Tracy GoreTska:
A Combination
Macey, Cash, Mandi and Tracy Goretska
of Passion, Knowledge, & Skill
Spend a few minutes with Tracy Goretska and you will discover he has a passion for what he does. In addition, he has the knowledge and has developed the skills that have made Goretska Show Steers a leading supplier of champion show steers across the Midwest. Tracy, his wife Mandi, and their children, Macey and Cash, live in Corydon, Iowa, which is about an hour south of Des Moines. Corydon has always been home for Tracy, as he grew up on his family’s cattle operation that included Chianina cattle and a backgrounding operation. Like most Midwestern farm kids, he participated in showing as a youngster. “I showed steers at the county level, as well as the Iowa State Fair and the American Royal. I enjoyed working with my steers and everything about the barn, especially on show day. I can’t say that I was competitive at the state and national level, but it opened my eyes to the scope of the club calf industry and a dream to make this my career,” he explains.
After graduating from high school in 1987, Tracy began finding work clipping and fitting cattle for various sales. He was also making himself a student of the business by studying the steers that won, and the genetics behind them. In 1992, he began buying and selling a few show steers. Today, Goretska Show Steers annually markets about 175 head, including those raised from their 40 head of Chi x Mainecross females.
Today, Goretska Show Steers annually markets about 175 head, including those raised from their 40 head of Chi x Maine-cross females.
234 January/February 2013 • theshowcircuit.com
Years ago, he started selling calves with Barry Nowatzke in Indiana. They held a sale together for three years. October 1997 was the first annual Goretska Show Steers sale in Iowa, and it has continued every fall. In addition to the annual sale, Tracy and Wade Rodgers have an online
By Martha Hollida Garrett
sale through Breeders World every November. Tracy travels throughout the Midwest every spring, searching for and buying the calves he believes his customers will want and, more importantly, have success with in the show ring. “I travel with and partner on several calves with Wade Rodgers. There are a lot of great cattle across the Midwest. South Dakota, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska, along with Iowa, have great cattle producers where we find sale calves. We usually buy the calves straight off the cow, bring them home, get them through the weaning process and begin preparing them for the sale. We put them on a solid nutritional plan, clip and halter break and get them ready for the sales,” Tracy explains. Their calves have attracted a geographically large and loyal customer base. “We annually market calves to customers from California to New York and all points between. We have many repeat customers. We have families who purchased from us for their first child and