(Scroll down to skip the show results and to watch a slideshow of pics and a video I took of Jordan and Noodles at this show.)

The 2010 Rio Grande Valley Livestock show in Mercedes is now over.  My daughter Jordan showed her Brahman heifer "Noodles" at this show and placed 2nd out of 2 in her class in the junior show and 3rd out of 4 in her class in the open show.  At first glance, these placings may not seem to be too impressive, but considering what she was up against, she really did very well. Let me explain.

In the junior show for example, the heifer Noodles came in second to was a red heifer which placed 2nd in a class of 12 at the very prestigious International Brahman Show in Houston just two weeks earlier. This meant that Noodles was up against one of the top heifers in the state in her age group. A heifer which the owner told me is worth $15,000.00! Coming in a very close second (according to the judge) to a heifer of that quality is nothing to sneeze at.

Normally this red heifer, which is owned by the Heritage Cattle Company, would not even have been allowed to compete in the junior show but since the owner has a daughter who is in FFA, she showed her under her name. 

Personally I don't have a problem with a rancher's kid showing a few animals he/she has personally fed and cared for in junior shows, but when a rancher has his son/daughter show all of his best show cattle in a junior show simply out of greed to win as much as possible, I have a problem.  The way I see it, this defeats the whole purpose of having a junior show in the first place.  

Anyway, back to Noodles' placings.  In the open show, which is open to everybody including ranchers, Noodles was up against even tougher competition. This included the same red heifer that beat her in the junior show.  The red heifer came in first, another V8 heifer (where we bought Noodles) came in second, Noodles came in third and a heifer owned by Joyce Custom Fitters came in fourth. The other V8 heifer is one of the V8 Ranch's best show heifers and had just placed 2nd in her class of 13 at the International Brahman Cattle Show. Placing third out of four is not bad at all when going up against two of the best heifers in the state in her age group. 

In closing, I was hoping that Noodles would do better than she did at this show but considering what she was up against, I am not at all disappointed in the results.  As a matter of fact, I am very proud of Jordan for showing Noodles as well as she did and very pleased with all the nice things both judges had to say about Noodles.  We even had complete strangers come up to us and comment on what a good looking heifer she is and several people even expressed interest in buying her.  That didn't surprise us at all because even though she might not have won Grand Champion (or even her class), in our eyes Noodles will always be the best looking heifer at any show we attend.



Below is a video I took of Jordan competing in the junior show and a slideshow of pictures I took during the open show. The first pic in the slideshow is of Noodles with my niece Sandy's two daughters, Sofia and Maya, and a friend of theirs.  The next several pics are of Jordan getting showmanship tips from Rachel Williams (from the V8 Ranch) and from her new friend Garrett. The final 13 pics are of Jordan and Noodles competing in the Open Show at the RGVLS.

Here is a video of Jordan and Noodles competing in the junior show. As you watch the video, keep in mind that Noodles had just gone into heat for the first time and that was why she kept trying to mount the other heifer.




Here is a slideshow of pics I took of Jordan and Noodles competing in the open show:

Judge's Comments:

"We have two heifers in this class that I think deserve to receive more competition. Two heifers that define themselves as the top of the class whether there was fifteen or there was two.

(Comments on the first place heifer omitted.)