Jackpot Shows for Dummies - Progress vs Prospect

Texas has two ‘show seasons’.

The big show season is from January through the end of March.  That’s when the majors like Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Houston are held.  That’s also when the majority of counties have their big show.  As far as the stereotypical exotic show steer goes, those calves are typically fall borns with a few hold over spring borns that are pushing two years old by the time of the show.

There’s also a fall show season which is a lot closer to what you guys in the Midwest are used to.  There are numerous counties that have their final show at that time but the big show is the State Fair of Texas which is held in October.  These have a tendency to be spring born steers.

That creates two completely different types of show steers on the show circuit and some shows, like the Fall Classic that I referenced on Monday, split those two types of steers into different shows.

From April (end of majors) through October (state fair) the progress classes are steers over a certain weight, typically 700-900lbs depending on the show, that are generally being fed to go to the state fair.  Prospect classes at that time are generally calves being fed for the spring majors.

From October (state fair) through March, the progress classes are the steers targeted toward the spring majors.

The breed break ups change with the switch of the types of calves meant for the shows.  The divisions with calves meant for spring majors have 16 classes and the divisions with calves meant for the state fair have three classes.