July 12, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, contact:
Holly Martin, director of communications
816-383-5143
hmartin@angus.org
Contestants Receive Record Prices in Angus Junior Carcass Contest
The 2024 National Junior Angus Show carcass contest sets records for price and quality.
Junior Angus breeders served up a quality product at the 2024 National Junior Angus Association Carcass Contest and the market dished out a record price in return. Contestants received the highest price ever recorded in the Iowa/Minnesota region at $315/cwt. carcass base price.
“It is a historic time. It makes it fun for us to see a future in the beef business and in the Angus breed and to know that our product is in demand,” said Paul Dykstra, director of supply management and analysis for Certified Angus Beef and the tabulator of the contest.
That future includes the juniors participating in the contest who are being groomed to lead. Before putting their steers on the truck, the juniors attended an educational clinic.
“I have a better understanding of the grid and grading system of these cattle,” said Aubrey Herbers, who competed in the program for the fourth time. “As well as the entire process of our animals coming from home and making it to someone’s plate.”
It’s an ongoing lesson, Herbers’ mother, Wynn Dalton, hopes will help Herbers pay the bills one day. “This is the event where she can gain the most knowledge about how to bring sustainability and profitability to her life when she becomes an adult in the ag industry.”
Eleven juniors raised 14 steers for this year’s contest, held in conjunction with the National Junior Angus Show (NJAS) in Madison, Wisconsin, June 30-July 6. The show is put on by the National Junior Angus Association and the American Angus Assocation®.
The contest has a history of producing high-quality carcasses. So much so, Dykstra says, to separate the carcasses for ranking, they have added more striation to weight and yield grade on the contest grid.
This year was no exception to that quality, in fact, for the first time in the contest history the champion carcass achieved Certified Angus Beef® Prime, Yield Grade 1. The rare individual, exhibited by Owen Austrino of Dade City, Florida, achieved a $25/cwt. premium over the base carcass price. This is the second year in a row that Austrino has had the champion carcass.
“We have kids who are repeat contestants who have learned as they’ve gone,” said Dykstra. “They are selecting the right genetics to hit these carcass targets. Their management at home has improved over the years; it is spot on. It is fun to see the results and see them put into practice what’ve talked to them about during this process.”
As a group, 35% of the carcasses met the qualifications for Certified Angus Beef® (CAB®) Prime with the remainder classified as Choice or traditional CAB®. The total CAB® certification rate for the contest’s steers was 78%; more than double the industry average for brand-eligible cattle.
Contestants receive cash premiums on top of the market price paid by the processor thanks to the Angus Foundation’s Briarwood Angus Farms/Curtis and Ann Long NJAS Carcass Contest Endowment Fund. The Longs were firm believers in the value of carcass information. As part of the contest results, contestants also receive carcass data on their animals to make improvements to future selection and management decisions.
NJAS 2024 Carcass Contest Results:
Individual
1. Owen D Austrino of Dade City, Fla. | $383.36
2. Morgan David Eng of Fitchburg, Wis. | $380.56
3. Penelope Olivia Soto of Kyle, Texas | $376.38
4. Kye Lehenbauer of Palmyra, Mo. | $370.64
5. Kye Lehenbauer of Palmyra, Mo. | $357.44
6. Zoe Keegan Gurley of Sarcoxie, Mo. | $262.80
7. Andrew Jordan of Indianola, Iowa | $256.54
8. Addison Ward of Oak Grove, Mo. | $254.85
9. Cheyenne Houk of Blakesburg, Iowa | $223.92
10. Charles M Goodnight of Billings, Mo. | $215.46
11. Zoe Keegan Gurley of Sarcoxie, Mo. | $201.16
12. Aubrey West Herbers of Lynchburg, Va. | $189.97
13. Landon Witt of Union, Mo. | $177.70
14. Andrew Jordan of Indianola, Iowa | $138.71
Team
1. Missouri 2 | $314.51
Kye Lehenbauer
Kye Lehenbauer
Charles M Goodnight
2. Missouri 1 | $239.60
Zoe Keegan Gurley
Addison Ward
Zoe Keegan Gurley
3. Iowa | $206.39
Andrew Jordan
Cheyenne Houk
Andrew Jordan
*Price: Contest Grid Carcass Premium ($/head)
More information about the National Junior Angus Show can be found at NJAS.info.
— Written by Jessica Hartman, Angus Communications
About the National Junior Angus Association
The National Junior Angus Association (NJAA) promotes the involvement of young people in raising Angus cattle while also providing leadership and self-development opportunities for more than 4,500 active members nationwide.
About the Angus Foundation
Established as a 501(c)(3) organization in 1980, the Angus Foundation remains focused on its mission to support Angus education, youth, and research. The organization has distributed more than $4.2 million in youth scholarships since 1998 and has also invested more than $1.3 million in beef cattle research in the past decade. For more information, contact the Angus Foundation at 816-383-5100.
ANGUS MEANS BUSINESS. The American Angus Association® is the nation’s largest beef breed organization, serving more than 22,000 members across the United States, Canada and several other countries. It’s home to an extensive breed registry that grows by more than 300,000 animals each year. The Association also provides programs and services to farmers, ranchers and others who rely on Angus to produce quality genetics for the beef industry and quality beef for consumers.
For more information about Angus cattle and the American Angus Association, visit www.angus.org.
