Record number of animals spur Syndicate steer sale
Last yearÂ’s record-breaking success in livestock entries and sales at the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show will be a tough act to follow, but if the number of animals exhibited at this yearÂ’s 111th annual show is any indication of what the final figures might be, then several records may be toppled again.
With 22,673 animals, an all-time record for the show has been set. It ends its 24-day run on Feb. 4. This year’s Sale of Champions is set for Feb. 3. Almost every show department reported increased entries: open sheep, open swine, open Boer goats, donkeys and mules, miniature horses, Palomino Horses, Quarter Horses and poultry. According to W.R. “Bob” Watt Jr., the show’s president and manager, the most significant increases this year are a 10 percent jump in junior steer entries and an 8 percent rise for junior heifers.
“These record entries are making me not sleep too well this year,” laughed Bob Akin, who is overseeing his second year as chair of the Stock Show Syndicate, the largest single financial supporter of the Stock Show. The Syndicate is made up of 100 of Fort Worth’s businessmen and businesswomen who pay inflated market value for animals in the Stock Show’s junior sale, in order to teach and encourage the young FFA and 4-H participants and reward their hard work with educational scholarships.
The group gives four $10,000 scholarships to FFA and 4-H youth who are pursuing an agricultural or life sciences degree at a Texas university or college. The scholarship program began in 1983 when James M. “Jim Bob” Norman established the fund.
The group spent $20,000 at the original sale in 1980. Last year, sales topped out at a record-shattering $2.168 million, with a $160,000 bid by XTO Energy Inc. for Cool, the grand champion steer. CoolÂ’s owner/trainer, Whitney Holcomb, and the entire crowd were wowed when show officials announced that the 1,316-pound European cross would be retired to the Fort Worth ZooÂ’s Texas Wild! Exhibit. Akin said the Syndicate took up the tradition of arranging donations of the champion animals to the zoo and the Fort Worth Independent School District after it had been abandoned for several years.
The grand champion and reserve champion steers were scheduled to remain at the zoo for a year, after which they will be retired and put out to pasture on a zoo board memberÂ’s ranch and replaced by this yearÂ’s winners. Akin believes the tradition will continue this year.
An avid Texas A&M fan, Holcomb had planned to use her scholarship money to fund her college education at that university. But the overwhelming reaction to both her and to Cool changed her plans.
“As a direct result of the support and encouragement Whitney found in Fort Worth, she turned down A&M and is going to enter TCU this fall,” said Akin, who is hoping for a repeat record sales event. “Our job is to try to get the most money for these kids. It’s all to help their education. Whitney’s decision to stay in Fort Worth to go to school reflects what our community is all about.”
Contact Dillard at bdillard@bizpress.net
