Blackjack, a European crossbreed, is grand champion steer
By CHRIS VAUGHN, cvaughn@star-telegram.com
Callie Stedje played in her eighth-grade basketball game Thursday night, the Gruver Greyhounds vs. the Spearman Lynxettes.
The Greyhounds lost, but Callie didn't have much time to stew over it.
She hopped in her uncle's pickup, got herself comfortable and settled in for a 389-mile ride to Fort Worth. She pulled in at 3 a.m., just a few hours before having to prepare her coal-black steer Blackjack to be shown at the Fort Worth Stock Show.
Blackjack then promptly ran the table.
The 1,298-pound European crossbred steer was named grand champion of the Stock Show on Friday, bringing home the prestigious honor to a 13-year-old fifth-generation farmer and rancher.
"I thought the other calves looked better than mine," Callie said. "I was shocked when I won. I guess he was what the judge was looking for."
The reserve grand champion was L.D., a 1,328-pound shorthorn steer shown by Meagan Boxwell, a 17-year-old from Perryton, just 39 miles east of Gruver.
"I just started crying," said her mother, Cindy Boxwell. "We were so excited."
Both steers, along with other high-placing steers and champion barrows, wether goats and lambs, will be auctioned off beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Sale of Champions in the West Arena.
Callie's win marked the seventh time in eight years that a girl has shown the grand champion. And steers from western Texas continued their dominance, winning five of the last eight years.
The judge, Mat Lewis, who owns a cow-calf operation in Colorado, looked at more than 1,400 steers over two days and decided that Blackjack "put together all the parts" of what makes a good beef animal.
As has happened every year since 1983, the judge selected a European crossbreed, not a purebreed, as grand champion. Livestock experts say the crossbreeds are among the most balanced and generally produce the most pounds of the choicest cuts, such as rib-eyes, porterhouses and tenderloins.
As Lewis clapped and pointed at Callie's steer, the standing-room-only crowd in the Watt Arena erupted in cheers.
But after posing for a few pictures, Blackjack lay down, as if he'd had enough.
"He's kind of lazy and laid-back," Callie said. "I guess he got tired."
The win seemed to shock Callie's parents, Brent and Julie Stedje, described by Brent as "little ol' nobodies from the Panhandle."
They bought the calf for Callie just after last year's Stock Show. She spent at least 12 hours a week washing, blow-drying and working with her animal, in addition to basketball, track, UIL academic competitions and normal schoolwork.
"She is a busy girl," her mother said.
Word spread quickly to Gruver, at the top of Texas, that a hometown girl had won.
"It's big news in the whole town," crowed Superintendent David Teal.
The Stedjes said they planned to celebrate Friday night at Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse. Asked what she might do with the auction money -- last year's steer brought $185,000 -- Callie said she would put away most for college.
"We might get a new barn," she said, drawing a big laugh and a shocked look from her dad, who said they had never talked about what they could do with the money.
"We hadn't planned on this happening, so we'd never even thought about it," he said.
Gruver steer wins $140,000 at show
By Janelle Stecklein, janelle.stecklein@amarillo.com
Blackjack raked in the chips for one Gruver student.
Callie Stedje, 13, a Gruver Junior High student, and her steer Blackjack won the top prize at the Fort Worth Stock Show - $140,000.
On Friday afternoon, Blackjack, a European crossbred steer, was named grand champion steer at the prestigious show. When he was auctioned Saturday morning, he fetched the enormous sum, which Callie said she'll use to pay for her dream college - Texas Christian University - when she graduates from high school in a few years.
"I didn't expect to win," she said from Fort Worth. "I was really, really, really excited. I was just really happy and excited."
Her father, Brent Stedje, was just as thrilled - particularly because Callie's college costs have probably been paid for.
"We're pretty excited," he said. "We're just beside ourselves. We didn't see this one coming."
Blackjack was apparently shocked at the victory as well. He laid down as the verdict was announced and it took some yanking to get him up again.
A kidney stone prevented Blackjack from reaching the top at the Tri-State Fair in Amarillo - he took fourth there. But once the medical problem passed, Blackjack started eating and filled out nicely, Callie said.
Named after a card and in honor of her previous two steers - Ace and Spade - Callie and Stedje purchased him at an auction about a year ago.
