Everything was big at the Flint Hills beef fest, even the steak grill
By Bobbi Mlynar
Monday, August 18, 2008
Three crews of cooks needed only about two hours and three monstrous grills to cook about 1,000 K.C. strip steaks Saturday night for the crowd at the wrap-up dinner and program for the first round of this year’s Beef Fest at the Anderson Building on the Lyon County fairgrounds.
“We’re kinda picky about the way we cook ’em,” said Dale Putman, as he maneuvered about 100 14-ounce steaks through the assembly line on the grill. “We roll them four times, and by the time they’re down there, they’re medium.”
“Down there” was 14 feet away, at the end of the grill Putman had made specially for the Beef Fest cooking. Below the grill, six large bagsful of charcoal briquettes flamed and sizzled as steak juices dripped on the coals. The finished steaks were loaded into insulated containers and set aside to serve later, with baked potatoes and other side dishes.
“You start eating that, you can kind of forget about the potatoes, you can forget about the other stuff,” Putman said, laughing.
Beef Fest volunteers had hauled in 15 cases of steaks that had been aged at the Olpe Locker; earlier in the day, they’d brought in 1,000 hamburgers processed at the Allen meat locker to give away to the crowd attending the Blues and Barbecue events held in conjunction with Beef Fest.
The annual event celebrates the cattle industry in the Flint Hills, with seminars, weighing and judging of cattle fresh off bluestem grass, the awards dinner and program, ranch rodeo, cow-chip throwing contest, cow-mugging, and a golf tournament.
This year, 34 pens of steers and 31 pens of heifers — three animals to a pen — were entered in the judging. To ensure a level playing field, all had been taken 107 days before to the Highland Ranch southwest of Olpe. On Thursday, they were judged on their grass gains, then shipped to the Irsik and Doll Royal Beef feed lot in Scott City for about 120 days of finishing, Putman said. After slaughter, they will be graded and ranked, and another set of awards will be given for the top carcasses.
Earlier in the day, awards had been given for the Ninth Annual Blues & Barbecue competition held in conjunction with Beef Fest.
Although Beef Fest primarily is for men and women in the cattle industry, on Friday night and Saturday, the fairgrounds was crowded with townspeople looking over the displays, watching barbecue contestants prepare their entries, and taking part in activities that gave the event a festival air.
The Emporia Recreation Commission also brought its Corporate Challenge washers event to the fairgrounds to add to the entertainment.
Joe Michaels, Cable One manager and chairman of the barbecue event, said this morning that the Cable One team had won the businessmen’s cow-mugging competition that also was part of celebration.
Twin Oak Smokin Crew took the overall prize for its barbecued meat in the cooking competition. JP Custom Smoke placed second, and Cowboy Up BBQ was third.
Other barbecue winners were:
Chicken: 4 Legs Up, first; JP Custom Smoke, second; Pig-N-Out, third.
Pork ribs: Twin Oak Smokin Crew, first; Smokers Wild, second; Will Deal Catering & BBQ, third.
Pork: 3 Guys with Wood, first; JP Custom Smoke, second; Ponderosa BBQ, third.
Brisket: QSS Smokin, first; Twin Oak Smokin Crew, second; Bad Ole Bern’s, third.
Miscellaneous beef: Bad Ole Bern’s, first; Twin Oak Smokin Crew, second; JP Custom Smoke, third.
Sausage: PDT, first; 4 Legs Up, second; Smoke ‘n Ale Bar-B-Q, third.
In the grandstand cattle judging division, Sharon McGill of Emporia won first place in the heifer division and Robert Stuart of Emporia won the steer division.
Other results were:
Grass futurity heifers: Woodbury/Lusk Cattle (John and Howard Woodbury of Quenemo and Ann Woodbury Lusk from Osage City), first; Linsey Farms (Ronald, R.D. and Landon Linsey) of Lebo, second; Woodbury Farms (Fred, Howard and John Woodbury of Quenemo), third.
Grass futurity steers: Anderson Ranch (Matt, Julia and Mark Anderson) of Alma, first; Vogele Ranch (Justin Vogele) of Dexter, second; F & F Beef (Harry, Joan, and Larry Fowler) of Emporia, third.
Live stocker show, heifers: Spring Creek Ranch (Joe and Debbie Reinert) of Cassoday, first; Wittker Farms (Howard and Helen Wittker) of Strong City; Burton and Potter (Bill Burton and Roger Potter) of Emporia, third.
Live stocker show, steers: Burton and Potter, first; Arndt Farms (Mike and Steve Arndt) of Emporia, second; Anderson Ranch, third.
The first place average daily gain on the steers was 2.7308 pounds and 2.5389 on the heifers.
The average weight when the heifers were put on grass was 562 pounds, with the average weight of 762 pounds coming off the grass.
Steers weighed an average of 563 pounds going out on grass and an average of 794 coming off.
Lee and Marilyn Kidd of Fredonia won the grass futurity marketing contest.