In what has become a tradition for the final sale day at the Oklahoma National Stockyards each calendar year, the regular feeder and stocker sale on Monday was stopped for about thirty minutes in order to sell and resell a calf donated to raise money for the All American Beef Battalion. The Vet that started the AABB, Bill Broady, invited the those at the Monday sale to participate once again in raising money to prepare and give to returning troops from overseas assignments a huge ribeye steak dinner.
2016 is the 7th year for the National Livestock companies to be involved in supporting the All American Beef Battalion. Last year's auction brought in more than $45,000, meaning contributors to this event have raised over $265,000 from the annual auction of a donated calf as the sale kicked off on Monday morning.
The sale began with the first "purchase" being made for $6,000 for the calf- the process started over and the calf was sold again, and again and again. In all, the calf was sold 28 times before it was sold for $260 a hundred- bringing in $1,872. Once again, the calf that was donated was courtesy of 3C Cattle Feeders and the Clyde Runyan family of Mill Creek, Oklahoma. A very special thanks go out to Clyde and Penny, along with their sons, who have donated the calf for 5 years. Clyde was with the 101st Airborne in Vietnam and considers this a privilege to be able to give back to the troops.
In all, Debbie Wedel with National Livestock says the 28 rounds of selling the calf, plus the actual sale of the animal brought the total cash raised for AABB to just over $53,000. That number will likely rise as more pledges come in to support the concept of Steaks for Troops.
Broady told Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays that every penny raised goes to providing a huge beef industry "thank you" to that service man or woman- there are no salaries paid for- no office costs- or other administrative costs that come from the money that is raised for the Steaks for Troops effort.
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