"Ain't Nothing Free": Earning an Education at the Houston Junior Market Steer Auction

Abstract

"Ain't Nothing Free":Earning an Education at the Houston Junior Market Steer Auction Rebecca Scofield (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution The 1943 Grand Champion steer of the Houston Fat Stock Show and Livestock Exposition (now known as Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo). Lieutenant R. B. Tate (left) and Elton Barton are shown with the champion steer at the Houston Fat Stock Show. The steer was owned by Warren Barton of Sweetwater, Texas. From Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, AR406-6-1705, University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Special Collections. [End Page 494] By the mid-2010s, attendees at the junior market steer auction at the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR) were greeted by the "Hall of Champions," a long processional of the remains of past champion steers, namely their hides displayed with matted photographs of the living steer and its young owner. For decades, young people ranging from ages eight to eighteen in 4-H or FFA (once an acronym for Future Farmers of America) have exhibited between 1,800 and 2,500 steers in front of a 75,000-person audience. Competing first in local fairs throughout Texas, these exhibitors are selected as local winners and potential state-wide champions. Each year, roughly 450 of them are selected to go to the champion auction the following morning. The HLSR has not staged an ordinary stock auction, however; it has instead been a space that, according to HLSR publicity, "reward[ed] young Texas 4-H and FFA students for their hard work year round."1 Like other charity auctions, bidders have vied for social status by buying high—far higher than market-value for these animals. By 2019, a Grand Champion stock raiser was guaranteed $75,000 and, if the auction went well, allowed to receive up to $85,000. (By comparison, at an average 4-H auction sellers might have received between $1,500 and $5,000 for a Grand Champion steer).2 [End Page 495] Over the past century, students who raised champion animals for agricultural clubs have committed a great deal of time to raising their animals. It has been standard for them to spend up to five hours with the animal before dawn and after dark feeding, bathing, grooming, and exercising them.3 The young stockmen and women who appeared in Houston's arena have been overwhelmingly White, scrubbed clean, and dressed in appropriate western attire. For decades, they have represented an idealized version of the state's agricultural past and many Texans' desired future. After the daylong auction, champion sellers kissed their animals goodbye. The animals underwent drug testing, were butchered, and given back to buyers as premium beef packages. Simultaneously, organizers in Houston worked hard to wall off the chaos of the holding pens and provide a comfortable viewing area. Spectators need a metal star-shaped badge to gain entry, thus limiting seating to serious buyers ready to bid hundreds of thousands of dollars. For their anticipated generosity, the Steer Auction Committee created a buyers' breakfast and ensured audience members were provided with complimentary alcoholic beverages by a predominately African American and Latinx waitstaff. Since the 1990s, the audience has routinely consisted of real estate moguls, local CEOs, and oil barons dressed in white cowboy hats and shiny boots, eager to support the educational dreams of young people. Funds beyond the award limit of $85,000 were funneled into the Educational Fund to be distributed among seven-hundred smaller scholarships—including scholarships through 4-H and FFA, as well as ones dedicated to "Metropolitan" and "Opportunity" students, increasing the number of beneficiaries of the program and flagging the organization's educational orientation and dedication to diversity. Founded with the goal of teaching young men (and later young women) better agricultural practices, the HLSR expanded in the mid-century to provide educational resources and saw exponential growth in scholarship donations in the early twenty-first century. Ultimately, the HLSR created a huge business out of providing funds for individuals to pursue an education. As of 2019, the show had committed more than $25 million to various scholarships, educational program grants, and graduate assistantships annually. This auction exemplified a...