One day after being crowned the 2022 Grand Champion at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, "Steve" the steer sold for a record $310,000 at the Junior Sale of Champions auction on Saturday morning.
Steve, who was raised and cared for by Tristan Himes from the Sterling County 4-H in West Texas, was one of 2,300 entrants in this year's competition.
WTH? Can someone explain the high value for a STEER? I could see it if it was a bull or a cow, Maybe if you were going to try to clone it. Smells like Payola. Or more money than brains? really curious if anyone has an answer. Jerry
Who knows, oil millionaire might have needed to loose 300,000 dollars or pay taxes on it. Give it to a good cause or to our crooked government, hmmm, what to do JD
Ridiculous, yes, but no less true. One could chalk it up to us Texans love our kids and our cows. Not too far removed from the Dutch and their tulips. Those "auctions" are basically a reward for the youngsters hard work with actual ownership of the prize winning animal often never changing hands. Or it could be totally political. Or a bribe. Who knows.
We used to go to several of these 4-H events every year. The 2 girls that we adopted have an older that was adopted by a farmer close to my hometown. And he always raised either a fancy chicken of some kind or a fancy rabbit. My girls kept in contact with their biological brother, which both his adoptive dad and my wife and I made certain to encourage. And they loved to see both his project and the rest of the fair. They always had a demolition derby, which the girls loved, and then some kind of main attraction, like an old time singer, like Del Shannon or Jay Black of Jay and the Americans. The one year I remember they had one of the big time wrestling groups like WWF or WWE, I don't remember which one, but they were famous on television, with several of their stars coming out at the time. This one was Hart, Michigan, the Oceania agricultural fair, and they are famous for their Asparagus. I worked in high school at a cannery in Hart, doing Asparagus. I hated every minute of it. I later in life worked for a friend driving tractor to let pickers ride and pick the stuff. Eventually, it became cheaper for the canning factory to buy their Asparagus from Brazil and truck it all the way to West Michigan, than it was to buy it from the local farmers, and that put a bunch of farmers out of business. When you have invested in 10-20 acres of Asparagus, and suddenly the customer is gone, you really can't count on a roadside stand to get rid of all that product. Trust me, my ex wife and I had 1 acre of Asparagus behind our house, and we picked and kept the field in shape to sell to customer orders, and even though we only had the 1 acre, we used to get several hundred pounds from a field that was over 25 years old. So it was pretty much at the end of it's life. The only way that we were able to keep it going was to plow it just before the season started, to keep the weeds at bay, spray it a couple of times per season, to keep the bugs off, and the season was only about 2-3 weeks, at least of good product. Right behind this field, down the hill, was the White River, and it was the place that I saw the biggest Whitetail Deer of my life. It was in the water, and I didn't see him until he saw me and splashed on his way out of the river going towards the far side bank. He was about 150 yards away, but moving straight away, and to be honest, he must have been over 10 points, but quite near 200 pounds or more. I was carrying a Savage lever gun, in .308, that was owned by my ex father in law. It was a very nice gun, with a peep sight, but I am not a very good shot with a rifle, and I have always refused to shoot unless I am at least 75% certain that I can make a killing shot. I know that some might say that is not enough, but at the time, I felt that was a fair enough certainty. On a running deer now, I would likely not even shoot. On a standing shot, now, I would maybe want it to be a touch higher. But the last time I shot at a deer, I was using a 12 gauge, with 1 oz slugs, open bore, and at a bit over 50 yards, with the deer just slowly walking side to me, I felt pretty certain that I could hit it, and knocked him off his feet, with one shot. I have always loved the 12 gauge shotgun, with either slugs or 00 buck. Neither one has ever let me down, always resulting in a kill, whenever I have shot at a deer. Of course, here in the Michigan woods, which is how I choose to hunt that might be why they work so much better than a rifle. I have shot through brush with a slug, 1.25 oz Forstner, and the brush never made the slug move, the thing hit the deer in the neck, just where I aimed, and the deer disappeared, as if hit by a 2x4, and I walked up and it was laying on the ground, DRT.
