Five consecutive generations of Hulls have ranched cattle in Eastern Oklahoma near where Chad and Barbette Hull have their Hull Show Cattle operation on the outskirts of Poteau, Okla.
“My great-grandfather Jim Hull moved here in a covered wagon in 1906,” said Chad. “The Hulls still own property between Sallisaw and Spiro.”
Chad’s parents Cordell and Pat Hull, have around 1,000 acres on which the Hull family still runs 200 commercial cattle. Chad’s brother Ronndell Hull is a past president of the Oklahoma Brahma Breeder’s Association.
Chad and Barbette’s daughters, Chasey and Holiday, raise and care for show cattle on Chad’s 25 acres.
“These girls started by age 5 with calves they got at Belle Point Ranch in Fort Smith,” said Chad. “The girls keep Angus, and Maine Anjou and Chianina show cows. They have 25 cows, and the girls know the name of every one.” Chad says that the Chianina have the good hair that’s key for success in the show ring. Barbette points to the breed’s attitude as another selling point. “They have attitude and are ornery,” said Barbette. “But once you break them, they’ll follow you all over the ring.”
Even though Chasey and Holiday are only 16 and 11 years old today, they have plenty of cattle-showing success. Chasey has won the Leflore County championship three times, and the girls placed high in the Maine-Anjou division at the American Royal in Kansas City.
“We are planning to go to Denver in January,” said Chad. “That’s the biggest cattle show in the world, the grand daddy of them all.”
Chad and Barbette are so serious about cattle judging and showing that they open their ranch to area youth to expose them to this arena.
Last year, 50 college and high school students attended a show clinic at the Hull ranch.
“We had a demo on how to clip cattle for the show ring, and the Eastern Oklahoma State College team gave a presentation on oral reasons,” said Chad. “It’s like a presidential debate. They explained how to back up the reasons, they judged the cattle on certain points – big footed, deeper flank – it’s a real debate-type mentality.”
On November 6, Hull Show Cattle will host its second show cattle clinic and cattle judging contest, and it’s shaping up to be a lot bigger than last year’s.
The clinic is free, and will feature nationally-known cattle judges and showmen like Todd Blocker, Cody Lott, Jirl Buck, along with a repeat appearance of the Eastern Oklahoma State College judging team. The clinic starts at 10:30 and ends around 3:00.
“We going to have seven or eight show heifers out here, and the kids will divide and judge them,” said Chad. “We’ll have two groups of Maine Anjou and do a cull-and-keep class, one through eight. They’ll have to pick their top four and learn how to justify the picks.”
Barbette says that right now, between 150 and 200 youth have signed up for the event, but that the Hulls are preparing for as many as 300.
“We’d like to thank Michelle Reif with the Arkansas Junior Cattleman’s Association for getting the word out,” said Chad. “She sent out an email about the clinic, and we’ve got kids from just about every town in Arkansas coming. We’ve got kids from Siloam Spring, Bentonville, Harrison. We’d never heard of Deer, Ark., but we’ve even got a team of six kids coming from Deer.”
Besides Arkansas, the Hulls expect heavy turnout from Eastern Oklahoma communities, and have another group of students confirmed from near Fort Worth, Texas.
Several ranching-related businesses have become sponsors for the event, which helps the Hulls to make it bigger and better.
“Showmaster Feeds contacted us to become a sponsor,” said Chad. “The first question they asked us was if we cared if they filmed it. They want to put it on RFDTV.”
Other businesses expressing interest in sponsoring the clinic include Martindale Feed, Coaches Lumber of Poteau, Okla., Nelson Land and Cattle Company and Eskimo Joe’s of Stillwater, Okla., which is providing t-shirts for all clinic attendees.
“It just keeps getting bigger and better,” said Chad. “We love doing this.”
Clinic participants will have a chance to win their own show heifer, along with fitting services from Cody Lott. Harlan Yocham and Matt Lautner are donating more than 100 straws of champion semen as door prizes.
“We’ve got things for kids who’ve never done this to the the ones with experience at cattle showing,” said Chad. “If you win that heifer we want you to show it. We’ll provide the clipping, feeding and breeding, even AI, whatever it takes. But somebody is going to win a nice show heifer and be able to start their own herd.”
