Grand Prize Giveaway Recipients Win Big at Angus Convention
Angus breeders and beef industry enthusiasts headed West for the 2022 Angus Convention in Salt Lake City, and a few came home with prizes in tow. A highlight of the annual event, attendees packed the stands in the Priefert Cattle Demo Area hoping to take home one of two grand prize giveaways. Two lucky participants left the convention with new tools to help explore their operations’ potential.
The first name called was Julia McPeake of Georgia, who went home with a John Deere XUV835M gator, valued at $19,469. "Nothing runs like a Deere," and McPeake and her family can experience that in her new Gator, complete with a three-person cock pit, power steering, a 54-horsepower engine, 2,000-pound towing capacity, 1,000-pound cargo box capacity and speeds up to 45 mph. Daily chores and other ranch work will soon be a breeze, thanks to this gracious donation from John Deere.
"We have two young children who are also very involved in our operation and showing livestock, and our farms are kind of piecemeal — we have some property in different places," McPeake said. "The opportunity to have something to help make that process of feeding cows and getting the kids to one place or the other is quite awesome and I feel very blessed."
Working cattle will become stress-free for Robert Kuntz of Ohio as he installs a Priefert and Datamars Complete Cattle Handling System, valued at $42,244. The extensive package features a solid sweep with a straight working alley, adjustable to one of four widths, leading to a Priefert Model S04 Squeeze Chute. The set-up is completed by a Tru-Test by Datamars complete weight and water management solution, electronic identification (EID) reader, and WaterWell 2 automatic waterer. Not only will Kuntz be able to work cattle more safely, but more efficiently as well.
"It’ll be a game changer," Kuntz said. "Right now, we’re just set up with a basic chute system. To be able to capture weights and fully utilize EID tags to record data will be really nice."
Giveaway sponsors Priefert, Datamars and John Deere helped make it possible for these two Angus breeders to explore their potential well beyond convention.
