With generations of the family gathered round, there’s a collection of historical moments at the heart of the huddle. Newspaper clippings and old photographs showcase Kidwells from years past exhibiting a devotion to the beef industry.
For Rosalind Kidwell, it’s always been a legacy she’s honored to uphold.
“Family history is a really important thing for me,” she explains. “I ran for junior princess within Indiana, and we were going through scrapbooks of pictures from my grandparents, and I still remember finding the certificate that verified my great-great-great-grandpa as a member of the Indiana Junior Angus Association and the American Aberdeen Breeders Association.”
That same grandpa was also one of the first people to exhibit the champion bred-and-owned heifer and champion bull at the Chicago Stock Exchange.
“Those were small things that we always told stories about at family get-togethers,” Kidwell says. “Just being around that tradition and that history … it’s kind of become something that I wanted to carry on.”
As the fifth generation in the family tree to take on the title of “cattle producer,” Kidwell’s made it her mission to take her passion to the next level. That drive led her to apply for the 2024 American Angus Auxiliary scholarship, which came with the opportunity to run for the title of Miss American Angus during the annual Angus Convention last November.
Standing on stage during the awards dinner and reception Nov. 3 in Fort Worth, TX, Kidwell says she was proud to be shoulder-to-shoulder with one of her best friends, Erin Driscoll, who was waiting just as anxiously for the results.
“I remember when it got announced, she looked over and at me and she said, ‘I knew it, I just knew it,’” Kidwell recalls of the moment her name echoed in the dinner hall. “I feel like it’s something that you can’t equate to anything else. It’s awesome.”
As she takes on the respected red coat and the title of 2024-2025 Miss American Angus, Kidwell’s ready to share her love for these black-hided cattle and their keepers.
“I think that Miss American Angus is almost like a focal point for the Angus breed,” the Gentryville, IN, local said. “I love advocating for the Angus breed. I love talking about it. So, to have that opportunity to advocate for the Angus breed and the beef industry is something I think that is really, really pivotal to Miss American Angus.”
Family values
Kidwell’s father, Jud, as a young man didn’t have any close ties to The Business Breed. He enjoyed fitting show calves and traveling with a lot of different cattle operations, but it wasn’t until he married Carla, and they started a family that he came back home.
“I was probably 2 or 3 when he bought his first Angus heifer again,” Kidwell says. “Having cattle as an outlet was something I always depended on when I was younger. It’s kind of been something I’ve always looked to, and my parents never made it something where I have to do it … but definitely being around it from a young age sparked that passion, and it’s never going to leave.”
Jud’s involvement in the seedstock world created another mentor for his daughter in Maddie Butler, Kidwell’s older cousin. Kidwell became Butler’s shadow at the age of 5 and stuck to her side until she was done showing—consequently, the same time Butler was named Miss American Angus.
“She was always someone I looked up to. In the show ring … I wanted to show like her. I wanted to get good grades. I wanted to do all the things that Maddie did,” Kidwell adds.
After watching Butler don the crown at Eastern Regionals, Kidwell added a new goal to the list.
“I just remember it was the first time I really saw her outside of a show harness … it was really the first time I saw her grow into being a really confident, powerful and poised young woman for other people to look up to,” she says. “I want to do that for young girls. I want to give young girls the opportunity to have that mentor and someone to look up to within the ag industry.”
Part of that mission requires Kidwell to arm herself with knowledge. She says this opportunity is the perfect excuse to push herself to learn more about every segment of the industry, so she can share that information with others, both familiar and new to the world of beef production.
Learning is a key part of her personality, too. Kidwell has a knack for the science side of things, another trait she credits to her father. Chatting about the nutritional requirements of livestock sparked a childhood desire to be a vet, and she’s transformed that youthful ambition into a real goal.
“There’s a big space for vaccine development and just kind of making the beef industry and the ag industry a more profitable space,” she explains, highlighting anaplasmosis as a topic that specifically drew her attention.
The 19-year-old is a freshman at Purdue University pursuing a degree in biochemistry with an animal science minor. She’s on the prepharmacy track to be a veterinary pharmacist.
Whether it’s cattle or anaplasmosis, conversation is never a concern for Kidwell.
“It’s like my favorite thing ever to talk about cows with my friends and the people that I’ve met,” she says.
Kidwell goes so far to admit one thing she was looking forward to most during her campaign for Miss American Angus was the chance to give a speech to a crowd.
“My whole family was giving me a hard time,” she laughs. “I’m excited to speak in front of 75 people, and they were all like, ‘You’re the only person I know who would say that.’”
Teasing aside, it was her family that served as Kidwell’s foundation through the experience.
When she ran off the Fort Worth stage wearing her crown for the first time—feet red and blistered from the new heels she had purchased just for the occasion—her parents and grandma Peggy were waiting with open arms.
“It really just kind of showed me how great my support system is and how lucky I am to have them,” Kidwell adds.
She says she’s honored to be carrying on a family tradition, but realizes her definition of family has grown much larger than those she’s related to.
“I feel like I’ve gained a support system that’s not just my family,” she explains. “It extends across the country. I have the Angus family.” — Megan Silveira, Angus Journal managing editor
