The team roping cattle for the 2024 NFR will once again come from Hill Rodeo Cattle of Mexia, Texas, with two pens averaging 485 pounds and the third pen hitting 560.
Hill Rodeo Cattle is in its eighth year as the cattle contractor for the NFR, and owner Bobby Joe Hill thinks this might be the most consistent pen he’s provided yet after the NFR steer run-through inside the Thomas & Mack Tuesday, Dec. 3.
“Size-wise, there’s one pen that’s a little bigger than the rest, but the other two pens are pretty even,” Hill said. “But on the run, they’re as even as they’ve ever been.”
The pens of cattle may be similar on the run, but Hill and team roping director Kaleb Driggers have still spent hours sorting them into the three most similar pens they can create after the break-in process that began at Driggers’ house in November.
Watch the full NFR steer break-in at Kaleb Driggers’ house
In years past, the largest, strongest pen went in Rounds 1, 4, 7 and 10. But this year, the rodeo will kick off with a medium-sized pen of faster steers, the only set that will run four times throughout the 10 days. The larger pen will go in Rounds 2, 5 and 8 and the medium pen of medium-speed cattle will run in Rounds 3, 6 and 9—setting up for a traditionally fast Round 9, of course.
“We started with 108 at Driggers, and then we came back, cut it down to 90 and then I had two who couldn’t go, so we started with 88 at the Jingle Bell Classic. We cut the bad end off when we left the roping, down to 66. And then even when we got out here, there was one or two out of the 66 that had given it up. At least we only had one or two show up that didn’t try here versus 22.”
Each year, Hill gives his favorite Hereford eartag 60, and that steer will go in the third set.
“In the run-through, Driggers ran him twice,” Hill said. “He’s straight, not very strong and he’ll be money if he stays like that.”
Cory Kidd and Nicky Northcott will run the extras
Before each round, we’ll bring you the cattle draw along with the breakdown of what each steer did in the run-through, thanks to our partners at Fast Back Ropes.
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