The 75th San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo opened Thursday on the grounds of the Frost Bank Center and Freeman Coliseum.
Organizers expect 1.5 million visitors through Feb. 25th, including professional cowboys and cowgirls competing for large cash prizes.
The livestock program this year, including auctions, is expected to generate more than $12 million in scholarship money for 18,000 students across Texas. Last year, 18-year-old Ashton Floyd of Denver City, Texas sold her grand champion steer named Travis for $160,000 to pay for college.
Beefmaster cattle, not sold as part of the junior stock show for scholarship money, are also auctioned off to ranching operations during the run of the stock show and rodeo.
Longtime auctioneer Anthony Mihalski of China Grove owns an auctioneering company that bears his name and oversees an auction of Beefmaster cattle at 10:30 a.m. this Saturday, Feb. 10, known as the "San Antonio Rose Classic."
Mihalski said he and many auctioneers went to auction school to become good at their craft. He said naturally fast talkers don't necessarily make the best auctioneers. Mihalski said a good auctioneer has a good "chant."
"You know, my chant...I try to do something so that people understand the numbers," he said. "A chant involves filler words, which is just taking up space, and repeating the numbers so that people know the bid that you have on the animal versus the bid that you're asking for on the animal."
Some of the cattle on the grounds are not for sale but are rather used for education, such as the Longhorns from the Bandera area Cross T Ranch, owned and operated by Russell Tiner.
One of the Longhorns named "Vevo" is a body double for "Bevo," the mascot of the University of Texas in Austin. Tiner earns some revenue from loaning out Vevo for gatherings for Longhorn fans when Bevo is all booked up.
"We'll take him to Austin, do some tailgate parties because Bevo has so many engagements. So, they'll call me and we'll bring Vevo, which is kind of cool," Tiner said.
One of the biggest draws at the stock show and rodeo each year is the pig race shows held six times a day with three races inside each show. Zack Johnson's Swifty Swine Racing Pigs produces the races.
He said some of the race pigs are named for celebrities and some pigs race in collegiate school colors, and alumni from the schools in the stands are encouraged to cheer them on.
"We've got Kevin Bacon, Brad Pig," Johnson said. "We're doing a Big 12 SEC Shootout with Texas and A&M and all of those and we're working on getting Taylor Swift and Patrick Mahams in here soon. And then, possibly Victor Hambenyama and Gregg Porkavich."
The two Spurs must be honored.
Another big attraction is right next door to the pig races — the Muttin' Bustin' tent — where kids wear crash helmets to see how long they can straddle bucking mutton.
There are carnival rides and games and dozens of food, beverage, and retail vendors on the grounds.
Rick Phemister owns Heads or Tails Hats out of Haskell, Texas. He said they have thousands of cowboy hats to sell and he sounds proud to do it.
"Most people don't know that a cowboy hat is the most recognizable piece of apparel in the world," he said. "I mean you can go anywhere in Africa or the Sahara Desert or wherever and they recognize what a cowboy hat is."
Phemister said bigger brims is the current trend in cowboy hats. And he does not really follow the Labor Day rule some cowboys follow.
After Labor Day, straw hats are supposed to replaced with felt hats with the arrival of cooler weather. But Phemister said with big swings in temperatures in Texas, he switches back and forth more often.
Food vendors sell hamburgers, chicken tenders, tacos, hot dogs, corn dogs, barbeque, fried foods, turkey legs, roasted corn, funnel cakes, and more.
The concert series is another crowd pleaser during the stock show and rodeo. Concerts featuring country and rock stars follow the rodeo competitions held each day.
