Ropers packed the Circle T Arena in Hamilton, Texas on Memorial Day week-end for a busy 4 days of team roping. The ARC program steers were wrapped and ready to go Friday for the #15 roping. Were they up to the demanding job of performing consistently until the last roper nodded Monday evening? The team roping community was about to find out.

This first of its kind event featured the combining of 145 native Corriente steers with an almost equal number of border cattle in one herd. Though owned by different contractors, these two sets of cattle were the same size, condition, and health. Both sets were close to the same age (16-20 months), "broke in" originally by the same group, and both had been used in several previous events. The performance of both border and native Corriente steers were monitored for speed, pattern, conditioning, and "tricks" that might make them undesirable for competition. We were about to embark on the first ever "apples to apples" competition performance comparison of native to border Corrientes.

The great news is that ARC steers, many making more than 20 runs during this event, did everything we could have hoped for. After 4 long days of roping, and over 3000 rated runs, it was very encouraging to see how strong they remained. Not only did they continue to perform, making a total of 1849 runs, their patterns remained consistently excellent.

Team roping "Short-go" cattle are selected based upon superior performance during the roping. It is a badge of honor for a steer to be selected for the "short-go". Of the 120 "short-go" cattle selected in 6 ropings at Circle T, 74 (61%) were ARC steers. Of the original 145 native Corrientes, the performance of only 26 was considered to be sub-standard, with these steers cut from the herd as their flaws appeared. A slightly higher number of border corrientes was cut as well.

There is a down side to these statistics. The ARC cattle were scheduled to "go to grass" after this roping. NO WAY! They are far from done. These are still the nicest set of roping steers you can imagine. For that reason, we will continue working the ARC cattle. It is our hope each will continue to be the kind of steer ropers want to draw for money. Even so, in 6 weeks, their arena days will be over, and the next phase of the ARC program will begin.
The comments of those watching the ropings and the interpretation of supporting data lead to only one conclusion. When fed, trained, and handled the same as their border cousins, American Roping Corriente cattle of the same age perform equally as well. Stock contractors, ropers and other decision makers are taking notice. ARC Corrientes prove that border steers, though an option for stock contractors, are not their only option, perhaps not even their best.

There are ranches raising the right kind of performance Corrientes here in America. We encourage the partners in our performance program to log in and check the performance of their individual animals, they did you proud!