First time Denver show participants earn title
By Heather Thorstensen
hthorstensen@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 02/09/2012 3:43 PM
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ARLINGTON, Minn.— A Minnesota family's Grand Champion at the 2012 National Western Stock Show is catapulting them to a new level of recognition among their peers.
"I kind of think we have the industry wondering who we are and where we came from because no one knows us at a national level yet," said Stacie Mueller of Mueller Farms from Arlington.
JSMF Flick of Glitter took the Grand Champion Purebred Simmental Heifer title on Jan. 18.
It was Jim and Stacie Muellers' first time exhibiting in Denver. They have been in the show cattle industry for about four years.
Stacie watched Dana Kuelbs of Grey Eagle lead the bred heifer in the show while giving a play-by-play over her cell phone to Jim. He had flown back to Minnesota the day before for his job. Jim works with Sibley County's highway maintenance department in addition to growing corn, soybeans, wheat and hay.
When the Grand Champion was picked, Stacie was met with cheers from her crew and congratulations from industry leaders.
"Thank God they wore their farm shirts, so I knew who was shaking my hand," she said.
Flicka, as the heifer is called, went into the show as the 2011 Minnesota State Fair's Grand Champion Purebred Simmental Female and the 2011 Minnesota Beef Expo's Supreme Champion Breeding Heifer.
"This was the first year that we won at the state level and at beef expo and that was all Flick of Glitter. She's the one that's done the most for us," Stacie said.
The Muellers came to own Flicka by purchasing her then-pregnant dam, HS Unity U334, at a sale in South Dakota. Their cattle partner, Erick Barberg, helped them select Unity.
They always knew Flicka was special by the way she carried herself, her structural soundness and her success at shows. The heifer blossomed with age, said Stacie, by staying fresh-looking even as her calf, set to be born in March, grows inside her.
"She knows when it's show day and show time, she just kind of flicks up her ears and knows," Stacie said.
Flicka left Denver with new owners.Kurt and Amy Steinbronn of Maynard, Iowa, and Erik and Bridget Arthur of Mason City, Iowa, bought her for $25,000 during a National Western Jan. 16 Simmental Sale.She was the second-highest selling bred heifer in the sale, said Stacie.
Flicka will have her calf and be shown as a cow-calf pair at shows such as the Iowa State Fair.The Muellers reserved the right to a flush of her embryos.
Of the Muellers' engraved awards, banner, ribbons and a yet-unknown amount of premium money, perhaps their biggest prize is the increased interest in their breeding program.
Stacie has received calls with photo requests from Select Sires —owners of Flicka's sire, SS Ebonys Grandmaster —and the company that makes Flicka's feed so they can promote their connections with a Denver champion.
"I've gotten an increase in e-mails from people from our website, including a recent e-mail from Canada for a certain cow for sale," said Stacie.
Jim and Stacie started their herd with a few Simmental heifers in 2000. They bought their farm in 2007 and purchased the foundation for their registered seedstock operation in 2008. In 2010, they began selling embryos.
Focus has shifted now to their new calf crop. Their 80-head cow-calf herd includes some cattle owned by Jim's parents, Jerry and Judy Mueller, who farm nearby.
The family is also getting ready for cattle and embryo sales, including the Minnesota State Simmental Sale in Rochester on Feb. 25.
"We've got three open heifers and one bull and a package of embryos that we're selling at the sale," said Stacie.
They sell embryos online through Breeders' World in the Fall Freeze and Spring Thaw sales. They have private treaty sales off the farm. Four bulls will sell in March at the Troy Thomas Ranch in South Dakota.
Stacie, who works part-time as a surgical nurse at Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia, saysher family enjoys exhibiting cattle because it's a chance to take a break from their farm, be among others in their industry and teach their sons, Jordan, 9, and Joey, 6, about work ethic.
"Our farm motto is wish, hope, dream then make it happen," she said, "so I think we just lived up to our motto...we all feel really blessed."