Last year Hadley Cooper and her heifer Layla wowed the judges at the Wyoming State Fair, becoming grand champions in the 2023 FFA beef category. This year the Powell High School junior traveled with eight head of cattle to Douglas and returned with nine wins.

She nabbed supreme champion bull and premier breeding beef exhibitor as well as fifth place beef senior 4-H showmanship, Wyoming Jr. Angus champion intermediate showman, champion bull and reserve champion bull, open Angus champion senior heifer, open AOB champion heifer, champion English bull and reserve champion English bull.

Cooper has been showing cattle with 4-H since she was 8 years old but she first began three years before that. 

“I just have a love for the industry so I want to continue to be a part of that, Cooper said. “It fuels the fire, every time you win and then it just resparks your love for it.”

During fair season Cooper brings anywhere from four to 13 head of cattle to show depending on the venue. When she is “jackpotting,” attending smaller day shows in the summer, Cooper brings about four head of cattle. For the county fair Cooper brings around 13 and at the state fair she usually brings five, but opted to travel with eight this year. 

All in all Cooper has 15 head of cattle and their calves, she said. While Cooper does have a couple steers she sells for beef each year, the majority are heifers she holds onto to grow her herd at the family ranch in Powell.

Getting 13 cows ready to show is a lot of work. With help from her mom, Hadley gets an early morning start, brings the cattle in from pasture, feeds them, rinses them and works their hair. In the evening she repeats the whole process and turns them out for the night to graze and “be cows,” she said with a smile.

While Cooper won both supreme champion bull and premier breeding beef exhibitor, the latter was what she was hoping to win. The award is decided based on which exhibitor has the most successful cattle, Cooper said.

“So I brought six breeding cattle and I wanted to win that because it shows that I put the work into it, and not everyone can bring that many cattle,” Cooper said.

When it came to showing her bull it was a first time experience, decided by the number of bulls born to her herd compared to heifers. But aside from taking a bull’s attitude into account it’s not too different from showing other cattle.

She just has “to make sure I don’t make him too much of a pet that he starts bossing me around,” she said.

Cooper’s bull was just a calf, so she wasn’t expecting a win, but her bull was chosen for its bulk compared to the competitor behind it, she said. 

Cooper already has next year in mind, and has begun choosing cows to show. Many of them will be the calves she showed this past summer but they will be older and more competitive, she said. 

Park County youth perform well at state fair

Park County had a successful year at the state fair in Douglas, Aug. 13-17 including in livestock  where 13 students placed in at least one category within their respective classes.

The following results have been provided by Park County 4-H in alphabetical order:

Blake Bessler

Fair to Fork with Jennie

Gordon’s Hunger Initiative

Brooke Bessler

Market dorset, 5th place

Hadley Cooper

Premier breeding beef exhibitor

Beef senior 4-H showmanship, 5th place

Wyoming Junior Angus champion intermediate showman

Champion bull and reserve champion bull

Open Angus champion senior heifer

Open AOB champion heifer

Champion English bull

Reserve champion English bull

Supreme champion bull

Sawyor Engdahl

Bred and fed (swine), 3rd place

Market gilt - 6th place

WVATA swine jackpot, 4th place

Russell Goolsbey

Intermediate 4-H sheep showman, 7th place

Kinsey Jones

Market swine, 9th place

Baylee Kraft

Market beef, 2nd place

WVATA Jackpot, 2nd place

Katie Morrison

Market ewe, 2nd place

Charlee Muecke

Feather legged cockerel, 3rd place

Grand champion feather legged young trio

Mature quail pair, 1st place

Mini-lop senior buck, 5th place

Four-class purebred senior buck, 2nd place

 Normal fur rabbit, 4th place 

James Schaefer

Market swine, 5th place

Champion Berkshire gilt 

Trey Smith

Senior 4-H swine showmanship, 3rd place

Abigail Visocky

Market whiteface lamb, 4th place

Senior 4-H meat goat showmanship, 4th place

Pratt Wambeke

Market lamb, 5th place