4-H beef feeder show held Feb. 26

RBC | The 2017 Rio Blanco County beef feeder show was held Feb. 26. The morning began with the tagging and weighing of prospect steers and heifers for the RBC Fair beef show in August. Prospects for the Colorado State Fair were also retinal scanned for identification purposes. Thirty-seven steers and market heifers were tagged and weighed.
After the business side was finished, participants had lunch in the old Exhibit Hall and were treated to a Power Point presentation by our newest fair board member, Alex Plumb. Alex was a member of a collegiate Reserve National Champion meat judging team as well as the National Champion Meat Judging Team for Colorado State University. His presentation was an educational overview of meat quality and the tools by which it is measured, ultrasound and carcass contests. He explained both options for evaluating the product presented to our buyers at the RBC livestock sale and explained why product quality is important to buyers.
Everyone headed back to the barn for a prospect steer and heifer show and competed for a set of clippers and a clipper box donated by Danny Lapp. Kaden Franklin won the clippers for grand champion, while Samantha Lapp won the clipper box for reserve.
Plumb then did a showmanship clinic with all kids and their animals. He worked one-on-one with each 4-H member to improve their skills. We then had a showmanship class for each age division. The kids were competing for hooded sweatshirts for the champions and long sleeve warm up shirts for the reserves with the RBC feeder show logo on the front, designed by past RBC 4-H member Maclaine Shults. The senior division grand champion was Kolbi Franklin, while the reserve was Samantha Lapp. The intermediate division grand champion was Marryn Shults and reserve went to Corbin Lucero. The junior division champion was Hayden Shults with reserve going to Zoey LeBlanc.
We would like to thank Kim Ekstrom for cutting all of the bucket logos and Tera Shults, Jamie Turner, Deana Wood and Ekstrom for helping put all the logos on the buckets.
The sheep, goat and swine feeder show will be May 13.