WTH? Can someone explain the high value for a STEER? I could see it if it was a bull or a cow, Maybe if you were going to try to clone it.
ReplyDeleteSmells like Payola. Or more money than brains?
really curious if anyone has an answer.
Jerry
Who knows, oil millionaire might have needed to loose 300,000 dollars or pay taxes on it. Give it to a good cause or to our crooked government, hmmm, what to do
DeleteJD
They are charity events.
DeleteRidiculous, yes, but no less true. One could chalk it up to us Texans love our kids and our cows. Not too far removed from the Dutch and their tulips. Those "auctions" are basically a reward for the youngsters hard work with actual ownership of the prize winning animal often never changing hands. Or it could be totally political. Or a bribe. Who knows.
ReplyDeleteJust wait 'til that hamburger hits the meat counter in the grocery store.
ReplyDeleteWe used to go to several of these 4-H events every year. The 2 girls that we adopted have an older that was adopted by a farmer close to my hometown. And he always raised either a fancy chicken of some kind or a fancy rabbit. My girls kept in contact with their biological brother, which both his adoptive dad and my wife and I made certain to encourage. And they loved to see both his project and the rest of the fair.
ReplyDeleteThey always had a demolition derby, which the girls loved, and then some kind of main attraction, like an old time singer, like Del Shannon or Jay Black of Jay and the Americans. The one year I remember they had one of the big time wrestling groups like WWF or WWE, I don't remember which one, but they were famous on television, with several of their stars coming out at the time. This one was Hart, Michigan, the Oceania agricultural fair, and they are famous for their Asparagus. I worked in high school at a cannery in Hart, doing Asparagus. I hated every minute of it. I later in life worked for a friend driving tractor to let pickers ride and pick the stuff. Eventually, it became cheaper for the canning factory to buy their Asparagus from Brazil and truck it all the way to West Michigan, than it was to buy it from the local farmers, and that put a bunch of farmers out of business. When you have invested in 10-20 acres of Asparagus, and suddenly the customer is gone, you really can't count on a roadside stand to get rid of all that product. Trust me, my ex wife and I had 1 acre of Asparagus behind our house, and we picked and kept the field in shape to sell to customer orders, and even though we only had the 1 acre, we used to get several hundred pounds from a field that was over 25 years old. So it was pretty much at the end of it's life. The only way that we were able to keep it going was to plow it just before the season started, to keep the weeds at bay, spray it a couple of times per season, to keep the bugs off, and the season was only about 2-3 weeks, at least of good product.
Right behind this field, down the hill, was the White River, and it was the place that I saw the biggest Whitetail Deer of my life. It was in the water, and I didn't see him until he saw me and splashed on his way out of the river going towards the far side bank. He was about 150 yards away, but moving straight away, and to be honest, he must have been over 10 points, but quite near 200 pounds or more. I was carrying a Savage lever gun, in .308, that was owned by my ex father in law. It was a very nice gun, with a peep sight, but I am not a very good shot with a rifle, and I have always refused to shoot unless I am at least 75% certain that I can make a killing shot. I know that some might say that is not enough, but at the time, I felt that was a fair enough certainty. On a running deer now, I would likely not even shoot. On a standing shot, now, I would maybe want it to be a touch higher. But the last time I shot at a deer, I was using a 12 gauge, with 1 oz slugs, open bore, and at a bit over 50 yards, with the deer just slowly walking side to me, I felt pretty certain that I could hit it, and knocked him off his feet, with one shot. I have always loved the 12 gauge shotgun, with either slugs or 00 buck. Neither one has ever let me down, always resulting in a kill, whenever I have shot at a deer. Of course, here in the Michigan woods, which is how I choose to hunt that might be why they work so much better than a rifle. I have shot through brush with a slug, 1.25 oz Forstner, and the brush never made the slug move, the thing hit the deer in the neck, just where I aimed, and the deer disappeared, as if hit by a 2x4, and I walked up and it was laying on the ground, DRT.