Best of the Breed winners claim cash

Kansas State University (KSU) Ag Research Center-Hays (ARCH), Hays, Kan., won the $100,000 prize with an entry of 80 steers from registered Angus bulls worth an average of $132.05/cwt. of carcass.

The largest purse ever put up for a beef carcass value contest—a total of $244,500—was awarded Jan. 29 to 26 Angus producers and feeders at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association 2003 Cattle Industry Annual Convention and Trade Show in Nashville, Tenn.

The "Best of the Breed" (BoB) Angus challenge was announced at the 2001 Summer Conference in Denver, Colo., and began taking entries that September. Corporate sponsors are Agri Beef Co., Allflex USA, Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB), Farmland National Beef (FNB), Merial SureHealth®, and Drovers.

All of the grand prize winners came from Kansas or Nebraska in Region VII, and all were sorted at least once by technology patented by the organization that came out on top. Kansas State University (KSU) Ag Research Center-Hays (ARCH), Hays, Kan., licensed its ultrasound technology, partially funded by the Kansas Beef Council, to Cattle Performance Enhancement Co. (CPEC), Oakley, Kan.

Wickstrum Farms, Westmoreland, Kan., won reserve grand champion pen with an entry of 160 steers.

ARCH won the $100,000 prize with an entry of 80 steers from registered Angus bulls worth an average of $132.05/cwt. of carcass. Most of the steers came from the ARCH herd and featured bulls from Green Garden Angus, Ellsworth, Kan., and 20 were sired by bulls from Gardiner Angus Ranch, Ashland, Kan., said John Brethour, ARCH animal scientist. The steers were sorted twice using ultrasound.

Winning $50,000 for reserve champion pen in the contest was Wickstrum Farms, Westmoreland, Kan., with an entry of twice as many steers (160) that came within 13 cents of the top, at $131.92/cwt. All of the steers came from Wickstrum cows bred to registered Angus bulls from Fink Angus, Manhattan, Kan., and were sorted once by ultrasound.

The next three positions for overall value were claimed by Richard Bossen and family, Arcadia, Neb., on Angus type steers of unknown genetic background from the Sandhills region, sorted initially and to outcome group by ultrasound. All of the Bossen cattle were SUREHEALTH® certified, as about a third of all BoB cattle were.

Richard Bossen and family, Arcadia, Neb., claimed third place on a pen of Angus type steers of unknown genetic background from the Sandhills region, sorted initially and to outcome group by ultrasound.

The third-place overall pen of 80 achieved an average value of $131.17/cwt. and graded a contest high 37.69% Prime. Had they managed an extra $.89/cwt. in average value, this set would have won the Merial bonus of $100,000, which went unclaimed because the KSU cattle did not qualify.

Bossen’s second-high pen of 80 ($130.87) was Region VII Champion, Richard’s son-in-law Bill Garrelt’s 80 steers ($130.58) being regional reserve winner.

— by Steve Suther