What do you think of Fort Worth Steer Show?

[chambero]

You could definitely get by with a straight front end.  Ours was pretty straight but he could still move.  There's a big distance between cant walk and one that actually fills tracks.  He wanted some length which almost precludes that ability in a heavily muscled steer.

The reality is there are so many good calves at FW plenty of people are going to be ticked - whether the judge hurries or not.  People raised heck about the judge from Colorado 3&4 years ago too. 

 

[soggybottom]

There's a difference in being straight in the front and being crippled the class winner I was referring to the kid on the end of the halter was doing everything she could to keep the calf from falling! Props to her for getting the job done. I fully realize that there will be upset people every year at Fort Worth with the quality there is, however when the number of high quality animals that made the walk is as high as it was this year combined with the high number of lessor animals with Fs on there cheek we have a problem! There are several judges that I disagree with but even with those guys I can follow their pattern and make sense of my disagreement. In my opinion he had no consistency from class to class and seemed lost more than once. Bottom line he was asked to come judge Fort Worth, if he didn't know there was going to be over 1400 head and high quality than he might need to step out of Stillwater more often!

 

[cowman 52]

He was worried his health papers might expire before he got to Gainesville.
Ft Worth has been suspect to say the least a getting second tier judges, it's easier to use semi local maybe he'll do a good job, he's got cattle here and won't cost us quite as much and maybe we need to throw him a bone for being a buddy to Bob Watt back in the 60's and what is it gonna hurt us, we had nearly 3000 steers entered and if say 20 get ticked off and don't enter, so what?
And just maybe the second tier judge just might make it a bigger shot at winning, who knows, a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then.

 

[horseshoe b]

I hadn't been to the fort worth steer show in 13 years I really enjoyed it and had a good time.  I think johnson did a good job, looks to me like if you are not DEEP DEEP ribbed and DEEP DEEP flanked  stay at home.  My pick was the middle wt.    I also liked the way he move fast and pulled them off the walk.  This is a major show, pull them from the first impression which takes 1/2 a second (keep that in mind when buying next years calf).  If you don't like it done that way you better not ever show hogs at a major at least the sifted steers get another look on the way out. And still have the possibility of getting pulled then.    I wondered all the way home today how in the world they get these calves so deep sided

P.s.  I wish I could breed "americans" that looked like that champ american. Wow.  They won the show the min he got through the classifling line. He was a beast.  So was the res "american".    I still wish I new the criteria the classifliers use or don't use.  He was a good steer none-the-less I liked him for res over all behind the mid weight I bet he would have made the sale as a crossbred.  Herd lots of people were dissappointed that those 2 got classed in.  But like it or not that's another steer show !!!!.

 

[Double XX]

I was also at the show and have known Mark Johnson since college, Mark did what Mark thought was correct, although I didn't always agree with him (also thought he missed some calves) he did a good job. It was realy good to see him give his own  opnion instead of what has happened in the past where judges were paid to give another persons opnion for some side money. I wish all of the judges could have the morrals of Mark at least it was his opnion.
THANK YOU MARK FOR HAVING SUCH GOOD MORRALS I CAN ONLY HOPE THAT OTHER JUDGES WILL FOLLOW SUIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[chambero]

For those wondering the Grand just brought $205k.

 

[frostback]

For those wondering the Grand just brought $205k.

Is that average?

 

[jason]

Reserve 105,000

 

[Bradenh]

For those wondering the Grand just brought $205k.

Is that average?

That's down 25k from last year (2012 sold for 230k)

 

[okiegirl]

Does anyone know what the grand and reserve were sired by?

 

[Mainevent]

Grand was a monopoly an reserve was walks alone

 

[Tallcool1]

From what I saw movement didn't mean much to him! I personally saw him pick calves on the walk that missed their stride by six inches! He picked a herf that literally drug it's back foot! Several high placing calves and one class winner that I know of that was buckin over on the front! Was the Martin calf the best I would say so but hell anyone that watched that class knows he was completely overwhelmed when it came to class 10. He pulled 16 in that class which woulda been fine if that's what he had been doing all show. When he would pull his ten he wouldn't even look at the other calves on the walk out which if you've never been there is a long walk. That to me shows a complete lack of respect for those kids especially when he would follow a calf on the way in for 15-20 feet pull him and then put his head down and walk back to the entry gate not even looking at the calves that entered in the meantime! 

I wasn't there, I am not from the south, and I have never had the pleasure of attending this steer show.  I hope that someday I will get to.  We all get to have an opinion, and that is the beauty of this country and this site.  Our opinions do not translate to success in the show ring, but they sure do justify the calves that we have in the barn and hopefully the cows that we have in the pastures or on the corn stocks right now!

So, with that said...here is mine.

These steers need to move.  I know...they move enough to get to the feed bunk.  No, they don't.  They get their feed taken to them.  They get water therapy for 90 minutes a day.  They get anti inflammatory injections every 30 days.  They get fed joint supplements.  They live in a cooler.  They don't move well enough to get to the feed bunk.  These steers DO NOT live in the real world, and they STILL can't move.  I am sorry if I hurt any feelings here, but these steers have heifer mates.  Their heifer mates in turn have the same characteristics for lack of mobility. 

You want to sort these steers in 10 seconds...sort them on the move...fine, sift the ones that miss their tracks by 6 inches to the bottom.  THE END.  There are good looking, good profiling, adequately muscled, "pretty" steers out there that CAN move.  Use those. 



