While some kids are sleeping in during the summer months, 10-year old Colton Huls is at the barn by 6:30 a.m. with his dad, taking care of the cattle.
You may find him on YouTube, but he won’t be watching someone else play Fort Nite. He will be entrenched in learning more about how to show cattle.
As his friends who live in St. Joseph may be watching TV during the evening hours, Colton is back out at the barn with his dad and uncle until 10 or 11 at night.
Being with and thinking about cattle is something Colton can’t get enough of.
Colton’s passion for show cattle began two years ago when his uncle, Steve, bought a calf for his cousin.
“My dad (Stan) showed cattle when he was little,” Colton said. “My uncle said, ‘You ought to get a calf.’ So, my dad bought me a cow.”
Living in a subdivision in St. Joseph, Colton does not get to spend all of his time with his short-horned steer, Shorty, and Hereford heifer, Penelope. The cows live in a barn at his grandparent’s house near Royal and Hope.
But perfecting the way that he takes care of the cattle is always on Colton’s mind.
The daily chores are plentiful.
When he gets to the barn, he makes sure the animals have enough water. Colton cleans the pens and brings their feed buckets all while learning classic country and rock and roll songs that are playing over the loud speaker.
Colton has learned tricks on how to get their hair to grow thicker, even during the summer months, so that they will be more presentable to show.
As he gets older, his dad gives him more responsibility.
Colton has also learned how to bathe his cattle, washing and rinsing them, then drying their hair.
It’s all part of the process to make sure the cow is ready for the show ring.
While Colton does not have all the knowledge and experience to halter the cattle, he enjoys watching his dad.
“My dad goes in there,” Colton said. “He doesn’t put a halter on. He just sits there and rubs on its back until they can be rubbed under their belly. And then he brings us (Colton and his brother Casen) in and we get to scratch on them with a show stick.”
Once the cow is ready, the Huls will put a halter on and lead it around.
Shorty and Penelope have become the boys’ pets. They show affection towards them, even laying their heads on their bellies and napping with the cows.
When the boys are home, they are often on the floor next to toy gates and toy cattle trucks, creating stalls to place their toy cattle in or pretending to haul them off to the next show. Colton even brings his set up to shows where he and his friend, Stetson, play while they wait to show.
Colton said traveling to the shows is his favorite part.
A year-round affair, Colton shows at fairs and festivals around East Central Illinois during the summer months while he also has plans to travel to Louisville, Colorado and Springfield. In November, the Huls travel to Wisconsin, then show in Bloomington, Ill. in March.
Colton’s mom, Casey Aten, said the people at the shows become like family.
“Cattle showing, it’s like a whole different world,” Casey said. “Everybody becomes one big family and works together. You spend days and days and days on end together in the barn and all your kids learn to get along.
“They almost become like siblings and all the moms run around and take care of all the kids like they’re their own.”
Casey is happy to see a different bond forming between her sons and their father while the boys learn what it means to work hard.
“Kids want to be involved and it teaches them work ethic and that you put in the hard work and you get what you put into it,” she said.
Casey said that the boys are able to see a different side of the adults in their life through cattle showing.
“They all have seen their dads as these guys that are always stressed out because they farm and they run farm fertilizer,” Casey said. “They’re different people when they’re all around all this stuff. They’re like excited kids again.
“They get to spend a lot of time together. And it’s kind of brought them all really close together.”
Colton hopes that his passion for cattle can one day be turned into a career.
His family owns Huls Farms and Huls Showcattle. His dream is to follow in the footsteps of the men before him by continuing to work hard every day and one day become part of the team.
