The first cattle to show in the CoBank Arena in the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Livestock Center at the National Western Stock Show were the Herefords of the Catch-a-Calf program. Anschutz is an ardent supporter of the program and a big fan of a burly Hereford, so it was fitting. She was ringside watching in her signature winter white with red lipstick, and I was proud to witness her watching kids and cattle on the turf.

“The Sue” is the largest agriculture building in the nation named in honor of a woman. As the shows on the green turf wound down over the week and the champions were named, more history was made. Save for the young man who exhibited the reserve champion market goat, every junior livestock champion and reserve champion was a young woman.

Sayde Allen from Elk City, Oklahoma, won the goat show for the third time and she’s the first exhibitor to win two species in the same year. A talented sophomore point guard, Allen made a trip back to Oklahoma for basketball practice Thursday evening before returning to Denver for Friday’s junior market livestock sale.

Cannon Reimann showed the champion market steer and was presented with the Nick Reimann Memorial traveling trophy, a beautiful bronze. The young woman from Ree Heights, South Dakota, was presented the trophy by her older brother, Croix, who won the trophy in 2024. The trophy is named in honor of the pair’s dad who was killed in a plane crash in 2014 and presented annually by their mom, Kyrstin Reimann-Doris and Nick’s parents, Barry and Nora Reimann.

Bailey Stromberger hails from tiny Iliff and is the only Colorado kid in the bunch. World champion auctioneer John Korrey, also from Iliff, wields the gavel at the junior sale and will certainly work hard to sell the hometown girl’s hog. The Stromberger girls have had great success in the show ring at various livestock shows and they’re easy to cheer for because they are really good kids.

Other young ladies who earned champion honors are Maria Frasch, Attica, Ind., who exhibited the grand champion market barrow

The market steer show utilizes a three-man judging committee and one of those men is also the first woman to judge the steer show in Denver. Kyndal Reitzenstein grew up near Kersey in the cattle business. She livestock judged successfully in college and ended her competitive career at Oklahoma State University before returning as an assistant coach. She coached under Dr. Blake Bloomberg, who was also on the Denver steer judge panel. He called it a full-circle moment before Reitzenstein went out and crowned the champion.

The champion and reserve Catch-a-Calf exhibitors, Kate Maricle, Albion, Nebraska, sponsored by Mike and Eva Pugh, and reserve champion was Brianna Hollingsworth from Cheyenne, Wyoming, sponsored by the Wyoming Elks Association added to the female-dominated junior show winners.

There are hundreds of other stories about fierce and capable women in agriculture and at the Super Bowl of Livestock Shows but these stories, fresh out of the multimillion investment in livestock shows in Denver are my favorites.

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication.