The “Super Bull” at the Iowa State Fair seems to be enjoying the attention. “Sampson,” a 3-year-old Red Angus, tipped the scales at a whopping 2,893 pounds and is owned by Jim and Danelle Skartvedt of rural Atlantic.  Sampson was bred by Two Oaks Red Angus of Dunlap, IA Brandon McHugh. The bull was named the winner of the annual “Super Bull” contest at the State Fair Thursday evening. Sampson was raised by Zellmer Farms Alan and Brenda Zellmer, near Atlantic, along with Gage Zellmer and maintained by A to Z Feeders.

Owners Jim and Danelle Skartvedt were asked about Sampson’s diet and stated “He eats an entire 50 pound bag of Renew Ag Supply’s “Midwest Success with Matrix” per day, with a sprinkle of VitaFerm’s Sure Champ Cattle a 1/4 of a bale, and lots and lots of water.”

Gage Zellmer, the 22-year old son of Brenda and Alan, said it was surprising to the family how big Sampson grew, and how fast.  He told KJAN News “Honestly, what happened was we had him running with some younger bulls that we were trying to bulk-up, and kind of lost track of him. All at once, we realized ‘Holy Cow!,’ he’s huge. So we decided to pull him in and really start cranking him up on feed and decided we’d try the Super Bull [contest]. We’d never done it, never been around it, but just decided we’d try it.”

Gage says it takes a lot of time and feed to make a bull that huge. You wouldn’t think it would be easy to lead around an animal that weighs more than a VW Beetle, but Gage said he was amiable enough once he got used to the idea…still, he can be determined to go where he wants.

Danelle credits her younger brother Gage for being brave enough to climb in and break the bull. “He is a mild mannered bull and seems pretty happy as long as his feeder is full and his fan is on. Sampson was a family project with many helping to get him ready for his big day!”

Sampson beat out the next nearest winner by 150 pounds. You can see Sampson at the Iowa State Fair in the barn near the Livestock Pavilion, through the last day on August 23rd. Look for the sign out front, that reads “Super Bull.” Feel free to stop by and talk to the Skartvedt family about their bull, their business, and feed as well as the Zellmer family and their farm.