By Jennifer Dorsett
Field Editor
On Valentine’s Day in 2019, Texas Farm Bureau members Ryder Day and his family selected a Hereford calf to bring in from the pasture as Ryder’s steer project for the upcoming 2020 stock show season.
“It was Valentine’s Day, so we named him Cupid. Then, whenever we were working with him, he’d sort of move or shuffle around, so we started calling him Cupid Shuffle,” Ryder said.
And Cupid Shuffle was named grand champion steer in the junior show at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo last week.
“It was the first time in a long time a Hereford won, but it was the first time ever a polled [non-horned] Hereford ever won. So, it was really special to me and my family,” Ryder said.
A Hereford hadn’t won the Fort Worth cattle show since 1982, and it was a special moment, in part, because the Day family bred and raised the animal.
“We’re multi-generational cattle raisers on both sides of Ryder’s family,” his mom, Katie Jo, said. “We’re really proud of our show cattle herds and our Hereford herd, in particular.”
The coliseum erupted in applause when the judge slapped Cupid Shuffle on the rump, signaling he was the grand champion winner.
Ryder was in disbelief.
“I thought when we came into the grand drive that I had a good chance at reserve [grand champion], but I never thought I would’ve actually won it,” he said. “Really, I was just happy to be out there and thinking this was special and probably the only time that this will ever happen to me.”
At the Sale of Champions auction the following day, Cupid Shuffle sold for a record $300,000.
“Nothing can even go through my mind…it’s too much to think about really,” he said after he walked out of the sale ring.
In true big brother fashion, he said he was going to split the money with younger brother Riggin.
“We’ll use it to pay for college first. Then, me and my brother will build a ranch just like my parents and my grandparents,” Ryder said.
The couple who purchased Cupid Shuffle, Gary and Kathy Knox Buchholz, said they wanted to set a new sale record because it had been a long time since a Hereford won.
And making the moment even more special was a generational link between the two families.
In 1989, Katie Jo showed a Hereford steer at the Fort Worth Stock Show that was bred by Kathy Knox Buchholz’ father, George “Tee” Knox.
“This is something that God set in motion years ago. We can’t even wrap our minds around His plan,” she said. “But looking back, it all makes sense. Day Show Cattle’s slogan is ‘Work Hard, Win Big,’ and we’ve been breeding cattle for a long time now. So, it was just great to see all that hard work pay off and see my son win big.”