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AdvertisementDairy cattle sales come to HerefordA pen of heifers running through a sale ring is not a particularly rare sight in the Texas Panhandle. However, it is a little unusual if those heifers are black and white Holsteins bound for one of the many new dairies that have relocated in the region. On Oct. 6, Hereford Livestock Auction re-opened under the ownership of the Cattleman's Livestock Commission of Dalhart, Texas. In a change from the norm, this new auction barn will offer monthly open and bred dairy female sales on the second Tuesday of each month, as well as regular weekly packer cow sales on the remaining Tuesdays. This new service for dairymen in the Hereford area is the idea of owner Matt Wing and Dairy Sale Manager Chad Lowry. "We thought this would be a good challenge for us," Wing said. "We thought about buying this barn (in Hereford) for about a year, but we thought it was too far for us to travel from Dalhart to manage it. And then, Chad came down and he was a perfect fit for what we wanted to do here." Right idea, right time With the influx of large dairies in the Hereford area, an auction barn specializing in dairy cattle sales is a perfect fit, Lowry said. Lowry should know. He came to Texas from a lifetime in the dairy auctioneer business in Idaho. "Chad ran the largest dairy sale in Idaho," Wing said. Lowry explained that he saw the Texas Panhandle as a region for growth in the dairy industry, and thought it was a good time to move for himself and his family. The new dairy female auction located in Hereford is a logical choice for the partners, especially since the number of large dairies with 500 or more head in the Texas Panhandle has grown since 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Ag Statistics Service's 2007 Farm Census. According to USDA-NASS, in 2007 Texas had about 1,300 dairy operations. About 700 of those could be classified as small, raising an average of one to 29 head. However, nearly 200 of those Texas dairies raised 500 head or more on average in 2007. The number of dairy cows, according to NASS, has grown from an average of 389,000 in 2007 to about 418,000 in 2008. Economics and environmental concerns are some of the reasons for the increase in dairies. The Texas Panhandle is rapidly becoming a dairy-friendly region for large dairies being squeezed out by urban sprawl. Others move for low cost feed, inexpensive land, and a climate conducive to concentrated livestock operations. And Wing and Lowry think those new dairymen will need a trusted source for their replacement female sales and other dairy auction services. "We think we'll have replacement females and cattle consigned from all over Texas, on into Colorado and Kansas, and from as far away as California and Idaho," Lowry added. "We tout that we have gavel, will travel." Updates and renovations The sale barn is still undergoing a facelift of sorts. The crews were cleaning the sale ring and offices, and conducting necessary repairs on other parts of the facility, right up until sale time Oct. 6. Lowry said he hopes the barn will be a good economic neighbor to the people of Hereford. He explained most of the crew will be retained, because of their experience with the sale and the region's livestock producers. "We'll have the same veterinarians and inspectors on hand," Lowry said. "Both the Dalhart location and this new Hereford location will be family-operated and we are here to stay," Wing added. "We'll have trucks available and we want to use as many local people as we can from the Hereford area." Lowry and Wing were excited for the place to finally feel like "home" and were ready to hit the ground running for their first sale Oct. 6. Inaugural sale On the first Tuesday sale day, the doors opened in Hereford and when the gavel came down for the last time 1,157 head had gone through the barn, Lowry said. "We had 1,000 cows consigned for our first dairy special sale," Lowry said. Buyers came from as far away as Pennsylvania and Georgia to the east, and Idaho and Arizona to the west, he said. "The buyers were enthusiastic and we had some nice cattle here," Lowry added. "A lot were people we've done business with in the past, but some were local, too." The dairy female market was strong, Lowry said. "The top heifer brought $1,470, and the top 40 to 50 heifers brought an average of $1,380," he said. "We had some 550-pound open heifers at $1.55 (per hundredweight) and some 8-weights that went for $1.20 (per hundredweight)." Additionally, the market saw 150 packer cows go through the sale, and they brought an average of $38 to $52.50, Lowry said. "We had four different packer buyers here, and competition was good." While the new Hereford Livestock Auction is not yet a USDA-reported sale, the partners have hopes that it will be soon. "We have to build our numbers so that we can bring in more buyers, and that will bring us to the attention of the sale reporters," Wing said. The signs are there that this new dairy sale will be a good venture for Wing and Lowry. "We know we need to have a fair amount of animals to make it worth it for our buyers to come here, to justify getting on a plane and buying a truckload or two," Lowry said. And, if future sales continue on this trend, soon Hereford, the town that beef cattle built, may see many more black and white cattle coming through the ring. Jennifer M. Latzke can be reached by phone at 620-227-1807, or by e-mail at jlatzke@hpj.com. Advertisement
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