Lovelady Calf Show Grand Champion Awarded

By Jordan Bridges

Messenger Reporter

LOVELADY – The Lovelady Calf Show and Sale is one of the most unique cattle shows in the United States. The event was established in 1956 by Mr. H. T. Deaton, the Lovelady FFA Advisor at the time.

Dustin Perry, Lovelady ISD’s Ag Science Teacher/FFA Sponsor said, “What makes this show unique is not one individual can buy a better animal than the other. Which means, over the summer, Mr. McGinty (Lovelady ISD’s Ag Science Teacher) and I make a deal with a rancher to select cattle with the same genetics. To start we only had a 26-pound weight gap between our steers this year.”

“The second thing that makes our show unique,” he continued, “is we raise our own corn and create our own feed. However, this year we had a failed corn crop so we had to purchase the corn to create our own feed. We mixed around 3,000 pounds of feed each week and the students would come pick it up as needed.”

This year’s 2020 Lovelady Calf Show Grand Champion was awarded to Rylee Biedrzycki on Saturday, Feb. 22. The calf weighed in at 1285 pound and was purchased by Husky Trailer.

Seth Murray’s calf was the Reserved Grand Champion weighing in at 1245 pounds and was purchased by Randy Roden Ranches.

In third place was Avery Sallee, with a calf purchased by Matt and Deidra Doherty.

Others who placed in the event were: Slade Murray, fourth place, purchased by Lovelady State Bank; Scotty Moore, fifth place; purchased by Chuck and Kim Spellman: Friends of Gene Stokes; Haley Phillips, sixth place, purchased by Anderson County Livestock; MyKenzie Sutton, seventh place, purchased by 65^th Buyers Group; Shyanne Pipkin, eighth place, purchased by ABL Land Services.

The average rate of gain was 3.54 pounds a day. In 168 days, the average overall weight gain was over 595 pounds. For the first time in show history, every animal weighed over 1,100 pounds

Haley Phillips took home the Showmanship Buckle while Ayvery Sallee and Slade Murray tied, for the second time in history, for the Rate of Gain Title with steers that gained 710 pounds.

The Grand Champion, Reserve Champion & third through eight place buckles were sponsored by J. McMillian Enterprises. The Showmanship buckle was sponsored by the Bruce and Lawanna Monk and family. The Rate of Gain buckle was sponsored In Memory of Winnie, Bobby, and Kenny Baker.

This is Perry and McGinty’s first year at Lovelady ISD. The both of them would like to express their gratitude to the all buyers and add on participants who helped support the students.