My first visit to the stockyard

The Stockyard is where they auction livestock.  Sometimes called a salebarn.  The one in Crossville is on Sat, the one in Cookeville on Tue, and there's one on Mon somewhere I think.  All during the day, obviously for people who do this for a living, and not your 8-5 worker (save maybe the one in Crossville).

Now, I was never one to go to a sale barn, or cattle auction.  I thought it was awful as the animals are usually from bad backgrounds: grain fed, you never know what you get, sometimes the fresh cows aren't milked that morning so they look good and swollen so you'll think they're good milkers.  BUT, Arlis mentioned the going rate and selling Marcus's calf.  So, we went to look at one, even though the calf sold beforehand, just to educate ourselves just in case. 

We get there about a half hour early so we can see what they have available.  They had a catwalk that went over all the pens.  It was pretty nice structurally speaking, although I will admit they could probably make more in selling spiders, spider webs, and dust than in commission.

We go in and sit high up in the back so as not to be noticed by the auctioneer.  Then they started auctioning off the animals.  I've heard auctioneers before and knew I would have to learn to understand them, but this guy was just plain stupid in the way he delivered the prices.  I don't see how anyone understood most of what he said, although I did eventually figure out the going bid and what it sold for, and I think the buyer's number.  They had a TV screen with numbers all over it, and between my dad, husband, and myself, I think we understood about half of them.

number of the sale (increased incrementally, starting at 1),  ST (steer) HF (heifer-at least we think that's what they were), number of the animal (they had little orange stickers attached to them), weight of the animal or average weight if sold as a group, selling price per 100 pounds, another number that was usually 42, 46 or so that we think may be the buyer's number, and the total selling price.

This is shown as:

12   465   HF
8806

and then after the final bid:

12  465  HF
8806  115.50  537.08

I'm sure you can see why it took us a while to figure it out.

After learning the above, providing it's accurate, I started to look around to see what exactly was being used to show the auctioneer they were indeed placing a bid.  I saw nothing.  I had not once made eye contact with the auctioneer for fear he might think it were me placing a bid.  Neither had the one guy that just placed a bid.  I had kept my hands still and near my face...just like the guy that just placed a bid...uh oh...

"Dear....dear!" (violent whispering)  "Let's go.  Now!"  He looks at me quizzically.  "I think I just bought $10,000 in cattle.  Let's go NOW!" 

I don't know how many cattle I bought that day.  I truly hope none at all.  I did see a woman give someone who worked there a paper she had written on, possibly her name and such.  We never gave anyone any info, so I'm not sure how they know who bought it or not.  But we non-nonchalantly traversed to the little freshly painted Tercel, and went home...praying the whole time we did not inadvertently short change a seller.

We never found out what a Holstein there would bring, but I did learn that people did not judge on much more than color.  If it was black, they wanted it.  Allow me to inform you, that just b/c it's black, does not mean it's Angus, and just b/c it's Angus, does not mean it's good.  Angus is not the best meat around.  I can tell you that too.  But, that's what the buyers wanted.  If it was black, it went for 115-125 per 100 pounds, but other colors went for less than 100 per 100 pounds.  The steers also sold for more than the heifers.  I had always thought heifers were worth more, but I guess these buyers were in it for meat only.

I can tell you I'm never going to another one unless they have little bidding paddles or explain to me the rules....