The Houston Livestock Show is full of future business leaders
We call ourselves Marketplace, so part of our job is exploring how marketplaces work, in all their forms. David Brancaccio and the “Marketplace Morning Report” team are setting out to visit in-person places of commerce, in a world where so much buying and selling has gone remote and digital. None are financial markets in a formal sense, but all markets are financial markets in a way, right? The goal is to learn the right and the wrong moves with experts.
This week: “A Business Reporter Goes to the Rodeo.” Today it’s tips from the next generation of agriculture industry leaders.
While bull riders and calf ropers vie for cash in the NFL-grade stadium next door, there’s another competition happening amid more workaday grandstands and piles of hay dyed green. Young people from across the state show off in front of judges the best of the chickens, pigs, lambs, goats and cows.
Laura Cooper, a high school senior from Paris, Texas, is among them. She drove about five hours to show a Brahman heifer at the rodeo.
“You definitely look for their structure,” Cooper explained. “Are they able to walk? Will they make it out and thrive in the real world? You also check their temperament. It would be awful if I had a crazy cow, and would make it a really long day we’re showing. So thankfully, she’s super gentle.”
Cooper was showing Dally, who won several trophies at this year’s events. What makes Dally worthy of show?
“Her color, that red tinge, is just something that’s super flashy in the show world,” Cooper said. “She puts her ears forward, makes her look like a real lady.”
Raising and showing livestock is an investment business.
“I had to get an ag loan through the FSA, so the Farm Service Agency, to buy my own calf to start out with in the very beginning,” Cooper said. “From then, I learned, ‘Wow, this is an awesome opportunity. I get to build credit before age of 18.’ I was able to sell their offspring. So when they had calves after their show career, I was able to sell those, make a little bit of profit. From then on, it just seems like it was just a repetitive cycle.”
Cooper herself now owns nearly 40 cattle in total. She’s finishing up both her high school degree and an associate degree in agribusiness at the same time. Her career goal is to become a loan officer, to give other farmers and ranchers the same credit opportunity she was given.
“I do have somewhat of an idea about the worth of some things and assets and appreciating value,” Cooper said. “It is something you still continually learn every day, especially with the new current market trends.”
She’s even checking interest rates these days. But it’s not just Cooper. The young business aces abound at the junior livestock show.
Baxter Whitworth, 14 years old from Henderson, Texas, has a ranch called Top Notch Cattle. He also shows Brahmans, and he’s taking home trophies, too. But meanwhile he’s building a media business. It’s a podcast: Cattle Innovation Station.
“Sometimes we’ll talk about ag policy, but mostly it’s nutrition, genetics, breeding, herd management,” Whitworth said.
His trick of the trade for showing cattle is something that will also serve him well as a podcast host — it’s about showmanship and presence.
“Being aware of what’s going on in the ring, where the judge is at, where other cattle are at, kind of how much space you have,” he explained. “To kind of be engaging and looking where everything is, to make sure everything’s all right.”
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA, has pushed for an animal-free rodeo. The group alleges “animals used in rodeos suffer from extreme stress and often sustain agonizing and even fatal injuries.”
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo says in its animal welfare policy that it’s “committed to the humane treatment of animals and works with various organizations and associations to monitor industry best practices, as well as ensure the ongoing maintenance of our competition rules to create and maintain an environment that results in the respect and care of our animals.”