
Fort Worth Stock Show’s youth animal auction ‘secures the future of Texas agriculture’
It’s all hooves on deck when it comes time to secure money to buy the nearly 300 champion animals raised and shown by youth exhibitors at the annual Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. Nonprofit groups, led by the Fort Worth Stock Show Syndicate, raised a record $8.2 million last year to toe the line and buy the 288 champion steers, pigs, goats and lambs sold at the Junior Sale of Champions on the show’s last day.Those four shows and auction finale are the heart of the stock show. The groups, which seek commitments through the morning of the sale to ensure the last animal sold brings a premium, want to beat last year’s numbers heading into this year’s sale, set for Feb. 8 at Watt Arena.“It’s a celebration of Fort Worth tradition, but it’s also work that helps secure the future of Texas agriculture,” said Christian Schroder, a Fort Worth lawyer, vice president of GM Financial and chairman of the Syndicate, which raises more than 90% of the winning bids at the sale.“Our mission is to make sure we’re rewarding these 4-H and FFA kids with above-market prices,” Schroder said in an interview. “It takes a whole lot of money just for them to break even. And that doesn’t count all the time they spend.”In 2024, the Higginbotham insurance and employee benefits company, via the Syndicate, put in the winning bid of $340,000 for the grand champion steer. Besides the Syndicate, Women Steering Business, Tallest Hog at the Trough, the U Ol’ Goat Committee and Ladies on the Lamb are the other volunteer-led groups. The Report discussed this year’s fundraising with the groups for this story, but was unable to reach a representative of the goat committee.The annual goal of Women Steering Business is to secure commitments between $250,000 and $300,000 ahead of the Junior Sale of Champions. As of Feb. 3, the group, which raises money by selling memberships between $1,000 and $100,000, had surpassed its goal, said Becky Renfro Borbolla, who co-founded the group in 2013 to focus on buying steers from young women who are exhibiting them. To date, the group estimates it’s spent $2.8 million at the auction.“We still have money coming in” for 2025, she said. “I don’t know where we are this year. I know we’re over the $250,000 (mark). Are we going to be at $300,000 or more?”The group, which also withholds $20,000 annually to buy animals at a Tarrant County sale, has secured 125 members as of Monday — a “normal” level, Renfro Borbolla said.Depending on results of Friday’s steer show, Women Steering Business may go into overdrive collecting late commitments.Part of Women Steering Business’s appeal: no fundraising requirements for members. “You just write a check,” Renfro Borbolla, senior vice president of Renfro Foods in Fort Worth, said.The group is also seeking contributions for its Grand Fund, which Women Steering Business set up in April last year and now has $145,000. The fund is designed to provide extra money if the group needs it in a given year. In 2023, for one, Women Steering Business was in on the grand champion steer, exhibited by a young woman. Women Steering Business’s highest bid of $430,000 was overtaken by Higginbotham’s winning $440,000.“We want to support as many young ladies as we can,” Renfro Borbolla said.Last week, Tallest Hog at the Trough boosters were working on guaranteeing commitments to buy the 12 champion pigs.“It’s looking good,” Gary Ray, a Fort Worth insurance man, past Syndicate chairman and co-founder of hog group with Fort Worth Realtor Bobby Norris, said.Last year, buyers snapped up the 12 pigs in the auction for $385,000. Ray said his group’s goals are at least $75,000 for the grand champion and $45,000-$50,000 for the reserve champion. Standard Meat Co. of Fort Worth and Syracuse Sausage of Ponder are regular buyers of the top hogs.“We’re hoping to do at least $425,000 this year,” Ray said.As of last week, Ladies on the Lamb had added five members for this year, raising the total number to 35 active and 10 sustainers, Kim Johnson, president, said.The group estimates it’s spent close to $2.4 million over 25 years to buy lambs. The sale will have 10 champion lambs.“So far this year, everything’s going really great from the fundraising perspective,” Johnson said. “We’re on task right now and actually set to exceed our goal.”The Syndicate helps run the auction table and track lot buyers. “Then we go out and collect the money,” Schroder said.The Syndicate organized in 1980 “because these kids were not getting appropriate pricing” at the auction, Schroder said. That year, the show raised $17,000 at the auction. The Syndicate has since established a scholarship fund and today gives $240,000 in scholarships to a total 24 FFA and 4-H students at $10,000 apiece.Average price for a steer during the 2024 show was $17,000 or $18,000, Schroder said. But Lot 288, the last animal sold, brought $75,000.“When the kids bring their animals, we believe they bring their best animals here,” Schroder said. “When they do that, they’re rewarded appropriately.”Scott Nishimura is a senior editor for the Documenters program at the Fort Worth Report. Reach him at scott.nishimura@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.
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