said that she her son has been already doing more for the program requirements than what she and her husband do on their ranch. “He’s planning on going further than us. With this he has been having to get into learning, artificial incemination, which is something we don’t do,” she said.
Guenzler’s donors, Dave and Kay Klompien, who are a part of NILE, live in Manhattan, Montana. When Guenzler was accepted into the program, he traveled all the way over there and got to pick out his yearlong heifer.
“I started with 10 and then I narrowed it down to five and then I narrowed it down to one.”
Once Guenzler completes his year of raising the heifer, completes all the programs and he shows the heifer to the NILE committee, if he passes their test, he will be allowed to take ownership over the heifer and her offspring. Guenzler’s plan is to start his own herd of cattle.
Guenzler’s mother explained how proud she was of Coby and what he has accomplished. “He’s really fortunate to get one on his first try... It’s a really great program to get these kids started with a registered heifer.” She said that with all that Coby has received with this program it amounts to nearly $3,000 and that if he maintains contact with the program that there are chances for financial scholarships for school.