Texas Polled Hereford Association All-Star Sale

Hereford girls, Hereford girls... Tell me what's better than that?! NOTHING!
The All-Star Cattle Sale is put on by the Texas Polled Hereford Association. Luckily I was able to make it to this sale, but regretfully I couldn't attend the Tennessee River Music, Inc. Sale because it was during my graduation. It was sad not to attend their sale, but I am now happy to say how close I am to Texas A&M University! The All-Star Sale is jam packed with queen and sweetheart interviews, chili cook-offs, dessert tasting, and of course the sale! As soon as I arrived at the Shocke residence in Sherman, Texas, my Texas Polled Hereford friends greeted me with joy. First of started the queens contest. We had the most talent and beautiful girls come in and out of the intense interviews. Miss Keely Hamman and I decided to hang out with the girls in the waiting room; we enjoyed the fact that we were not stressing out about being interviewed since we are both past state queens. It was wonderful! All of the queen and sweetheart candidate's interviews went very well! Once the stressful interviews had ceased it was time to eat! The chili was amazing as well as dessert, but I would like to add that eating chili is NOT the easiest thing to do in an all white outfit! I stayed clean though. That night after we ate, we announced the results of queen and sweetheart. Our lovely Texas Polled Hereford Queen, Keely Hamman, announced as I crowned them with their new sash and banner. The newly crowned queen was the lucky Miss Sarah Smith with the princess Miss Tracy Brent. We also crowned three sweethearts who were Morgan Dobbs, Ruth Ann Kettler, and Molly Booth. All of the wonderful ladies will do an excellent job representing the Texas Polled Hereford Association this next year. Congratulations! Once we knew who all of our royalty were, we announced the winners of the best desserts and chilis. It was fun just to 'hang out' with everyone.
From left to right: Ruth Ann Kettler, Molly Booth, Tracey Brent, Sarah Smith, and Me!

Star Lake Cattle Ranch Sale

Oklahoma was the next place I went! I traveled longs hours to reach the destination of Stillwater, Oklahoma at the Star Lake Cattle Ranch. This was my first time to make it to this sale, and it was definitely worth it! Friday night was full of meeting and greeting with plenty of Hereford breeders and buyers. We had a delicious steak dinner as I sat with some old Texas friends and new ones that I made. They auctioned off numerous embryos at the dinner that night. Some were sold at the dinner and some online. All of the embryos being sold online made me think of how far technology has come. I mean really, there’s more opportunity for others to get what they desire even if they are unable to attend the function. I find it fascinating!

After dinner, the party really started! The band was blaring “Benny and the Jets,” as well as, plenty of other (in my terms) ‘old school’ songs. Sadly, the night had to come to an end although people still stayed out rather late. I could hear their voices echoing all of the songs from our RV that we took to the sale.

I had a full day ahead of me on Saturday. There were 200 lots of cattle to sale! That’s a lot just in case you didn’t know. This is a picture of Mrs. Susan Rader and I. She is from my area of deep East Texas and has always been so supportive of me. Saturday morning was all about being the highest bidder, and boy, oh boy, there were definitely some high bids! The first lot in the ring was a sight to see, but it had the nasty scours! The heifer turned around as swiftly as it could and its manure spewed across the front row. Luckily, I had someone who gallantly stepped in front of me taking the main blow... thank you Mr. Joe Rickabaugh. I will forever be indebted to him for his chivalry to protect my bright white dress! My mom said it was just like a tractor pull...don't ever sit on the first row!

It was a very long day, but I could only stay for so long because I had an extremely long drive ahead of my family and I. So I said my said and heartfelt goodbyes and we went on our way home. It was great getting to spend my weekend with Blin Family as well as the Star Lake Cattle Ranch Crew. I always love getting to see Mrs. Kim Herman. She has been one of my biggest supporters throughout my race as queen. She is a past National Hereford Queen and gave me great advice and told me that she remembered the first time that she received her white boots. Thank you Mrs. Herman for being such an inspiration to me!

Thank you again Star Lake for an unforgettable trip and sale!

Hats Off to Herefords!

After the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, I had a very nice little break before scholarships and sales hit me full throttle! The first sale that I was able to attend was the annual 'Hats Off to Herefords Sale' in Morgan, Texas held on W4 Ranch. Regretfully, I was unable to make it to the Larson Polled Hereford Sale in Clifton, Texas do to a death. This was very disappointing to me as they were so kind as to invite me to the sale personally and take care of any accommodations I needed. Although I was unable to make it to Larson’s Sale, it made me even more excited to see my Hereford family at our sale in Morgan, Texas. Coincidentally, I had an Area FFA interview on the same day! How convenient, right? But luckily I have parents that are so involved and help make sure that I can try and attend every possible event because this was a $16,000 scholarship on the line!
I switched times with another FFA student so I could be the absolute FIRST person in the interview room. My mother and I had a 5 hour drive ahead of us in order to make it to the sale, so we were definitely trying to find any possible way to make the interview go as quick and early as possible. Once the interview was over we headed straight to Morgan, Texas with no stops in mind! By the way, I made it to State! Five hours later the wonderful white suburban got us to what we “thought” was W4 Ranch, oh but we were sadly mistaken! We drove around and only saw land, land, and MORE land! We finally decided, about 10 minutes later, that we should probably turn around and ask for some directions because we obviously had no clue where we were at. When we stopped by a gas station little girls selling cookies and brownies for cheerleading oohed and awed at my sash and crown while asking me tons of questions while my mother got directions to W4 Ranch. When we arrived at W4 Ranch I was greeted by all of my lovely Hereford family. Too bad I wasn’t there for the full sale, but at least I made it! After the sale concluded, everyone stayed around and talked about life and how close it was for school to end. I even got to take pictures with Mr. Walker and a couple on the ranch. It was beautiful out in Morgan, Texas; I could have packed up and moved right that second! The neatest thing was that even after the sale Mr. Walker let the people that were staying fish on his lake. It was so beautiful outside and a great way to spend time with my Hereford family!