Twenty Largest Market Steer Shows in the Nation

Various different shows claim to be the largest open show, largest junior show, largest on-site junior show, etc.  What about the largest strictly market steer shows in the nation?

A couple weeks ago I sent Katie off on a mission to find out…

1. Houston Livestock and Rodeo 1,743
2. San Antonio Livestock Expo 1,452
3. Rodeo Austin 851
4. Iowa State Fair 719
5. Oklahoma Youth Expo 600
6. Heart O'Texas Fair 418
7. State Fair of Texas 378
8. Arskarben 341
9. Georgia National Livestock Show 335
10. Amarillo Tri-State Fair 317
11. South Dakota State Fair 315
12. San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo 314
13. Nebraska State Fair 285
14. Panhandle South Plains Fair 260
15. Tulsa State Fair 254
16. Illinois State Fair 200
17. Ohio State Fair 190
18. Wisconsin State fair 190
19. Indiana State Fair 174
20. Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show 147
21. Keystone International Livestock Expo 127

First things first, thank you everyone at the stock shows that provided the information and Katie for gathering it.

Second, yeah, we know there are some big time shows missing.  We contacted a total of 41 different stock shows and heard back from 29.  The only reason we have San Antonio and Houston is we got the information ourselves from the counts they posted or announced at their shows.

Ft Worth (who three different people have told me is extremely easy to work with) would rank #2 or #3 but just flat out didn’t give us any information despite repeated e-mails and conversations.  We left messages for and emailed the people in charge of press at the Arizona National with no luck.  The NAILE never got back to us.  For one reason or another, we just weren’t able to get info from some shows. 

If anybody has a source for how many market steers were at some of the shows we are missing (remember, we only count market steer shows, this doesn’t include prospect/feeder steers), or even if you know the reason some shows want to be secretive with this information, please let us know.

Observations…

If you didn’t already know, show steers are a pretty darn big deal down here in Texas.  The top three (four if you count Ft Worth) steer shows are all restricted to only Texas kids.

Quantity and quality, while associated, are two different things when it comes to market steer shows.  Some of the most prestigious steer shows, at least by the standards of the Midwest steer jocks and magazine ads, have less than 100 entries.  Most people would consider a show like the National Western, which had 80 steers this year, to be one of the most prestigious market steer shows in the nation.

I’m not sure where to cut off the ranking because there are numerous county level shows that get 100-200 entries and including them in the list would make it a bit unwieldy.  Prospect shows like the Bonanza would have come close to making the top ten.  We tried to keep it to steer shows meant for mature steers instead of prospects but we have no experience with a good portion of these shows and if we added some that shouldn’t have been, our bad.

The showing of Austin is the most surprising thing to me on that list.  Sometime in the early to mid-90s they were a very small show.  They started a surprisingly effective and creative growth plan of allowing entries from all counties bordering them one year.  The next year they allowed in the counties bordering those, the next the counties bordering those.  Over time they grew to the point that if they aren’t already at the entire state of Texas, they’re just one or two panhandle counties away from it.  That they’ve grown to #3 (again, missing Ft Worth which would almost certainly be #2 or #3) on this list is pretty darn impressive.