By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Samantha VanVorhis and Buckles were the team that couldn’t be beat at the Cattlemen’s Congress in Oklahoma earlier this month.
Bowling Green native VanVorhis and the beautiful black Angus heifer SS Envious Blackbird 5022, affectionately known as Buckles, won the Supreme Champion Junior Female honor at the prestigious cattle show in Oklahoma City.
The spunky 20-month-old heifer had other wins under her halter, including 2023 division champion titles at the National Junior Angus Show, All-American Angus Breeders’ Futurity Junior and Open shows and at the Atlantic Nationals Junior Show. But at Cattlemen’s Congress she reigned supreme, VanVorhis said.
“That day was unreal from the moment that the judge shook my hand to when I walked out of the ring,” she recalled. “It all just finally happened. And while it may never happen again, I am extremely thankful that it did. It couldn’t have happened with a more unique, odd and quirky heifer like Buckles.”
She didn’t remember much from the time it was announced until she was surrounded by family and friends. “I just remember, I was a mess. I was hugging everybody and crying.”.
The win was especially meaningful because competing at a national show can be difficult for Angus livestock, VanVorhis said. Many competitors who “hold a lot of political pull” have been showing the breed with a standard look and structure for decades, she said.
“We finally got a piece of the pie. To get along at a national Angus show was a big deal for my family,” which includes her parents–Dean and Michelle Kranz VanVorhis and brother Marcus–and her show cattle family–Tyler, Cortney and Piper Cates.
The win was also somewhat of a surprise because Buckles is different for an Angus and for a show heifer, said VanVorhis, who is a freshman at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.
Buckles’ ability to combine structural correctness with an elite look is hard, particularly for Angus to possess,” she explained. “But it’s her unique parts that set her apart.”
The heifer is one of the sweetest, most affectionate animals VanVorhis has owned. But the heifer also “has this spunk like, ‘you don’t want to mess with me,’” VanVorhis said. “When it’s time to get down to business, she goes in that ring and she’s almost on autopilot. But we operate really well as a team. I genuinely believe that she may be one of the best heifers I’ve ever shown.”
That’s a bold statement given the number of heifers she has shown since she was seven years old. “I’ve been fortunate to have shown some elite and unicorn-like creatures. She is just something special,” VanVorhis said.
On Saturday, VanVorhis reported she and Buckles recorded another national show honor. They won the Open Angus Show at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo.
‘Buckles was our gal’
During the interview, VanVorhis described her beloved heifer with such love, but that love actually began long before she and the calf were in the show ring.
Born in May 2022, Buckles was the second-choice heifer calf when VanVorhis and her parents were selecting a heifer from the Cates Farm sale later that same year. They had been to the Modoc, Indiana, farm at least a half dozen times to look at calves before the September sale. It’s where they had been buying calves for at least six or seven years.
They had connected with the Cates family and trusted their operation. “They are some of the most genuine people I’ve ever met,” VanVorhis said. That year there were two heifers that she liked including Buckles, named by the Cates’ young daughter Piper.
The other heifer was first up in the sale. When the first one went for more than they wanted to pay, they decided they would buy Buckles. “I don’t know who was looking out for us that day, but it ended up Buckles was our gal,” she said.
Where it all began
VanVorhis grew up in Wood County much like her father, whose family owned the local John Deere dealership for two generations. Her mother, a local attorney who is the current president of the Ohio Bar Association, also had an agriculture background. She was raised on a farm in Clark County where she showed cattle and sheep. Agriculture was in the younger VanVorhis’s DNA.
Her livestock-showing fate was determined when she was five years old. She loved her eight-year-old brother’s first steer project, cutely named J.D. for the family’s connection to John Deere. Though J.D. was her brother’s 4-H project, she jointly claimed the steer.
A week before the county fair, the steer stifled himself which meant J.D. was “going to the good old pasture up in the sky,” VanVorhis said. Her parents told only Marcus about the steer’s fate.
“So when Samantha goes be-bopping out to the barn the next morning with her princess water bottle and hot pink muck boots only to find no J.D., she had a complete meltdown about not getting to say goodbye. It was the worst day ever,” VanVorhis relayed the story in third person.
