May is national beef month, but since most of you reading this are associated with agriculture, I don’t have to twist your arm to get you to eat beef. And if this great country EVER gets back to normal, maybe we can talk some more people into eating more beef. 

In the meantime, there are some wacky, fun ways to go hog-wild about beef. Maybe in the next few weeks we will be allowed to do them! Here are some of the craziest crazy-good beef eating challenges around the world:

• Clinton, N.J., is the home of the largest hamburger in the world. It’s called the “8th wonder” and it weighs 105 pounds! In the 8th Wonder Challenge, 10 people are given 60 minutes to eat it all, which is 10.5 pounds of food per person! Any team who could do it would win a cash prize of $5,000, but so far nobody has.

• In Amarillo, Texas, the challenge is a steak dinner. The steak alone is 72 ounces (that’s 4½ pounds!) but then you have to finish the rest of the meal – shrimp cocktail, buttered roll, baked potato, ranch beans and a salad. If you can do it without exploding, the meal is free.

• If you ever get out to Exeter, England, you can take the Monster Red Ruby Burger Challenge. Seven (count ‘em…seven!) burger patties, fourteen slices of bacon, seven slices of cheese and two giant orders of double-fried fries. The catch is that you only have 20 minutes to finish, but the prize is worth it…a free meal and a T-shirt. And of course, bragging rights forever.

• Our friends to the south at Walden, Colo., have the 3-Pounder Competition. It’s a Volcano burger with three pounds of beef, pepper-jack cheese, chipotle sauce, jalapenos, bacon and flaked habaneros. Eat it all and it’s free, plus you get a T-shirt and your picture on the wall. Even better, you will be the very first picture on the wall, because so far nobody has done it.

• A little further south, in Albuquerque, they have sopapillas…really big sopapillas!  Sadie’s Sopapilla Challenge gives you a seven-pound sopaipilla smothered in red or green chili and topped with all the fixings. The kicker is that you also have to eat dessert – a small dessert sopapilla, and all in under an hour. 

So, if you like beef, you are smart. It’s delicious and good for you. But if you really like beef, and also like an adventure, go for one of the beef eater’s challenges! You might win and get a free meal, a T-shirt, and everlasting glory. Or you might lose and get sick. But who cares? You’re eating beef, and that’s always a great thing!