Chianina in the U.S. Part Two - Sales, Shows & National Steer Awards

The fledgling group of Chianina breeders in the U.S. began having sales of breeding stock early on, and soon were holding regional sales and then national sales. The first public sale of Chianina genetics was at Schearbrook Land and Livestock’s, Ozark, Missouri division in April 1972. This sale, like others that followed in 1972 and early 1973, consisted mostly of beef and dairy females bred to Italian Fullblood Chianina sires. The first exclusively Italian Fullblood Chianina sale in the U.S. was hosted in Dallas, Texas, on July 31, 1976 by Walter G. Mize’s Ranches at Cleburne, Texas and Pass Cattle Company in Dallas, Texas.

The first ACA National Sale was held September 8, 1973 at the Downtown Hilton Inn, Kansas City, Mo. ACA members nominated half-blood Chianina heifers in early 1973 with Dr. Jack Phillips screening the 55 females for this initial sale. The high seller was one of the earliest bred half-blood heifers in the U.S.; a safe-in-calf Diaceto I x Santa Gertrudis consigned by Italian White Cattle Breeders, Tannehill Ranch. She was bought by Twin Wheels Chianina for $27,000. The sale averaged $6,322 in front of an audience of nearly 1,000 people.

For the next 3 years the ACA regions hosted summer field day shows where halter-broken ACA registered heifers were shown and judged with ACA National and Regional sale candidates selected. For those regions not having sufficient numbers of nominated animals to hold field days, ACA staff members made on-farm selections.

John Coble, now 87, has been involved with Chianina cattle for 53 years and recalls working with those early sales. “I was one of the first breeders in this country; when the first semen became available from Italy, I bought some. When Jack Phillips was hired by the ACA, he hired me to help with sales,” John says.

One of the problems he dealt with was temperament of some of the cattle. “Sam Barr had a sale in Denver and the cattle were so wild that one jumped out of the sale ring and broke a leg. We had 4 or 5 regional sales that first year and I went to every one of those sales and managed them. After what happened with the animal that broke its leg, one of the criteria for bringing cattle to a sale was that if you can’t handle them, you can’t bring them. Jack Phillips said, ‘Never again!” John recalls.

“Then we had several national sales. Richard Koonce was one of the ACA staff members from 1972 through 1980. He and I put thousands of miles on the ACA car – a new Fiat that Jack Phillips bought. We went from farm to farm to look at cattle that were nominated for the national sale at Louisville. We practically drove the wheels off that little car!” Linda Work and Alice Burney worked in the ACA office for many years and did the registrations. They traveled with Richard and John to sales and kept all the books.

“There were a lot of really good bulls being used during those early years,” says John. “Ferrero, Friggio, Faletto and Lombard were great bulls. I raised some Fullbloods myself at that time. Breeders were having sales and sending cattle to the national sales. Richard and I were doing a lot of traveling and accepting cattle for those sales. The number one thing we checked for was temperament. Jack Phillips told me we couldn’t judge the cattle for people, but we could judge their disposition and we never did have another accident due to disposition,” he says.

He says one of the problems with disposition sometimes was the way the cattle were being handled. “It occasionally got out of hand because some of the guys at the sale barns would hit them with hot shots just to see if they could jump fences; they thought that was fun. That sure didn’t help, and we had to sort through some of that. When I went to work later at Willow Oak we had a bunch of wild ones and started culling hard. For 33 years we had zero tolerance for bad disposition and now we don’t have any wild cattle. It just takes selection, in any breed,” he says.

“Those early years, however, were an interesting time in my life because I’d never managed shows but I became a manager pretty quick!” John says.

The 2nd ACA National Sale was one of the highlights of the inaugural 1974 North American Livestock Exposition (NAILE), in Louisville, Ky. The sale offering was comprised of heifers that were 50% and 75% Chianina. Subsequent ACA National Sales conducted under this selection process were held at the 1976 Southwestern Stock Show in Fort Worth, Texas, and the 1976 American Royal in Kansas City, Mo. These two sales included the first sales of Italian Fullblood Chianina originating from Canada.

Beginning at the 1977 NAILE, the ACA had an Open Show for all ACA members. Breeders were encouraged to pre-nominate sale cattle selected from the Open Show entrants. The first sale was topped by the Grand Champion Purebred (Fullblood) Female, Logga White Lily I, purchased by Kohler Farms, Kohler, Wisc., for $18,000.

