I sat through two days of the Houston steer show to see what I and many others would call a comedic performance. I could not keep track of the number of structurally incorrect calves that were pulled and that even made the sale. You had those calves that could not be missed filter their way to the top, but the only pattern that most could follow was that it didn't matter if they could walk or not. I also saw alot of calves that appeared very racy (tall, extremely long fronted, shallow, round hipped) move their way to the top. It was the joke of many stalls in the barn that week.
The calves that won were both Rash calves. I am the last one to say anything if people's cattle are great, but the grand and champ. Charolais did not deserve to get out of its class as someone mentioned earlier. He was a decent calf, but walked way underneath himself and was round in his hip and muscle pattern. Again, I am not one to spread rumors or even believe them, but word was that Rash had bought some very expensive heifers from judge, not long before the show. If you know Ryan's history and you saw the steer that won, it would certainly make you wonder.
Things like this make people not want to participate in what we are trying to preserve. It seems to me that it is getting harder and harder to find judges that you can be confident in, whatever the species of livestock may be. I understand that industry leaders are going to have ties to people that are showing in that show, but something must be done to preserve the integrity of livestock shows.
I did not have a calf there that day, nor was I involved with one, but the heavy weight Charolais class winner was a massive calf. Even the judge said that he was not too big. He was left in the line up while a structurally incorrect calf took champion and a calf that you could tell hasn't been worked with circled its way to reserve breed.
I am sure that I will catch hell about this from some on here, but this was just my take from the show.