From there, Callie worked with him two to three times a week and then every day right before the contest, she said. Gruver is about 100 miles north-northeast of Amarillo.
"I've always said you need to have an Ace in the hole (and I did) because he won," she said.
Other Panhandle students also fared well. Meagan Boxwell, 17, of Perryton had the reserve grand champion steer, L.D., which sold for $100,000.
Also, Weston Richburg of Bushland had the grand barrow, worth $14,500.
For results, go to http://www.fwssr.com/
Stock Show grand champion steer fetches $140,000
By PUNCH SHAW, Special to the Star-Telegram
The sagging economy was reflected in the sale price of the grand champion steer in the Stock Show's Sale of Champions on Saturday, where Blackjack sold for $140,000, far below the record-setting price of $185,000 each of the last two years.
Blackjack, a 1,298-pound European crossbred steer shown by Callie Stedje, 13, of Gruver, was purchased by the Happy Davis Foundation.
Once the bidding stopped for the grand champion steer, however, the sale prices rebounded.
The reserve grand champion steer, shown by Meagan Boxwell of Perryton, sold to the Coors Distributing Company of Fort Worth for $100,000, the same as the 2008 reserve grand champion.
And the prices paid for the grand champion barrow, lamb and wether goat all were higher than in 2008.
Overall, the 278 animals sold during the sale brought in about $2.01 million. In 2008, 290 animals went for about $1.97 million.
"With the economy we're in right now, we are extremely happy," said Bill Poteet III, chairman of the Stock Show Syndicate, the group of businesses and civic organizations that works together to buy the winners of the livestock classes at the show.
"The challenge we had this year was that some of the bidders we have had in the past were not able to return. But we have more buyers than we did last year," Poteet said.
'I really love this steer'
If the lower price paid for the grand champion disappointed the seller, it did not show in Stedje's smile after her steer had sold. Both she and her father, Brent, just laughed when asked whether the $140,000 was a letdown.
And it was easier than usual for Stedje to chuckle in this special moment, when many winning youngsters alternate between tears of joy and tears of regret about having to say goodbye to their steers. But both Blackjack and the reserve champion, Boxwell's shorthorn, L.D., are headed for the Fort Worth Zoo -- not the slaughterhouse -- after the sale.
"I really love this steer," Stedje said about her coal black beauty, a mix of the Maine-Anjou, Chianina and Angus breeds. "I plan to go see him at the zoo."
Like most of the beneficiaries of the sale, she plans to sock the money away for college, with TCU being high on the list of universities she would like to attend.
'I just about fell over'
Though the grand champion sold for the lowest price since the 2004 winner went for $132,500, the buyer of the steer was somewhat surprising.
"I just about fell over," Poteet said of Happy Davis, represented by Jill Davis. "She has never been a buyer. We try to get our buyers signed up weeks in advance. But she was a walk-up this morning."
Typically, high-profile businesses buy the champions. Recent purchasers have included XTO Energy, Hillwood and Del Frisco's Steak House, for example. And the bidding often seems carefully choreographed.
"Everybody thinks we know who is going to buy the grand champion, but we really never know," Poteet said. "It's exciting to see new bidders and organizations come and support this sale. We are very happily surprised."
Happy Davis is a Weatherford-based philanthropic organization that supports college scholarships and charities including Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Habitat for Humanity. Davis is the granddaughter of the foundation's late namesake.
"We try to help people who want to help themselves and give back to the community," said Davis, a Fort Worth lawyer. "So this [the sale] was a good fit for us."
Davis, who said the foundation was built from her family's cattle and "diversified business interests," seemed a bit surprised by her success as well.
"My sister [foundation Executive Director Kris Davis Leitzman] was supposed to be here," Davis said. "She called me and told me I would have to be up at 6 a.m. for this. I told her that I wouldn't get up at 6 a.m. for Brad Pitt."
But Leitzman was out of town, so Davis did rise. And at the sale, she shined.
"We do this to encourage others to help people," she said.
A tale of two sales:
Animal - 2008 - 2009
Grand champion steer - $185,000 - $140,000
Reserve grand champion steer - $100,000 - $100,000
Grand champion barrow - $10,000 - $14,500
Grand champion lamb - $15,000 - $20,000
Grand champion wether goat - $12,000 - $15,000
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