[size=10pt]Copy and pasted from an old cattle.com column. This is still got to be one of the funniest things I've ever read about show cattle.
Honest Grand Champion Sale Interview
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 06, 2012
By and large, the grand champions at the biggest of the big stock shows are just a bit like sausage. They’re a great, inspiring story until you start looking into how they’re made. That’s not to say that I don’t love putting a few links on the BBQ, I’d just prefer to not think about what exactly it is I’m eating most of the time.
That being said, once, just once, I’d like to see a kid that wins a Texas major be honest when they do that interview with the local press at the auction. They always go the same way, some reporter who’s never touched a calf asks what the kid’s going to do with the money and the kid says “pay for college”. The reporter asks where they’re going to go to school and if their grades are good enough they say Texas A&M...unless they're from the panhandle in which case they say Texas Tech.
What would an honest interview sound like?
Reporter - “So what are you going to do with the money?”
Kid - “I’m going to go to college of course.”
Reporter – “Oh wow, that is amazing, do you want to take a moment to say thank you to the buyers for supporting the youth in the state of Texas?”
Kid – “Well, about that, can I be honest with you?”
Reporter - “Sure, of course”
Kid – “I don’t want to mislead anybody, ‘supporting Texas youth’ might be a bit of a stretch here. Yeah, sure, the people who actually profit from this whole game; the guy I bought the calf from, the guy he bought it from, the guy he bought the genetics from, and the sale managers and jocks that facilitated all of those sales may or may not have kids. Some of them do, sure, but I saw that he did pretty good here in Ft Worth too. The thing is, a very good portion of the net profit from all of this goes to professional show steer guys up in Oklahoma. So sure, it sounds really good and all but I don’t know if that counts as supporting youth in the state of Texas.”
Reporter – “Professionals?”
Kid – “Yeah, the guys whose entire living is based on buying and selling these steers when they're babies. There's nothing really wrong with it, this is a free country and there's a demand for it, I just don't want you guys to be mislead as to where this money actually goes.”
Reporter – “But you just said you were going to use the money for college?”
Kid - “Well, yeah, kind of. My family is rich and paying for college was never going to be an issue for me. Frankly, if I were really doing this for college money we wouldn’t have won because we wouldn’t have spent the money you have to in order to win. You see, my dad could have sent me to Texas A&M and had enough left over to send another kid as well if we’d have just saved the money we spent on this big guy here and put it in a savings account. If we would have just not shown steers this year we could have sent half a dozen kids to school on really good scholarships.”
Reporter - “Ummmm…”
Kid - “And another thing, I know we just brought $xxx,xxx through the sale but please wish me luck down the road because I really need to win big at the next major too.”
Reporter - “WHAT? Why?”
Kid - “Well, you see, this isn’t the only $xx,xxx calf I have. We actually have a whole string of them at home, each of them likely worth more than your car, you know, being a journalism major and all.”
Reporter - “A string?”
Kid - “Yeah, we started out with a dozen $xx,xxx calves but sold a few to other rich families, sent a few to the auction barn because they didn't pan out, some just won't be good enough to win a major, and long story short, we’re down to only half a dozen or so of them now.”
Reporter - “ummm, back to you guys?
By Jeff
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