   

 

[Telos]

2013 Grand Champion Market Steer - Stock Martin, Hereford, TX

 

[ghostrider]

Well, Johnson certainly ended up with a nice one.  I have no doubt he did miss a few.  Nobody judges that many head in that period of time without missing some. Nobody.  Maybe he tried to rush it a little much, I won't argue that.  But the format is as much to blame as the judge. If you want a more thorough job of judging, you simply have to split the cattle a little more.  Or have more than one judge.  If you love this format, you just have to realize that some good ones are gonna get missed, and be happy with what you got.

I wonder what would happen if the fire marshal ever wandered into that arena during the steer show?  That arena has to be way over legal capacity.  You have to be really patient or really pushy to ever get to where you can even see the show ring.  Never mind finding a seat.  Isn't the arena across the street where they held the steer show before this one was built a lot bigger in terms of seating?  Looks to me like they're going to have to do something about this one of these days.

 

[RBS1977]

Not sure how they got that Champion American to class, heck I oils be surprised if he had any American in him. The exhibitor shows to be from Angleton, TX but I bet that calf lived his whole life in Crockett, TX 

 

[olsencattleco]

This is a calf we sold last year that ended up getting in class 5 exotics.  We missed class 4 by 2 lbs.  we were pretty disappointed but thought we would at least hit a sale hole with him in 5. The kid was about mid way down the line and he had already pulled about 11 calves.  He did not even get a look. I guess I may be a little bias but there were 6 or 7 that he had pulled that really had me confused. I am in no way bashing the judge but find it very unfortunate that he missed several really good calves. I feel that if he had just taken the time to walk around and just put his hands on the ones he hasn't pulled yet(like most judges that have judged FT worth) that he may have caught a few of them. But like I said I am not mad about it or saying he did a bad job. San Antonio here we come!

 

[KSanburg]

How much of that 205K does the kid get to take home?

 

[chambero]

All of it.

Rest of them sell by the pound.  Today almost all steers brought $6 to $9 a pound - all 250 or so of them.

 

[GONEWEST]

From what I saw movement didn't mean much to him! I personally saw him pick calves on the walk that missed their stride by six inches! He picked a herf that literally drug it's back foot! Several high placing calves and one class winner that I know of that was buckin over on the front! Was the Martin calf the best I would say so but hell anyone that watched that class knows he was completely overwhelmed when it came to class 10. He pulled 16 in that class which woulda been fine if that's what he had been doing all show. When he would pull his ten he wouldn't even look at the other calves on the walk out which if you've never been there is a long walk. That to me shows a complete lack of respect for those kids especially when he would follow a calf on the way in for 15-20 feet pull him and then put his head down and walk back to the entry gate not even looking at the calves that entered in the meantime! 

I wasn't there, I am not from the south, and I have never had the pleasure of attending this steer show.  I hope that someday I will get to.  We all get to have an opinion, and that is the beauty of this country and this site.  Our opinions do not translate to success in the show ring, but they sure do justify the calves that we have in the barn and hopefully the cows that we have in the pastures or on the corn stocks right now!

So, with that said...here is mine.

These steers need to move.  I know...they move enough to get to the feed bunk.  No, they don't.  They get their feed taken to them.  They get water therapy for 90 minutes a day.  They get anti inflammatory injections every 30 days.  They get fed joint supplements.  They live in a cooler.  They don't move well enough to get to the feed bunk.  These steers DO NOT live in the real world, and they STILL can't move.  I am sorry if I hurt any feelings here, but these steers have heifer mates.  Their heifer mates in turn have the same characteristics for lack of mobility. 

You want to sort these steers in 10 seconds...sort them on the move...fine, sift the ones that miss their tracks by 6 inches to the bottom.  THE END.  There are good looking, good profiling, adequately muscled, "pretty" steers out there that CAN move.  Use those. 

I agree that the steers need to be able to move, it's a good way to determine between two that are close in other areas. But a steer that walks like a cat and isn't finished properly for the day or doesn't have as much product as another is useless as a market animal. These are market animals and it should be about beef production, not how pretty one walks. If you think that an animal that hits its tracks is automatically "sound" or one that doesn't isn't, you are badly mistaken. They just look better doing it. There is a difference between soundness and showring soundness. There are millions of cows in this country that are short strided and their teeth wear out long before their skeletons, tendons and ligaments do. I thought they were looking for the best all around carcass not the one that could walk the prettiest.

As to the these steers having heifer mates  :, poor, poor argument. These steers are bred to be terminal and so are their heifer mates. If you keep a terminal bred heifer for a cow you take that risk and deserve what you get from it, good and bad. These steers SHOULD NOT have heifer mates in production in a commercial setting. As long as we pick the type of animals that are being chosen today, it will be difficult to use the same genetics to produce both steers and heifers for the show ring. But the argument that these steers have heifer mates that should go into production is just really, really bad and not logical.

In a beauty contest between two animals that present the most desirable carcass in a pretty package,  walking pretty is a good way to determine the best between two. But market animals  shouldn't be judged with the same ideals as breeding animals and vice versa, its apples and oranges.

 

[travis214]

They're show cattle and no matter how much some deny it, they are not evaluated the same way as actual commercial cattle. do long necks and smooth shoulders matter to commercial producers? How about monster sized bone? So really that "showering soundness" is just another thing that makes what we want in our show steers different than what we want in the steers in the feedlot.