The Junior Sale of Champions is the centerpiece of the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, at least for the more than 300 farming and ranching students from around the state who participate.
This year, the grand champion steer didn’t set a record, but it wasn’t far off. It was the second highest sale on record as Higginbotham purchased Leadfoot, a 1,324-pound European Cross, for $340,000 during the 2024 Junior Sale of Champions at the Fort Worth Stock Show.
The final tally is not in, but the sale is expected to raise more than $7 million, most of that going to further the education of the young people raising the animals.
This was the second year in a row that Higginbotham won the grand champion steer auction. Leadfoot was raised by Elli Bezner, 17, of Dalhart.
“It’s a lot of excitement, a little or a lot of shock,” she said after the sale. “I’m still kind of in shock and kind of like, this is crazy that it actually happened. I mean you dream of it, you want to do it, but getting it into reality is a hard thing to do.”
Last year, the company purchased Snoop Dog, a 1,343-pound heavyweight black European Cross, which sold for a record-breaking $440,000.
“We’ve been buying steers for 24 years,” said William Blanchard, managing director at Higginbotham. “We’ve actually raised a lot of money this year with our producers, a lot of sources, so we all felt we had an opportunity this year.”
Leadfoot earned his name the day after Bezner received her driver’s license, when her father said she had a lead foot.
“It all just happened at the same time,” she said.
Showing and raising champion steers at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo runs in Bezner’s family. Her father, Stephen Bezner, won the show in 1991. Her cousin, Ben Bezner, won in 2018.
“I grew up involved in ag, obviously, but grew up kind of steered toward more of a cattle type project,” said Stephen Bezner.
Elli Bezner is now a junior in high school and has been showing steers in Fort Worth since the third grade. She raised two steers earlier that she thought might win but didn’t. This year, she and her father thought Leadfoot was too small to win.
Bezner said she will be sad to say goodbye to Leadfoot.
“I spend more time with him than I do my friends,” she said. “I wash him every day and do all that, so I’m getting teared up already. It’ll be hard, but you know it’s coming at some point so you have to be ready for it.”
The funds raised from the sale will go to Bezner, who plans to use the money for college. Currently, she is leaning toward attending Texas A&M, but said she plans to look at other colleges as well.
At the Junior Sale of Champions, members of the community bid on the 300 best junior steers, barrows, lambs and wether goats of the show.
The 2024 FWSSR Jr. Sale of Champions saw 288 young exhibitors from across Texas show their livestock.
More than $8.2 million was raised this year in the sale.
The Reserve Grand Champion was shown by Mattison Koepp, an FFA member from LaVernia, Texas. Koepp’s steer was purchased by Edward and Sasha Bass and Sundance Square for $230,000.
The Grand Champion Barrow, a Hampshire shown by Montgomery, Texas 4-H member, Kamlynn Mason, went for a final bid of $35,000 from Standard Meat Company. Double Eagle Energy topped the bidding at $30,000 for the Reserve Grand Champion Barrow, exhibited by Elin Rivera, an FFA member from De Leon, Texas.
The Grand Champion Wether Lamb, a Medium Wool Crossbred shown by 4-H member Landrie Lain from Weatherford, was purchased by LKCM Headwater, LKCM Capital Group and Distribution Solutions Group for $100,000. Grace Moore, a 4-H member from San Angelo, exhibited the Reserve Grand Champion Lamb that sold for $90,000. Ladies on the Lamb purchased Moore’s Medium Wool Crossbred.
Brett Bowers, an FFA member from Fredericksburg, sold the Grand Champion Wether Goat for $35,000 to Susan and Stephen Butt. The Reserve Grand Champion Wether Goat was exhibited by Zane Walker, a 4-H member from Ovalo, Texas and fetched a winning bid of $20,000 from Luther King Capital Management and the U Ol’ Goat buying group.
The Fort Worth Stock Show Syndicate, along with Women Steering Business, Band of Barrows, U Ol’ Goat Committee, Ladies on the Lamb, and the Tallest Hog at the Trough Syndicate were responsible for the purchase of all animals offered in the Junior Sale of Champions.
Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details.
