SOB-this is what Ebeneezer meant about black shoe polish....
DENVER, Feb, 26— It is downright embarrassing.
Big Mac, the 1972 Grand Champion Steer of Denver's prestigious National Western Stock Show, may be a fake.
The animal himself is real. He is about 1,200 pounds of beef residing temporarily in a barn in suburban Littleton and chewing his way through 30 pounds of grain a day while state and stock show officials try to figure out what happened.
The problem is that Big Mac, winner of two major prizes at the stock show in January, was certified as an Angus steer raised in Iowa and shown in Denver for the first time.
Now it appears that he is not a black Angus at all but instead a black‐dyed white Charolais named Jeep. Jeep was raised in Colorado and has been shown at a number of other shows.
With a name like Big Mac, the steer drew the attention of several owners of McDonald's hamburger stands in Colorado. The chain features a hamburger called the Big Mac.
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In spirited bidding with Denver's Brown Palace Hotel, the McDonald's owners won the animal for $11.40 a pound, or $14,250, the highest price ever paid in the stock show's 66‐year history.
But the Colorado Board of Stock Inspection is holding up the money awarded to Rex Miller, 16 years old, son of Mr. and Mrs. Eldon Miller of Alta, Iowa, until the matter of Big Mac's identity is settled. It was young Miller who showed the animal at the National Western.
Charolais is a Swiss cattle breed recently gaining wide acceptance. among Western cattlemen but not accepted for competition at the National Western, which shows only Herefords, Angus and shorthorns. Some of the breeds may be mixed a bit, but the sire of the steer must be from one of those three.
Hair Is White
Big Mac now has his facial fur clipped short, and in the barns of Carl Reed, the owner of six McDonald's hamburger stands, his fur is growing in white.
Even stronger evidence is the "Lazy J, Lazy Y connected" brand burned into the animal's flank.
That is the brand of the Skylark Ranch in Parsball, Colo., according to Earl Brown, state brand commissioner.
Mr. and Mrs. Ray Daves of Limon, Colo., said they bought Jeep, a Charolais calf, from Skylark Ranch in November, 1970.
Mrs. Daves said her son, Kirk, 18, attended the National Western and recognized Big Mac as Jeep, even though he had been dyed black.
"Once you get to know an animal, you can recognize it anywhere," Mrs. Daves said in a telephone interview. She said that although many people think all cattle look alike, they have distinct features and personalities. She said Jeep would cry real tears "if you got mad at him and gave him a swat."
Eighth in Kansas City
She said Jeep had been shown in two county fairs in Colorado and placed eighth in the American Royal Stock Show in Kansas City last October. After that, she said, the animal was sold to an Iowa man.
Stock show officials said the Iowa man had reported that Jeep had died of "hardware sickness," which comes from eating metal, particularly chunks of barbed wire fencing.
Rex Miller's father, reached by telephone, declined to comment on the matter.
Dyeing cattle, a common practice until this incident happened, has now been banned by stock show officials, who could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Reed said the owners of 12 of 28 McDonald's restaurants in Colorado had decided to bid for Big Mac and had hoped to show him at their restaurants to promote business.
"We had our meat supplier hid on it and told him to buy it no matter what the cost," Mr. Reed said. "If they hadn't named it Big Mac we never would have thought of it.
"Next time I don't care if they name it McDonald's Special, we're not bidding."
Mr. Brawn, the brand commissioner, said his attention was called to the matter when the animal hair began to look a little white at the roots.
"It was like a blonde woman who had stayed at the stock show too long," he said.
Mr. Brown said the incident might clear up some questionable practices that had grown up around the showing of stock.
He added: "If a man is able to judge animals in a show of this magnitude, he should be able to tell an Angus from a Charolais."
He said he hoped to have the matter settled in the next few weeks, though there is still talk of lawsuits.
