Selling cattle at stockyards.

[kenny thomas]

Last year I was in Oklahoma City and stopped by the stockyards. Learned there you have to pay someone to handle the sale of your cattle. You did not sell them yourself. I think they called them a Livestock Commision and there were several different ones you could use.
How does this work, and is there many places like that?

 

[Alice]

Huh...correct me if I'm wrong. Don't all auctions charge for the sale of cattle, or whatever livestock?

Alice

 

[kenny thomas]

Maybe I stated it wrong. The stockyard I think charged the comission and the comission charged the producer. Don't know what the charges were though. Seems like a middleman there but they must pay their way. I do know they were selling very good. Can someone explain how it works in Ok City?

 

[Alice]

Wish I could...sorry...

Alice

 

[backhoeboogie]

I can tell you how it works at several around here and in East Texas. Not in OK City tho. I assume it is likely the same.

 

[kenny thomas]

How does it work there BHB?

 

[Angus Cowman]

KT
Springfield used to have commision companies an the way it works is
The commision co acts as a brokerage firm and the Stockyards charges the commision co for using its premises
Most commision co have their own Auctioneers and they will have certain times that they sell during the sale it is usually broke up in segments and each co sells for a set time on a rotation

they pay a % of their commision to the stockyard owners the Comm Co provides all insurance and etc for the customer
it was originally set up so that it was a more level playing field for the producer so they couldn't say that the owners of the yard were taking advantage of the producer by setting in low prices or by selling so and so's cattle before yours and playing favorites
this way you have an agent working for you and trying to get the best prices for your stock so you will use them in the future

 

[backhoeboogie]

You can drop your cows a couple a days ahead and pay a nominal boarding fee. You can have them preg checked by the vet there for a nominal fee. There is a nominal insurance charge. They draw a commission based on the sale price.

I don't have a ticket in front of me but it usually costs about $12 a steer to sell.

 

[Angus Cowman]

You can drop your cows a couple a days ahead and pay a nominal boarding fee. You can have them preg checked by the vet there for a nominal fee. There is a nominal insurance charge. They draw a commission based on the sale price.

I don't have a ticket in front of me but it usually costs about $12 a steer to sell.

That is the way it is at any of the salebarns here and most of the stockyards also now

but what KT was refferring to is at the stockyards in order to sell yor cattle you have to book them with a seperate entity called a Commision Company and you have several to chose from instead of just taking them and dealing directly with the stockyard owners themselves
The stockyards around here have gotten away from commission companies as well. When the old stockyards in Springfield sold out the owners from a couple of the commission companies went together and built the new stockyards in Springfield and did away with commission companies

 

[kenny thomas]

Thanks AC, I think that was what I was seeing. I believe the Commision not the stockyard paid the owner for the cattle also. Is that correct?
I buy a lot of cattle but have never seen this in the east.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Thanks AC, I think that was what I was seeing. I believe the Commision not the stockyard paid the owner for the cattle also. Is that correct?
I buy a lot of cattle but have never seen this in the east.

Correct the Commission Company sells the cattle the Stockyard owners just provide the facilities
When I was in HS I worked at the yards for awhile and I was employed by the yard but all the cattle that came in where written upthru a comission company if the owner of the cattle didn't have a preference then we would assign their cattle to a Commission company on a rotation basis
1st un booked cattle went to ABC Company
2nd went to CDE Company and so on
I think at that time we had 5 commission companies at the old Southwest Regional Stockyards

 

[stocky]

Now most cattle auctions are their own commission company. The Springfield yards had several commission companies, so you basically had 5 different cattle auctions in the same facility and you could sell through whichever one you wanted to. They sold on a rotation basis. Anguscowman has it right on how it worked. I am thinking it is the same at Oklahoma City. Some people did not feel they were treated properly at Springfield, so it opened the opportunity for many cattle auctions to be built in the area. There were approximately 20 new barns built and this led to the Springfield yards going to almost nothing and then being sold. The owner of Joplin Stockyards bought Springfield, Tri-State, at Diamond and others. There was a large national group that was going to monopolize the cattle auction business at the time and this was an effort to put together the sw Missouri auctions to sell to them. The group sold stock and their stock was worth 80 dollars per share and then it went to nothing and went bankrupt. Joplin's owner, then closed Tri State and Springfield and now runs all of his auction out of Joplin's facility. A group of the Springfield commission company owners got together and built a fantastic, modern barn at Brookline, Mo on I-44. They do not use the multiple commission company approach and are very successful.