Mon, 17 Oct 2022 17:04:36 CDT
The inaugural Oklahoma Best Beef Competition, a part of the 2022 Stockyards Steak Out was held over the weekend in Oklahoma City at the Oklahoma National Stockyards and brought out plenty of tasty steaks from local producers into two categories: People's Choice and The National Judges Award. Beef Producers were teamed with local dignitaries to cook their best steaks and offer up samples to the public. Governor Kevin Stitt, Debbie Harrison, Larry Stein, Jay Steagall, Bailey Ballou, and several others were on hand to help with the preparation of the steaks.
The champion as determined by the a team of national judges was Oklahoma Beef Market LLC of Hulbert, Oklahoma. The People's Choice Award was presented to 4T Ranch Beef of Agra, Oklahoma.
After the event, Farm Director KC Sheperd caught up with Mariah Reimer, the Foundation coordinator at Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association. She said this event was the brainchild of Oklahoma National Stockyards President Kelli Payne. Payne has been hosting a State Cookoff Association Event for the past few years. They wanted to come up with an event in which the Oklahoma Cattlemen's foundation could be the beneficiary of the event. This means every entry fee from the National competition comes to the foundation andgoes straight to scholarships and educational opportunities for students who are going to better the agricultural industry, "She came to me she said, how do we benefit Oklahoma? How do we benefit these producers? And that's where this event came to life. How do we take cattle producers to the next level? How do we go directly to the consumers and give people options? Go Local. Go Oklahoma, support local, Oklahoma beef."
Since this was the first time for the event, Reimer said they only took ten finalists to see how the competition would go, "We had such a positive response. The people came out for the people's choice. National sanctioned judges judging Oklahoma Beef and blown away by their product compared to national steak competitors is just phenomenal when you think about it."
Producers came from all across the state, and Reimer said the Steak Out offered all types of steak, "It's all across the board, and that's what we wanted, Local Oklahomans to experience. Some are grass-fed, and some are grain fed, come see, educate yourself, and learn about the different varieties. It's not just a hamburger; it's not just a steak. For these producers, this is their livelihood. So they poured everything they know into it, and it shows through every piece of sample steak today, and just a phenomenal job by every single one of those people."
Reimer said the National judges were very impressed by what Oklahoma producers were serving and the story of each producer, "That's what makes them unique, their story, every time people walked out they said, "wow, this is what Oklahoma is serving our consumers, this quality of steak."
Reimer said next year would be even bigger and better, "We're hoping to open it up. We've had many calls, many producers wanting in on this, and many sponsors wanting in on this. We had phenomenal sponsors, but we're hoping to open it up to as many as we can handle. We really want to build this and make it its own competition. Fill the entire Stockyard and get as many producers and let's promote them as much as we can. And let's really educate the public and allow them to show what Oklahoma producers are made of and what they're working day in and day out to do."
This event coincided with the Stockyard Stampede, with events for the whole family taking place in the stockyards throughout the day.
National Judging Awards went to:
1) Oklahoma Beef LLC, Hulbert
2) Grasslands Wagyu, Tuttle
3) Diamond H Cattle Company, Pryor
Winners of the People Choice Award went to:
1) 4T Ranch Beef, Agra
2) Piguets Prime Time, Vinita
3) Cowgirl Beef, Ft. Cobb
