When Hailee, a 15-year-old from Yuma, Arizona, comes home she isn’t greeted by a dog or cat. No, she is greeted by cows and pigs.

Hailee has been raising farm animals for six years. And she says she raises all sorts of animals.

Hailee says, “When I was younger, I raised rabbits, then pigs, and now I do steer.”

Once she is done raising the steer, she takes them to competitions where the judges award ribbons to the biggest, strongest, and best-groomed steers.

Hailee says she enjoys taking care of the animals and they take up a large amount of her time.

Hailee says, “I wake up at 5 a.m. and go outside to rinse and feed the cows and pigs. I have to be at school by 7:30. I get home at 3 p.m., do homework, and then take care of the animals for three or four more hours.”

She says she loves the challenge of raising the steer because it is like a dog but bigger. She says steer run and play just like dogs.

Hailee took her steer Mully to the Arizona State fair this fall and won the top award.

She said, “It was a lot of work. I washed his hair and used a big hair dryer to blow it out. ‘

During the show, she had to walk Mully around in a circle for the judges to look at him and judge him. She knew Mully was doing well because the judges could not stop looking at him.

At the end of the competition, after winning the award, Mully was sent to a slaughterhouse.

Sims said, “Knowing that is tough. It was a bad day when we had to say goodbye.”

The whole family didn’t want to lose Mully, but Sims says she can’t keep a steer.

Now she has three pigs, a steer, and a heifer, which is a female cow.

Sims says, “In college, I’d like to study something related to agriculture.”