Cattle.com

2014 Houston Steer Classification Stats

Cattle.com Bots Jeff | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2014

Houston printed their exhibitor handbook online this week and included the classification stats like they've done the past few years.  (which is really nice of them to do and you should thank them for it)

Let’s be clear for the yankees that there are breeds you know are a classification game going in and by “breeds” I mean Angus.  About 2 in 5 steers that enter the Angus classification exit as the bottom end of the AOB class.

It’s just how the game is played in that breed.  The jocks sell every lower end solid black clubby bred steer as a potential Angus and take credit for the ones that slip through.  Personally, I thought it was relatively noteworthy that the reserve champion in San Antonio was actually out of an OCC bull.

But Angus was barely edged out for the title of most classed out this year by…..Simbrah?

Most heavily classed out breeds in Houston 2014
  1. Simbrah - 50%
  2. Angus - 44%
  3. Santa Gertrudis - 38%
  4. Brangus - 37%
  5. Shorthorn - 27%
  6. Polled Hereford - 24%
  7. Brahman - 21%
  8. Hereford - 19%
  9. Red Angus - 14%
  10. ABC - 11%
  11. Simmental - 10%
  12. Chianina - 9%
  13. Limousin - 7%
  14. Maine Anjou - 6%
  15. AOB - 1%
  16. Charolais - (Are you kidding?  Who would TRY to get into Charolais?)
There’s an old barn tale that Houston picks out one breed a year to really just mess over in the classification lines.  I have a tendency to write off such conspiracy theories but it gets pretty hard to do when you look at the numbers.

Gert had 38% kicked out?  They averaged just 13.6% in 2011-13.

It really does appear that there are breeds that everyone thinks they are knowledgeable about but that just randomly get kicked in the teeth by a group of classifiers in a particular year.

Over the past four years, the six biggest outlier years for specific breeds in Houston relative to the other three years are…
  1. 2014 Santa Gertrudis – 278%
  2. 2014 Shothorn – 221%
  3. 2012 Red Angus – 204%
  4. 2013 Brahman – 172%
  5. 2013 Simmental – 170%
  6. 2014 Simbrah – 169%
Those numbers are relative to how many steers are typically classed out in that breed.  For example, Santa Gertudis cattle were classed out at an average rate of 13.6% in 2011-13.  In 2014, they classed out 37.8% of them which is 278% of normal.

What can you do to make sure your breed isn’t one that has to wait until March to find out the classifiers think it’s something other than what the rest of the barn does?

Pray.

Or just show your Limousin Chianina Simmental Maine-Anjou Santa Gertrudis Charolais cross as a Charolais.

  1. Cattle.com
  2. 2014 Houston Steer Classification Stats