No bum steer
Grand champion fetches $345,000 at rodeo auction.
A silvery steer, wide-eyed and antsy, raised his head high as a young cowboy coaxed him into the spotlight.
Rapid-fire bidding started at $50,000, a paltry price for the grand champion Charolais standing in the middle of NRG Arena. Hand after hand shot into the air, driving the number ever higher until the auctioneer’s bantering at last stopped at $345,000. Sold.
Jagger Horn raised a fist in victory, smiling in near disbelief. The 15-year-old from Anson got the steer as a young calf and raised it into a 1,283-pound powerhouse after more than a year of early mornings and late nights.
“I put a whole lot of time and care into him,” he said.
Horn was one of hundreds of students who put prized steers up for sale Saturday at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s Junior Market auction, a deeply Texan tradition that supports and funds scholarships for young people dedicated to programs such as 4-H and FFA. The winning Charolais, named “Playa,” went to a well-heeled group of eight buyers who have long placed some of the auction’s top bids.
“The entire point of the program is to give back to the kids,” said Ed Lester, who joined the group with his wife, Mary Alice.
The reserve grand cham-
pion steer, a stocky Other Cross with a blond-tufted tail, sparked another bidding frenzy as it lumbered on stage. Country music star Zac Brown joined the scrum, drawing cheers from the crowd as he raised his yellow placard again and again.
His group’s bid was the last one standing when the price reached $330,000, ending the second mostanticipated auction of the day. He recalled his days in FFA as a youth as he took the stage to applaud Stock Martin, a 16-year-old from Hereford who spent more than a year preparing the 1,339-pound steer for the livestock big leagues.
“I know how important it is,” Brown said. “It gives (kids) traits they’ll be able to carry on for the rest of their lives.”
Martin, whose life has long been dominated by livestock shows, had never placed so highly prior to Saturday. He posed backstage with the animal and its buyers before saying a final goodbye.
“Ever since I was born, we’ve been doing this,” he said. “The older I get, the less attached I get.”
The high school sophomore, a member of Oldham County 4-H program, will take home a $40,000 prize for the sale. He hopes to keep showing before attending Texas Tech University and becoming a grain trader.
Bryan Blonder, a welldressed cowboy in a pitchblack hat, fit right in as he watched the parade of steers backstage. Onlookers would never know he once lived in Brooklyn before moving to Texas in 1998, loaded with medical school debt.
He warmed up to the rodeo as he paid off his student loans and eventually began volunteering. He and his wife now spend about $30,000 each year at the various junior auctions to support scholarships.
“I decided I would put my money toward education,” he said.
Keith Powell, a longtime rodeo volunteer, pitched in to buy a $55,000 Maine-Anjou with a group of about 10 buyers. He began bidding at the auction several years ago when he saw how much work the kids put into preparing their animals for show.
“When I found out what was going on behind the scenes, I was all in,” he said. “It draws you in deeply.”
Jagger, a member of the Abilene school district’s FFA chapter, was still smiling amid a swarm of cameras backstage. The high school freshman, who will earn at least $75,000 from the win, hopes to eventually attend Texas A&M University.
“It’s a dream come true for me,” he said.