Leaving Las Vegas with a high chin, a trophy saddle in the back seat, and a victory lap around the Thomas and Mack is merely a fantasy for almost anyone who’s ever sat in the saddle. For 19-year-old Texas Tech University student and rodeo athlete, Chet Weitz, his first taste of Vegas came at the ripe age of three.

A recent high school graduate from a rural West Texas town stepped onto the Texas Tech University campus in fall of 2000 – the turn of a new century. She knew three things: she loved agriculture, she enjoyed politics, and she had absolutely no idea what she wanted to be when she “grew up.” Yet, there she stood, meeting with her academic adviser, “all grown up.”

A mission group of eight travel over open sewer systems on less than ideal roads in a country that experiences conditions most probably cannot even imagine. They pull up to see kids happily playing with a soccer ball in wet, muddy dirt. The kids are excited to see the mission group who are coming to paint their home, an orphanage. The excitement on the kids’ faces make them forget the conditions and they truly understand the reason they are there: to make life better for those less fortunate.

Faith and Caleb Snapp, two visually impaired goat showmen, continue to defy the odds every day. They prove that through a life of a determination, resilience and kindness, anything is possible. As they prepare for college, the twins reflect back on their time in agriculture as two blind individuals who changed the way the show industry accommodates students with disabilities.

A juicy, thick cut hamburger patty sizzling on the seasoned bars of a smoky grill has long been an American staple. Topped with a slice of melty sharp cheddar, watery lettuce, and succulent tomato slices, what meat eaters have always known as a hamburger is changing as the market landscape is adapting to consumers demands.

Ryder sold his Grand Champion Polled Hereford for a record-breaking $300,000 at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, the biggest steer show in Texas. He and Cupid Shuffle shocked the stock show world by being the first Hereford breed to win the top prize in Fort Worth since 1982 and the first recording of a Polled Hereford to ever win the show.