Central Texas teen with track record of success takes big prize at Friday’s steer show
After two days and a parade of animals, the dust has cleared at the historic Will Rogers Coliseum, and a grand champion has been crowned at this year’s Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo Junior Steer Show.
The big winner was Mattison Koepp, 16, from La Vernia, with her steer Alley Cat, an American Crossbreed. Koepp was the reserve junior champion in 2024, when her prize steer sold for upwards of $200,000. Alley Cat will likely fetch nearly twice that much, if not more, at Saturday’s Junior Sale of Champions auction.
Fort Worth-based insurance company Higginbotham bought last year’s Grand Champion steer for $340,000.
Each year, kids come to Fort Worth from all over the state — Austin and San Antonio, Anahuac and Muleshoe, places large and small — with steers in tow and the same dream in mind: to get that subtle nod, that one word from the judge, under whose hawk-like gaze they present their cattle for scrutiny.
It’s that drama that makes the Junior Steer Show one of the stock show’s undisputed highlights. This is the time to shine for youngsters who have long forsaken sleep and free time in the hopes of raising a champion steer.
The journey begins the summer before the show. That’s when school-age participants in 4H and FFA programs in Texas select their calves. Over the months that follow, the kids will rise before dawn to feed and walk their steers, then repeat the process in the evening before heading in for dinner, hitting the sack and doing it all over again the next day.
Brooke Rollins, who is nominated to serve as U.S. secretary of agriculture, attended this year’s show, just as she has many times before. She said the rigors of raising steers are intense, but that’s what makes it such a valuable experience for the young men and women who participate.
“This is where leaders are made,” Rollins said.
Rollins grew up in Glen Rose showing animals, so she speaks from experience. She also speaks as a parent. Her son, Jake, showed his steer on Thursday, and her daughter has shown animals in previous years.
“I am the biggest fan of this show, as a Texan and as a mom,” said Rollins. “Nothing does more to form a kid’s character. The wins are amazing, but you learn more from the losses — and there are a lot more losses.”
Nearly 1,600 kids showed steers at the 2025 Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo. Broken up by breed and divided into weight classes, the animals were guided through the gate and onto the red dirt at the coliseum where their young handlers took great pains to pose them just right while judge Mark Hoge, an associate professor of animal science at Western Illinois University, examined each one.
There’s an art to identifying prize-worthy cattle. Hoge looks at the dimensions of each steer, height and width, and pays special attention to the stance. The head must be high, the feet body-width apart, sometimes with one rear hoof slightly behind the other. Posing steers for judging is a nuanced process, but the goal is to make your animal look as stout and well built as possible. These steers are headed for the butcher shop, so the auction price is determined by how much cuttable, edible meat they’ll likely yield.
At this level, there are usually minute differences between animals that make the cut and those that don’t. Maybe a steer is powerfully built up top but missing something down low. “Needs a little more foot bone,” said Hoge of one that was passed over. Others are a little too narrow, or don’t have what Hoge calls “horsepower” — the strength and surefootedness to progress to the next round.
Ten steers are chosen from each weight class as finalists, with the top two moving on to the final judging. When those ten are selected, cheers ring out from the coliseum grandstands, for these animals are all but guaranteed to attract $20,000 to $30,000 at auction.
Just like the steers, the kids showing them stand nervously at attention during the judging, gently coaxing their animals into the right position. Once in a while, a steer will break loose, causing the presenters to tense up. In a way, the animals are like 1,200-to-1,500-pound puppies, playful and energetic, and one pulling free from his handler can cause a chain reaction.
Like most other days for these young cattle raisers, show day begins early. The kids who present at 8 a.m. are up by 4 a.m. to shampoo, brush and harness their steers. The judging itself takes hours, with wave after wave of steers entering the arena until mid afternoon, when the overall champion is crowned.
With media and well wishers surrounding her after her win, Mattison Koepp appeared awestruck. She’d worked hard to get to that point, under the bright lights, and a bittersweet payoff was coming — bittersweet because she’d have to part with her cherished steer at the following day’s auction.
For now, Koepp gets to bask in the glow of a hard-earned championship. At least for a little while, then it’s back to the barn and back to work.
This story was originally published February 7, 2025 at 5:06 PM.