Some of the many items we have to take include multiples of:
Sealed barrels and buckets with measured feed...plus a little extra, just in case.
Hay
Water barrel
Show halter for each animal
Rope halter on each animal
Automatic waterers for cows and bred heifers
Straw for bedding
Pitch fork (sifting poop from bedding)
Flat blade shovel (scooping poop)
Clipping chute
Body clippers/blades/oil/extension cords
Head clippers/blades/oil/extension cords
Top line clippers/blades/charger
Shampoo
Water hose
Towels
Scrub brushes
Top line brush/powder/special hair products/dryer
Body brush
Paper towels
Fight-Bac (anti-bacterial spray for milking cow's udder)
Feed pan for each animal
Gallon can to measure out feed for each animal
Camp chair (which you shouldn't get to sit in very often because you should usually be busy doing something)
Divider panels to put on both ends of the big heifer/cow section to keep the bedding and the animals from drifting to either side.
Wheel barrow (to carry the poop)
Flat bed wagon to deliver hay down the aisle
Giant fans on brackets to keep the milk cows cooler (too hot means they don't want to eat or produce milk)
I know that I'm forgetting something. That's why we keep a lot of our supplies in specific boxes, so we don't have to gather as many things together each time we load. If you DO forget something, there are always vendors like SULLIVAN'S who can sell you your missing necessity.
Don't get me started on what all I have to pack for myself! Just imagine packing for a five-day trip in preparation for freezing cold, rain, and heat...PLUS preparation for getting soaked while washing at least three of those days.
We use several trailers. The big aluminum trailer's gooseneck has supplies strategically crammed full. That trailer usually has the front section full of young heifers. The back two sections are full of older heifers. Production milk cows live at dairies, so they will come in other trailers and at other times.
The smaller steel trailer is crammed full of supplies.
Normally, one trailer and one set of workers is dropped off early in the day for initial set up: install dividers and fans, bust straw, make beds, install waterers, unload supplies, set out hay.
Then we also use private trailers to bring animals.
When you load an animal, it must first have a rope halter put on its head. This halter adjusts like a slip knot to fit to the size of the animal's head. You always walk on the left side of the animal. A section of rope hangs from the halter that you use as a lead.
Animals are loaded one by one according to size and condition. We basically load from smallest to biggest. Each animal is securely tied in a slipknot fashion to a post in the left side of the trailer. They are tied closely together. This causes their rear ends to slant to the right side of the trailer. We put the ittie bitties in the very front to keep them safe from bigger heifers. Dry cows and large bred heifers go in last. Milking cows are in a different trailer and are also arranged from smallest to largest.
Some animals step up into the trailer easily. Others, you have to get up in the trailer yourself first and pull. Some walk to the edge of the trailer and won't step up. You have to pull and have someone else give them a little goose around their tail area. That gets them moving!
So imagine loading all of this stuff. Then unloading and setting it all up properly. Then at the end of the show, loading it all up again, and finally, when you get home, unloading it all...AND cleaning out all the poop from the trailers that had animals in them!
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