San Angelo Native Dalton York Wins Big at Stock Show

The end of rodeo season is here for San Angelo. Throughout this season, many 4-H and Future Farmers of America students from Tom Green County and the surrounding areas brought their livestock to compete at the San Angelo Stock Show, and 214 exhibitors were able to make the Premium Sale this past Saturday.

Derek Morrison, the Vice President of Operations at Glazer’s, helped make the San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo happen.

“There have been several thousand heads of animals come through these barns between the pigs, lambs, goats and cattle,” he said.

There were also many exhibitors from the San Angelo area, but Dalton York, 18, a Tarrant County resident originally from San Angelo, placed as the Reserve Grand Champion with his market lamb. 

“I have been running around these barns since I was two,” York said.

Dalton moved to Forth Worth when he was nine years old. Winning Reserve Champion as a senior in high school and in his home town was very rewarding to him.

Dalton said, “Winning felt really good because this is where my first county show was.”

Showing livestock is a passion to Dalton. He wants to continue this passion by showing until he is 21. There are three national shows where he can do this. Dalton has already competed in these four stock shows this past year.

These three shows are the American Royal in Kansas City, Arizona Nationals in Phoenix, Arizona, and the North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE) in Louisville, Kentucky.

Dalton was competitive at all of these stock shows this past year. Since he was eight, Dalton has won roughly 40 belt buckles over his showing career. Belt buckles are not all that he would receive. All of these animals went to a live auction where Dalton received money for them.

In 2015 Dalton won Reserve Champion Southdown Lamb at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The money he received from this auction helped him invest in 40 more lambs for the 2016 show year.

This year, Dalton is using his earnings to pay for college. He is going to attend Texas A&M Kingsville to major in Wildlife Management and Ranch Management.

Dalton’s mom, Michelle Lee, had so much to say about her son's accomplishments.

“It’s hard for me not to get emotional thinking about him," she said. "A couple years ago, Dalton set some major goals to win the Texas Junior Livestock Association all around. He went to work and won the all-around, along with three other breed champions." 

Below, Dalton's Reserve Champion Lamb at the 2016 San Angelo Stock Show Premium Sale:

According to Lee, Dalton spends four to six hours a day working in the barn with all of his lambs. His lambs are on a nutrition and exercise plan to keep them in good shape.

Overall, Dalton York has had many accomplishments in his showing career. Winning Reserve Grand Champion Lamb back in his hometown filled him with joy.

His mom said, “He has a theme of 'we don’t quit’. It’s kind of like our home family motto; we don’t quit. So no matter what, he hasn’t quit and I couldn’t be any prouder of him.”