The Ag Department's 2026 Cattle Auction

0:00Welcome to this week in Criter College. An in-depth look into how Criter College students, faculty and staff are working together so students sort of new heights, communities are impacted and lives are changed. This week in Criter College is sponsored by the Law Offices of Wood and Peterson in NIO Show. Specializing in workers' compensation, personal injury, social security disability and more. Learn more online at NIOShowEternity.com. Now here's this week's edition of this week in Criter College. Hey there four states. This is Luke Taylor. Welcome to another episode of this week in Criter College and today we have on the program with us, Shana Eastep. She is the Ag Chair out there for the Department at Criter and Hey Shana, thanks for joining us once again here on KNIO. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. We really appreciate the opportunity to share about this fun event coming up. Yeah and it's coming up soon. It is the 13th annual CAF fundraiser auction and tell us what that's all about. So this is

1:01in cooperation with the Newton Macdonald County Cattlemen's Association. So these cattlemen in this area will rotate. So one cattleman a year will donate a CAF to the Criter Ag program and we keep it here on campus for a couple of months. We have our beef production class that's taught by Steven Pruitt. His class is out every day. They are pampering this heifer like she's a beauty queen. She's getting washed and fitted, blow dried out. She's had her hair dyed. Her feet are done. So she's quite the little drama queen out in the barn. But this CAF then we will take it to Joplin Regional Stockyards on April 1st for a live auction. So we have donors beforehand that will make contributions to this CAF auction and then the day of the event will have many cattlemen at the auction that will buy this CAF multiple times and donate that back to the Criter Ag department. Yeah so the way that works is like when they win that bid

2:03like they don't just take it home right then they just they give it right back to be auctioned off again but all that money that they have devoted toward that CAF toward it is going to be given basically as a donation to the Ag department. Yeah very thankful. Yeah and we're doing some really fun things with we've worked before with the CAF like we said it's the 13th year and they're very supportive of us. The CAF have gone out and gained some sponsors for us so we've got a great list of sponsors beforehand going into this project but we were able so far this semester or this year the school year we've given out 65 scholarships to students over $41,000 from things like the fundraisers like our rodeo and this CAF auction will really contribute to that also. Yeah I'm just astounded at the generosity that these organizations and people show to the Criter Ag department there and what they're doing is they're investing in

3:03that next generation of farmers and people in the Ag industry. Yeah supporting our students is just so critical. They're giving them opportunities to go and travel. We took 21 students to Costa Rica over Christmas break and experienced agriculture in Costa Rica and then today just today about an hour ago our PAS conference ended and they just rolled in from the National PAS conference and we took about 25 students to that conference so we're we're putting students in opportunities to just gain experiences and see things that they probably wouldn't have without the support of the community and these fundraisers. Can you tell us about some of those sponsors that a lot of names people might people might recognize from the area? Oh they will recognize these names. SNH Farm Supply, Joplin Regional Stockyards Farm Talk Magazine which is out of Kansas but reaches over like 40,000 agriculture people in this area. You bake equipment, a D.D. Farm and Feed, be an entire God'swick Spring, Superior

4:08Steel, the Red Angus Association is supporting a Hunky Spray Service, Fried Trailer, RTR cattle company that has four states motor complex. A new one is the 808 Ranch down on the Arkansas line and then Cornerstone Bank is also a sponsor for us. Wow and yeah so so many people coming together to make this happen and and also every year the the calf is donated by a local farmer is that right? Absolutely so this year it rotates through them but this year Dale Kunkel, Kunkel Farms has donated this bread Angus Hepper. She came to us when the snow was on the ground, cold, she's been in the barn, she's gained a lot of weight, she looks like a beautiful show heifer now so anybody's gonna be really lucky to win this heifer and take her back to their farm and you serve as a foundation animal for their herd. Yeah sounds like it. Well hey we

5:09just wish y'all the best in this event and and we've been speaking today with Shana Eastep and yeah if people if people from the public just want to attend and learn more about the program or just see what happens I guess it's open to the public. Absolutely open to the public. One of my vice presidents is going who doesn't really have an ad background is going to bring his daughters just to kind of watch and see the event and if you've never been to a calf auction it is loud it is quick it'll happen fast but it'll be a lot of fun. It's 11 o'clock on April 1st at Joplin Regional Stockyards. Yeah I remember going to those as a kid. I grew up on a farm and yeah it's a great experience for homeschool kids and all the people out there who might want to learn a little bit more about that process. It could be a good chance for them. If it's still and be quiet not raise your hands too much because you might accidentally bid on something and take home a random goat or donkey or a nice little red Angus heifer. Yeah I got in trouble a few times for that as a kid almost bought something. Yeah well all right well hey we just appreciate you joining us today Shana and let us

6:10know about that and just wish you all the best with your event. Thank you thanks for having me. Thank you for listening to this week in Crowder College. This week in Crowder College is sponsored by the law offices of Wood and Peterson in Neo Show. You can listen to this broadcast again by going online to katineo.org or to Crowder.edu. Tune in once again next week for another edition of this week in Crowder College on katineo 91.7 FM.