The 39th Annual Educational, Performance & Carcass Contest has been underway since mid-November. This year, we had 84 calves enter Cottonwood Feeders near Stuart, Nebraska to compete in this bragging rights contest. We collect data on the calves as they grow in the feedyard and select winners based on carcass quality, rate of gain, and overall profitability. Winners of each division are awarded a buckle and get the bragging rights for a year.
This year’s first mid-weights were gathered on February 3rd, which put us right at 65 days from the date the contest began. While the calves were being run through the chute and were reimplanted, we grabbed their weights. Here’s how they are performing. The largest animal in the pen is a heifer that weighed 1138 pounds, with our lightest being a steer weighing 544 pounds, making the pen average 890 pounds. They are averaging 4.26 pounds per day of gain, which puts us over last year’s Average Daily Gain of 3.85 pounds.
Overall, the calves look great and are growing well. Thanks to Cottonwood Feeders for doing such a great job so far!
2021 Calves
Please note: the pens are wet as we had several inches of snow the week prior to the weighin that had melted.