Every day, 13-year-old Cannon Reimann pampered her beloved show steer Boots.
She washed him, moisturized his hide and hair, used big blowers to make his hair soft and fluffy and combed it. She fed him the choicest food to raise him to a Goldilocks size — not too small, not too big.
She named her steer Boots because he had white feet.
Reimann’s steer shattered the prize-winning record at the 2026 National Western Livestock Show in Denver, selling for $320,000 to the Bank of Colorado. The 120th show also smashed attendance records, with 750,039 people attending, according to organizers.
Reimann, of Ree Heights, South Dakota, called her win “crazy,” adding that her brother won the auction in 2024 with a steer that sold for a record-breaking $210,000.
Boots smashed that record, keeping the Reimann name front and center in the world of cattle showmanship.
“My family, we worked really hard,” she said. “They really loved my steer because our steers are really fluffy. They’re really cute.”
The Show
The National Western Junior Stock Show draws thousands of junior market animals to competition.
This year, 108 animals advanced to the auction as the highest-placing entries.
Proceeds from the sales of the champions directly benefit the junior exhibitors, with a majority of each bid going to the exhibitor who raised the animal.
Ten percent of the prize-winning money supports the National Western Scholarship Trust to fund education in agriculture and related fields.
What it takes
“Resilient” is the word Reimann landed on as she thought about what it takes to raise a prize-winning steer.
Her grandfather, Kent Reimann, said it takes a lot of luck. Genetics is a big factor, he said. The family-owned Reimann Ranches utilize embryo transfer as a breeding technique to produce quality show cattle.
Cannon Reimann’s prize-winning steer, however, came from a family friend in Iowa and not from her own family ranch.
“It takes a lot of hard work,” Cannon Reimann said. “It takes a lot of people who know what they’re doing and who care a lot.”
Resilient, she said, means doing the work that’s required no matter what. There will be bad days and bad weather, she said.
Growing up in a cattle ranching family, Reimann learned early on the tricks of raising show cattle. Diet is crucial — “nice stuff to get them at a perfect size,” she said.
Working the hair is also important, she said. The show judges want to see fresh, clean animals, she said.
The difficulty of working the animals as Reimann does varies, depending on the temperament of the animal. Boots, she said, was tame. He liked to be worked on.
The win
Reimann recounted the moments leading up to her steer sweeping the auction. During the grand drive – the premier final event where the top-placing animals compete for champion titles – both she and Boots were worked up, she said.
“It was a really stressful drive,” she said. “My steer really got scared with all the noise.”
The bidding climbed — past her brother’s record win of $210,000 last year.
“Once we got to $250,000, I started crying,” Reimann said. “You’re just so grateful. I couldn’t believe it. It was surreal.”
Plane Crash
Reimann’s win comes with an extra layer of emotion, as her father, a prominent South Dakota rancher and cattle showman, died in a plane crash with two other cattlemen in 2014, when Reimann was 2. Nick Reimann was returning home from a show in Texas when the small plane he was in crashed near Highmore, just 13 miles west of Ree Heights, where he lived. He was 33.
Nick Reimann was so well known in the show cattle industry that organizers of the Western Livestock Auction commemorated a traveling trophy with his name on it. The trophy goes home with the winner of the Junior Western Livestock Auction each year.
“It was really sweet to me,” Reimann said of her taking home the trophy with her dad’s name on it. “My father was very big in the industry. He was a great guy.
“I was so young. Never really got a chance to know him,” she added. “Getting to show cattle is a way to still have a connection with him.”
Kent Reimann, Cannon’s grandfather, said his son, Nick, was big into the show cattle business. Raising show cattle is something people can do as a family, he said.
“Our family has been in the show business for quite a while now,” he said, adding that Cannon represents the fourth generation of ranchers in the family.
Supporting Youth Livestock Activity
The prize-winning steer is not only a win for Reimann; it’s a win for the purchaser, Bank of Colorado.
Many people and businesses participate in the auction as a show of charity, Kent Reimann said. Some will donate meat to needy people. The money earned from the sale is a show of support for the youth — and good PR for the buyer.
“Moments like these are about more than an auction,” the Bank of Colorado said in a statement. “They’re about investing in young people, education, and the future of agriculture.”
Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.
