FEATURE | y o u t h
Taking Texas by storm Polk County Teen Wins Grand Champion Bull at Houston Show
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by TERESA SCHIFFER
AMID A SEA OF WELL-ESTABLISHED COMPETITORS, a Polk County teen stole the spotlight when she and her bull won Grand Champion Bull at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in Texas recently. In the hectic world of livestock showing, Houston is where the biggest and brightest come to make their mark. Exhibitors came from across the U.S. to show animals they’ve raised at the competition, billed as the world’s largest event of its kind. This year, Payge Dupre and her mother, Melissa Nichols, took a chance on showing an elegantly aging bull in the Houston show. It was a move that paid off with a shocking win that Nichols says is “pretty much like winning the Super Bowl.” Dupre, a junior at Lake Gibson High School in Lakeland, has spent her life surrounded by livestock and people who raise animals to show and sell. This has instilled in Dupre a deep appre10 | CFAN
ciation for agriculture and an affinity for working with livestock. At age 5, she started showing cattle herself. At school, 17-year-old Dupre is a member of the Agriculture Biotechnology program. She also serves as the 2022-23 FFA Chapter President. She says agriculture has been a part of her life for as long as she can remember. Her interest in livestock was piqued when as a young child she accompanied her mother to a ranch as she worked. Then her older brothers began showing market hogs and breeding heifers, further heightening her interest in working with animals. “I have learned many valuable life skills by raising and showing cattle,” Dupre says. “I have learned to be responsible, manage my time wise-
ly, and I have grown out of my shell within this industry. Getting to go out and meet new people at different shows gives me many connections that will be useful to me at some point in my life, if they haven’t already.” Dupre’s family has been involved in raising Brangus cattle for years. The breed is a cross between Brahman and Angus cattle that was developed about 1932. It is a highly desirable breed because the Brangus exhibits many superior traits of each parent breed, such as the general hardiness of the Brahman and the exceptional meat quality derived from the Angus. In 2013, a new derivative of the Brangus breed was officially recognized by the International Brangus Breeders Association, the Ultrablack®. The Ultrablack® is further breeding of Angus and Brangus cattle that results in an animal that must have between 50 and 87.5 Brangus genetics while the rest consist of registered Angus lineage. FloridaAgNews.com
