COLUMBUS, Ohio – John Vidovich, a Calcutta, Ohio, cattleman, liked W/G Boardwalk Empire so much that he paid $68,000 for the Mainetainer bull in March 2024.

“I saw him as a calf, and I liked him as a calf, but it was one of those deals, you weren’t sure what he would turn out to be,” Vidovich said. “I thought he had great potential.”

Boardwalk Empire turned potential into winning time after time. In 2024, the bull won grand champion titles at the National Western Stock Show as a calf and state fair titles in Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, Kansas, Arkansas and Illinois. He also won at the Keystone International Livestock Expo.

The bull is registered through the American Maine-Anjou Association, which recognizes four categories of Maine-Anjou cattle based on bloodline percentage. Anything with a 25-75 percent Maine-Anjou bloodline is classified as a Mainetainer, and the latest recognized category is a MaineAngus cross.

Boardwalk Empire is 3/8 Maine-Anjou and 5/8 Angus. He has the all-black coloring of an Angus with a stout, wide base and powerful build.

“The bull’s not fake – the judges always call him a free cat because he’s so big, massive, and free-moving,” Vidovich said. “He’s sound. He’s 100 percent real.”

Vidovich is using Boardwalk Empire to improve his herd. 

“We have everything bred to him, and we’re just waiting for the calves to hit the ground at the end of March,” he said. “I don’t personally care what kind of cattle you’ve got as long as they’re good. That’s our objective, to raise good quality sound cattle.”

At this year’s Ohio Beef Expo, Vidovich sold a 50 percent revenue interest in Boardwalk Empire for $80,000 during the Maine-Anjou seedstock sale. As part of the sale, Vidovich kept possession of the bull.

“We want to finish his show career, which will end this year,” he said.  “That’s why we kept possession of him.”

Vidovich is planning on doing about 10 shows again this year.

“I’m thinking we’re going to go to a show in New Jersey in May and after that at the Ohio State Fair,” he said. “The big show season runs from July to October.”

The sale opened with six bidders bidding to buy a quarter ‌of the bull. When the price hit $35,000, buying a quarter share or bumping it up to a half share was possible. Vidovich made that offer a little sooner.

“When he hit $30,000, I told him they would own half interest in him,” Vidovich said. “Then that kicked up.”

Only two bidders remained at that price. “There were two of them, back and forth, all the way to $80,000,” Vidovich said.

Success in the show ring and his increased value has translated into high demand for Boardwalk Empire’s semen. Currently, he’s sold over 3,400 straws of semen since the fall of 2024 through a multibreed online semen distributor.

Normally, a straw of Boardwalk Empires’s semen was selling for $50. Vidovich lowered the price to $25 for the Expo. “Some people took advantage of it,” he said. That was before the sale. “It was kind of funny, but people who were tire kickers, once they saw the price, took advantage.”

Not only did Vidovich increase Boardwalk Empire’s value while at the Expo, but he also purchased his competitor, paying $20,000 for Lucky Day, a Mainetainer bull.

Lucky Day, the Grand Champion Mainetainer Bull at the 2024 North American International Livestock Exposition the 2025 Cattlemen’s Congress, and Boardwalk Empire may be the envy of many cattlemen.

“Now we have both of them,” Vidovich said.