National Steer Awards

In 1974 the ACA Board began a National Steer Show Award program. At a few nationally chosen shows, the grand champion steer over all breeds, if it was a registered Chianina, was awarded $5,000. This was the highest steer show prize money ever awarded by an American breed association. Eligible shows the next few years were the International Livestock Exposition in Chicago; the American Royal in

Kansas City, Mo.; the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colo.,; the North American Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Ky.; the Southwestern Stock Show in Fort Worth, Texas; the Grand National Exposition (Cow Palace) in San Francisco, Calif.; AK-SAR-BEN in Omaha, Neb.; and the Eastern National in Timonium, Md.

From 1975 to 1980 - the ACA presented twelve $5,000 steer awards to steer owners. That’s $60,000 awarded during those years!

Richard Koonce says 1975 was the breakout year for Chianina-sired market show steers. “Chianina steers captured championships at 7 state fairs. Jeff Gropper, Grinnell, Iowa was the first exhibitor to receive the ACA $5,000 National Steer Award for his American Royal grand champion. This was the first ‘clean sweep’ of the other national show with grand champion winners by Kraig Schilder, Malcom, Iowa (North American); Greg Gruhn, Lanark, Ill. (Chicago International); and Greg Hilbert, Algona, Iowa (1976 National Western). From these 1975-76 winners – until the program was discontinued in 1980 – the ACA presented twelve $5,000 steer awards to steer owners.”

The ACA National Steer Award program ignited interest in using Chianina semen on other breeds – mostly Angus or Herefords. “Italian Fullblood semen was first used, then more black percentage Chianina/Chiangus sires as the 1970s progressed. This ACA national program greatly increased interest in the Chianina breed, spawning an entirely new energized club calf industry,” says Koonce.

“At the 1973 Chicago International Expo, a pen-of-5 half blood Chianina x Angus steer calves bred and owned by Rocking J Ranch and Vic Gentry, Cody, Neb., were grand champions of the feeder calf show. Another half-blood Chianina x Angus pen entered by Duane Exline and Lavern Massman, Exline, Iowa, were reserve champions. Chianina-sired steers throughout the 1970s and beyond dominated feeder calf shows at the Chicago International, North American, American Royal, the National Western and Arizona National shows,” he says.

A strong club calf market was created for Chianina-sired steer calves led by nationally recognized cattlemen including Jerry Adamson, Rocking J Ranch and Larry Hollers, Cody, Neb.; Fred and Mike Hartman, Wood River and Tecumseh, Neb.; Ty Hullinger, Harris, Mo.; Gib Yardley, Beaver, Utah; Knic Overpeck, KO Cattle Company, Clinton, Ind.; Horsley Brothers, Toulon, Ill.; Jack Stoltz Exotics, Elgin, Neb.; the Dick Carlson Family, Mile High Chianina, Denver, Colo.; Hilbert Bros., Algona, Iowa; Lautner Farms, Jefferson, Iowa; Paul Clapp, P Bar C, Searsboro, Iowa; Bobbie May, Mineral Point, Wisc.; Charles J.

Burk, Panhandle, Texas; Jensen Cattle Company, El Reno, Okla.; Howard King, Holly, Mich.; and Jeff Miller, Cutler, Ind..

National Shows…

At the 1977 North American International Exposition the first ACA open cattle show was established. “It remains the annual ACA National Show, these last 45 years. The original show drew over 300 entries divided into 2 divisions – Percentage Chianina (1/4 to 3/4 Chianina) and Purebred Chianina (7/8th to Italian Fullblood). Over many years several different show division methods have been utilized reflecting the ACA members’ breeding and marketing endeavors,” Koonce says.

In conjunction with the 1978 and 1979 ACA National Shows, the first ACJA Junior Heifer Shows were held. The 1980 ACJA heifer show was at the Missouri State Fairgrounds, and these annual ACJA Junior Heifer Shows were held yearly at varying show venues across the country.

The first state fair open show was held at the 1978 Missouri State Fair in Sedalia. Next was the Southwest Region Show that Fall during the Texas State Fair in Dallas, Texas. Moving into the early 1980s, other state fair open shows were started at the Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Nebraska and Ohio state fairs.

“In 1982 at the National Western Stock Show, ‘On-theHill’ Open and Junior Heifer Shows were established. Another popular national show venue for ACA members hosting similar breeding cattle shows is held during the Southwestern Stock