Aksarben
BEYOND THE BACKDROP
final year in Minnesota 4-H, where I’ve shown beef, sheep, and swine over my 4-H career. I was also a member of the State Champion Jackson/Redwood Counties General Livestock Judging Team in 2018, which led me to compete at the Aksarben and North American International Livestock Exposition judging contests. After completing my college education, I plan to continue raising and selling show steers with the goal of helping exhibitors across the country become better people and better showmen. When Bojack was purchased from Wade Rodgers last fall, we planned to show him at my last Minnesota State Fair 4-H Show. With the cancellation of the Minnesota State Fair, our plan for Bojack changed in an instant. We re-racked and changed our game plan to show him at Aksarben. Somewhere along the way, we decided to also exhibit him at the Minnesota Youth Livestock Exposition (MYLE), which served as a replacement for our state fair junior shows. Bojack earned Third Overall Market Steer at the MYLE and gave us a little burst of encouragement before needing to reload and dial him in for Aksarben. The five weeks between MYLE and Aksarben were HUGE for Bo; he was finally able to hair-up and mature. The week leading
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My name is Thomas Netzke , I am 19 years old and currently a sophomore at Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kansas. Although being a few hours south of home (eight to be exact), I still help my family operate Netzke Show Cattle in Lamberton, Minnesota. My family consists of my wonderful parents, Glen and Caroline, and two spectacular older siblings, Paige and Christian. Together, we run a herd of roughly 100 cows with the sole purpose of raising show cattle through AI and embryo transfer. Although we do dabble in breeding for purebred heifers, it’s undeniable that club calves are my family’s passion. Our family holds two online sales each year-- our Annual Online Fall Sale in late-September, which is when we sell our steers and market-type heifers, and the Divas at Dusk Sale in late-October for our breeding females. I recently completed my 14th and
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