Submitted Photo Wyatt Harrington raised the grand champion market steer at the 4-H Youth Beef Cattle Show in July.

On July 23, Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Chautauqua County 4-H Beef Project held their beef steer and breeding show at the Chautauqua County Fairgrounds, Dunkirk. Judging the show were Bill and Walker Dunn from Cochranton, Pa.

The 4-H Beef Program offers two options for participants. Participants can raise a steer to sell at the Meat Animal Sale at the county fair and/or they can raise a beef heifer to show and possibly bring back with a calf by her side. All participants in this program attend meetings and gain knowledge about raising beef animals in preparation for showing them at our county fair. Animals can be unpredictable and are over 10 times the weight of their handlers. The participants have worked with their animals since last October and produced animals that behaved beautifully in the show arena.

The Grand Champion steer of 2021 was raised and shown by Wyatt Harrington of Stockton. He was also the Reserve Champion Beef Steer Showman. Reserve Champion Steer belonged to Lydia Covert of Lakewood. She also won Grand Champion Steer Showman. Highly Commended Market Steer belonged to Haven Karlson of Ashville and her sister, Hannah Karlson, raised the fourth place overall Commended steer.

In the Breeding classes, Corinne Covert of Lakewood won Grand Champion Heifer Showman and Lydia Covert of Lakewood won Reserve champion Beef Heifer Showman. Corinne Covert also won Supreme Female overall and is eligible to go to State Fair in August with her heifer to compete against entries from all of New York State. Lydia Covert’s heifer won Reserve Champion Female.

The Chautauqua County Beef Producers sponsor a show to encourage participants to purchase a beef animal from local county producers. Wyatt Harrington of Stockton won Champion Chautauqua County Born and Bred steer. He was followed by Haven Karlson of Ashville in second place, Hannah Karlson in third place, Parker Schauman of Ashville in fourth and Laine Carpenter of Falconer in fifth place. Each of the winners will receive a monetary award from the Chautauqua County Beef Producers.

The 4-H Youth Development Program is one of many programs offered by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County (CCE-Chautauqua). CCE-Chautauqua is a community based educational organization, affiliated with Cornell University, Chautauqua County Government, the NYS SUNY system, and the federal government through the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. For more information, call 716-664-9502 or visit our website at www.cce.cornell.edu/chautauqua. Cornell University Cooperative Extension provides equal program and employment opportunities.