When Tripp Gibson’s family packs for the National Junior Angus Show (NJAS), they’ve got a “go bag” at the ready for easy overnights at stops along the way. Cailee Flood loads her trailer in a specific order — premeasured feed for layovers goes on last.  

“We usually stop, and we feed them, and we water them a couple of times depending on the distance,” said Flood, who traveled from Oakdale, California, to Tulsa, Okla., this year. 

For Gibson, Flood and others across the United States, the journey to the National Junior Angus Show (NJAS) is exactly that: a journey across multiple states and time zones.

Gibson travels from New Mexico and Flood’s West Coast location means that the cattle and the competitors often need to acclimate to a different climate and different elevation, too. But it’s always worth it, they say.  

“It’s not just to come down here and show. Everybody down here is like family, and it’s really heartwarming to come down here,” Gibson said. “Everybody is so welcoming and just willing to take you in and teach you things.” 

The young Angus breeders joined The Angus Conversation — Junior Takeover, to talk about the way they find their community with the Angus family. 

Flood said when she entered high school, she was struggling being the one who always had cattle to work with when other friends could hang out after school. As a freshman, she went to her first NJAA leadership conference, met fellow juniors from Iowa who shared that interest, and it was an instant feeling of belonging. 

“Being able to have these people that relate to me on the exact same level....and I had never had anyone like that at home,” she said.  

Social media and cell phones help the teens stay connected to their Angus cohorts between shows and in-person activities. 

“I feel way more connected because I have friends that are from Texas and Tennessee and just all over the country that every night I feel like we call each other. I call somebody that I've met at National Junior Angus just to talk to them,” Gibson said.  

Then when they get to the show, they see everybody they’ve waited months to catch up with.  

“Even if you don’t have a grand champion heifer, you can still come here and you can still have tons of fun and meet so many new people and learn more so that one day you can work up to that point,” Flood said.  

Co-host and National Junior Angus Association board member Kyli Kraft added that new members often find it’s not long before the roles are reversed. 

“Whenever it comes to an organization or a culture like this, it’s not so much what it gives to you but what you can contribute back to it,” she said.

“And I think that's what makes Angus so special is people pouring into the community and the culture and investing in it.” 

If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to catch parts one and two, also available now. 

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