SYRACUSE – A heavyweight calf won the 4-H market steer and the supreme animal at the Otoe County Fair on Friday, perhaps reflecting a trend toward larger cattle.

Reese Stubbendick, 18, of Avoca showed a 1,406 pound steer, second in weight only to a shorthorn market steer shown by Justus Kreifels and reserve champion bred and raised market steer, a 1,436-pounder shown by Garret Bates.

Payton Brandt's 1,526 lb. bucket calf +1 won the division.

Stubbendick: “I think he just really liked the structure of him and, I mean the size really had a good weight.”

 

Successful Farming’s website says the ideal weight for show steers is 1,100 to 1,300 pounds, which typically has played out in Otoe County in the past.

Chelsea Wellsandt’s grand champion was 1,346 lbs in 2007 and Whitney Carlson’s champion was 1,318 pounds in 2006. In 2009, Nick Allen’s 1,258-pound calf was the British breed champion and Sam Goering’s 1,290-pound steer had "enough muscle to compete."

This year’s champion is not the heaviest, however. In 2003, Wellsandt won with a 1,554-pound steer that was born on her farm near Cook.

Mary Moser, extension educator for Pawnee and Johnson counties, said show cattle and industry cattle are not always in harmony in terms of market size. She said they have different targets for breeding, but  it does seem that cattle are getting bigger.

A University of Wyoming report says a beef cow weighed 1,047 pounds in 1975, but 1,350 lbs in 2009.

UNL-L says a 1,400-pound steer will produce about 550 pounds of meat for the freezer and Beef Magazine says the amount of meat produced per cow has seen an 18 percent increase over the past 20 years.

 

Stubbendick said her calf comes from a perfection bull with a shorthorn mix that probably provides the reddish color.

Stubbendick: “He’s probably much bigger now, but at the time of when we weighed him in, he was a lot lighter. We gained a couple of pounds these last few days. “

Stubbendick: “It is special. This is one of my last years of showing, so this is a big win for me.”

Kayden Sisco, the champion senior showman, showed the champion breeding heifer and Tristan Sisco had reserve.

Izabel Stubbendick had the champion bred and raised market steer.

 

NCN's Reagan Connelly contributed to this report