Welcome to my website. My name is Jordan and Jackpot is a Simbrah steer that is my Agricultural Science's class project for next year. We bought Jackpot from Mr. Carlos Guerra of the La Muneca Ranch in Linn, TX. We named him Jackpot because he is out of a bull by the name of Full House and we decided to stay with the poker theme. Jackpot has just recently been weaned, branded (ouch!) and castrated (ouch, ouch!) and as of 5/1/09 is in my possession at his new home, the school's Ag Farm.
Here are two pictures of him at 3 months of age when we saw him for the first time:
This photo was taken on 3/13/09:
This photo which was taken on 4/26/09, just days before we picked him up at La Muneca Ranch:
(Doesn't he look great?)
Jackpot was one of the first calves we saw that Saturday morning that my Dad and I went to visit La Muneca Ranch. As soon as I saw him I knew that he was going to be one of my favorites. I really liked his coloring and painted markings but I know that a pretty hide alone does not make for a good show steer. The fact that he has good muscling, a wide and straight back, a nice long body and is very sound means that he has what it takes to become a top quality show steer someday if he stays healthy and is fed right.
As much as I liked Jackpot, I knew that we had many more calves to look at that morning. Therefore I decided to wait until I had seen the others before deciding which one I liked the best. We saw a lot of really nice calves in the next hour or two that we were at La Muneca, but we didn't see any that even came close to beating out Jackpot as my first choice. My Dad really liked him too so after going home and discussing it with my Mom, we decided to go ahead and buy him as my first show steer.
Here is a photo of Full House (Jackpot's father):
(Move mouse over photo to see a photo of Jackpot's mother.)
Even before I had had a chance to touch Jackpot, my Dad and I had already decided that I will be showing him at the Star show in Edinburg next year instead of the Rio Grande Valley Livestock show in Mercedes. Not only do more of the entries make the sale at the Star show than they do at the RGV Livestock show, but several Simbrah breeders (including La Muneca Ranch) donate additional prize money to the Star show which is awarded to the Simbrah winners.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Carlos Guerra of La Muneca Ranch for taking the time to show me and my Dad around his ranch and for giving us the opportunity to purchase Jackpot from him. Mr. Guerra has awesome cattle and the best junior programs anywhere to help young people like myself own and show steers, heifers and bulls. If you would like to know more about La Muneca Ranch, their cattle and their junior programs, you can visit their website by clicking on the photo of Mr. Guerra and his grandson Carlos III (who they call “Tres”) below.
I am looking forward to the challenge of raising a show steer and hopefully I'll be able to get Jackpot to reach his full potential by the time the STAR Show comes around. If you'd like to see his progress over the days, weeks and months leading up to the show, check back here often to see how he's doing.
Click on the buttons below to visit my pig's website, the STAR Show website and my Dad's photography website. My Dad is the official photographer of the STAR Show.
