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Alley Cat, a heavyweight American crossbred steer shown by high school sophomore Mattison Koepp of La Vernia, sold for $375,000 Saturday at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo’s big Junior Sale of Champions — the annual auction of nearly 300 champion steers, barrows, goats and lambs exhibited by students at the show.The winning bidder was Vaden’s Acoustics & Drywall Inc. of Fort Worth, a second-generation company headed by Shane Vaden, son of Harold Vaden Jr. who founded the company in 1985. Shane Vaden, a 25-year member of the Fort Worth Stock Show Syndicate, the primary nonprofit group that raises money to buy animals in the Sale of Champions, has bought steers at the auction in previous years, but was something of a surprise contender for the grand champion until he let Syndicate leaders know of his intentions just before Saturday’s auction started at 9 a.m. in the W.R. Watt Arena at the Will Rogers Memorial Center.“We had a small plan,” Vaden told reporters during a news conference. “I might have blown my budget a bit, but that’s OK.”Beaver, the Fort Worth Stock Show’s 2025 reserve grand champion steer, exhibited by Bricelyn Patschke of Idalou, sold for $300,000 at
Saturday’s Junior Sale of Champions. (Billy Banks | Fort Worth Report)Saturday was a big day otherwise at the auction for the Vadens. Vaden’s wife, Leslie, is a member of the Ladies on the Lamb nonprofit group, which purchased the grand champion and reserve champion lambs in the auction for a total $185,000 and also purchased several other lambs in the sale.Besides wanting to help Mattison in her career — the high school student said Saturday she intends to attend Texas A&M University, from which family members graduated — Vaden said after the news conference his family is celebrating multiple milestones, including the 40th anniversary of Vaden’s Drywall coming up in July, his wife’s 50th birthday (“she probably wouldn’t want me to say this”), and the couple’s 30th wedding anniversary.“So we said, ‘Let’s go buy the grand champion,’” said Vaden, who told Mattison during the news conference, “I love what you do; I love we can give back.”Mattison, a sophomore at La Vernia High School near San Antonio, showed the reserve grand champion steer at last year’s stock show. It sold for $230,000. She was overwhelmed by emotion after winning grand champion, and was still searching for words Saturday. “It’s a dream come true,” she said.Mattison announced on the auction stage she would attend A&M, which elicited Aggie “whoops” from some quarters of the audience. “Well, you’ve got the money to do it now,” the auctioneer quipped.Gross sale proceeds from the auction go to the youth exhibitors. Mattison said she would use hers “for college and other cattle projects” and would probably study agribusiness.As grand champion winner, Mattison is barred by stock show rules from returning to the Fort Worth show with another steer, but she said at the least she’ll attend this year’s San Antonio and Houston shows with other steers. The family has already purchased the steer they intended to bring to the Fort Worth show a year from now. “We’ll go to San Antonio (with it),” Mattison said.Alley Cat’s win surprised observers who were used to the dominance of European crossbred steers at the stock show. More than half of the 1,600 steers in this year’s youth show were European crosses and other breeds, and 190 of the steers were American crosses and other breeds. Alley Cat’s win — and that of a Hereford in 2020 — interrupted what’s been a yearslong string of victories by European crossbreds at the Fort Worth show.Mattison’s family raises only American crossbreds. Mattison’s father, Matt, said the quality of meat is the same compared to that produced by European crossbreds. The main difference between American crosses and their European counterparts is better heat tolerance, he said.“They better benefit from our climate,” he said.Alley Cat’s lineage includes at least Santa Gertrudis and Brangus, he said. American crossbreds “are several generations away from being a pure breed.”Beaver, the reserve grand champion steer exhibited by Bricelyn Patschke of Idalou near Lubbock, sold for $300,000 to Ed and Sasha Bass and Sundance Square, the downtown Fort Worth center owned by the couple.Total auction proceeds last year were $8.2 million, which went to the exhibitors of the 288 animals in the auction. This year’s grand champion fell short of the $440,000 record set two years ago, but exceeded the $340,000 sale price of the grand champion in last year’s auction.This year’s total was expected to be tallied later Saturday.Editor’s note: This is a developing story.