“Needless to say, I think that was the day we realized that terminal projects were not going to be in my future,” she added. From the ripe age of five, her parents decided there would be no more market projects. It was only heifers for Samantha. That way the cows wouldn’t have to go to market after shows, and she could continue to see them in the family barn.
Her first official show was as a seven-year-old in the pee wee beef showmanship competition at the Wood County Fair.
She admitted trying every sport growing up from softball and dance to basketball. “Ultimately, I traded in all my sports gear for show cows, and I never really looked back,” she said.
By the time she was about 11 years old, when there was a conflict between the dates of the county and state fairs, the family decided it was too much work to do both, so they chose to compete at the state fair. That was also the year her heifer Star earned reserve champion honors at the state fair then went on to win the Keystone International Livestock Expo later that fall. “It was a whirlwind of a year” she recalled, and most likely the year she was truly hooked on being in the show ring.
“It’s an adrenaline rush unlike anything else I’ve ever felt. You’re not going to catch me jumping off a building or skydiving, but there’s something about walking into a show ring that is so exciting,” she said.
Livestock judging lessons paid off
In addition to the thrill of showing livestock, VanVorhis enjoyed the competition of livestock judging. She started at an early age on the Wood County Livestock Judging Team under the leadership of then-coach Dan Frobose and continued throughout high school, learning from coach Ivan Belleville.
“I owe a great deal to Ivan and Dan,” she said. “Picking out cattle is not like there is a beacon of light shining down on a particular cow in a pasture.” And I was stubborn, and I still am stubborn, but they found a way to get through to me, and I heard it loud and clear
Selection of animals requires many visits over time and a trained eye to know what comprises a sound show animal. Competing in livestock judging helped develop that skill for her.
“They really created a passion and fire in me for livestock judging that I don’t think my mom even expected. They’ve instilled in me how to look at, analyze and understand things like ‘these joints go together and long term they turn into this,’” she said. “I have a deep, deep connection and gratitude in those two men.”
She also is eternally grateful for the cadre of livestock people who have supported her throughout her journey. In addition to her own family, she acknowledged the Cates and Holley families.
“We go to cattle shows to show and have fun. Nobody goes because they want to lose, but at the same time, we go to shows because those are our people,” she explained.
Nick and Jamie Holley were early advocates for the VanVorhises, and none of the success would have happened without the Cates family, she said. They have provided stellar animals for showing over the years, but they have also been active partners along the way in supporting Samantha and her family.
“I would never be anywhere without the people that supported me. Who you choose to be around and surround yourself with is something you can control. I have the privilege of being surrounded with the best crew that there is. Period,” she said.
“My mom will tell you that we don’t have seven houses in four different countries,” she added. “We are not on a beach every other weekend, because our lake house is our cows. Our love is our cows. Our family time and our vacations are our cows, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
What’s up next
After showing in Fort Worth this weekend, Buckles’ heifer show career is technically over, VanVorhis said, though she could be eligible to make a run to Atlantic National as a cow-calf pair.
“But I’m not sure how that would go. You have to account for two bodies—the calf, which has no idea what’s going on, and the other (Buckles) which is hyper aware of everything that’s going on. That is a decision we will make later.”
After that Buckles will be put into production to sell “little baby Buckles,” VanVorhis said. “But Buckles is just good old “Baby Bucks.’ She is one-of-a-kind who has given me a once-in-a-lifetime experience that can never be replicated.”
For VanVorhis, who chose Oklahoma State for being “unapologetically ag,” she has no plans to leave agriculture. With a dual major in ag communications and ag business and a minor in political science, her long-term goal is to follow in her mother’s footsteps and earn a law degree, with her sights set on being an agricultural lobbyist.
“I’m a livestock kid. After showing cattle, talking is my second favorite hobby. When I saw that lobbyists were really boots on the ground, running around the Statehouse and talking to different people, I knew this is my thing,” she said. “This is the world I want to be in, to be able to advocate for people whose voices need to be amplified. That’s what I can see myself doing.”
