A Sale Barn Perspective with the Beaver Stockyards Team

Welcome to a brand new season of Angus at Work! To kick off this year we visited with two individuals who are very familiar with cattle markets and customer service. 

On this episode we travelled to Beaver, Okla., to sit down with Jeff Slatten, owner of Beaver County Stockyards, to hear his opinion on the current cattle markets, what is going well when it comes to cattle marketing, what producers can do to capitalize on the value of their cattle and how the staff at Beaver County keep their buyers and sellers coming back for more each week.

Later in the episode we also took the opportunity to visit with Lane Conkle, voice of the Beaver County Stockyard market report, to hear more about how marketing cattle has changed at Beaver over the last several years.

For more information about cattle markets or the stockyard itself, please visit the Beaver County Stockyards Youtube channel.

Find more information to make Angus work for you in the Angus Beef Bulletin and ABB EXTRA. Make sure you're subscribed! Sign up here to the print Angus Beef Bulletin and the digital Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. Have questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you! Contact our team at abbeditorial@angus.org.

Transcript

Lynsey McAnally (00:04):

Angus at Work, a podcast for the profit-minded cattleman. Brought to you by the Angus Beef Bulletin, we have news and information on health, nutrition, marketing, genetics and management. So let's get to work, shall we?

(00:26)
Hello and welcome back to a brand new season of Angus at Work! To kick off this year, we visited with two individuals who are very familiar with cattle markets and customer service.

(00:37)
I'm Lynsey McAnally, and on today's episode we visited Beaver, Okla., to sit down with Jeff Slatten, owner/operator of Beaver County Stockyards to hear his opinion on the current cattle market, what's going well when it comes to cattle marketing, what producers can do to capitalize on the value of their cattle and how the staff at Beaver County keep their buyers and sellers coming back for more each week. So, let's dive!

(01:03)
All I've got to say this morning is that it was a little bit of a treacherous drive over today. A little bit colder than I was expecting outside.

Jeff Slatten (01:19):
Hey, it's been a little cool. It's a great time to be in the cattle business. You go out and bust some ice.

Lynsey McAnally (01:24):
Yeah, there you go. I think we got a little bit more of the Winter Wonderland side of things than Kansas did. They seem to just have gotten the winter part of it, but hopefully it'll warm up here. I think today our high was 37. Thirty-six or 37?

Jeff Slatten (01:37):
My daughter went snow skiing. Her and her boyfriend. They're damn sure not here busting ice. So they need to get on up here and get it on.

Lynsey McAnally (01:43):
Alright, welcome to Angus at Work. We are here today with Jeff Slatten of Beaver County Stockyards. Welcome, Jeff!

Jeff Slatten (01:51):
Howdy.

Lynsey McAnally (01:52):
Hey, and I just wanted to kind of kick off today talking to you about the history of the barn and seeing if you could tell us a little bit more about yourself.
 
Jeff Slatten (02:01):
We bought the barn here in 2013. We didn't have a really good place to sell our cattle in the country. I felt like we were giving our cattle away. We were getting discriminated against at other barns. They were deciding what our cattle were worth [rather than] letting the cattle decide what they're worth. So here at Beaver, we try to make it where the better cattle bring what they should. That's the reason we purchased the barn. My father-in-law runs a tremendous set of cattle all the time and we didn't feel like he was getting treated fairly when we bring them to the auction barn. We have a true pricing mechanism as Corbett Wall would say.

Lynsey McAnally (02:32):
You and I have talked a little bit about how many cattle you were selling the year that you bought the barn, and I just wanted to see if you could tell us where you were at then and where you're at today.

Jeff Slatten (02:42):
I don't know exactly what we sold then. I know it was under 40,000. My son says it was under 30, but I don't think so and last year we sold over 200,000 head. We've got a room to sell way more than that. We need to get our video going and stuff. We can take very good care of the better cattle. The health needs to be good on them. It's the main thing. We can sell anything.

Lynsey McAnally (03:00):
But as far as where you were at and where you're at now? We talked about the numbers, but the pros and cons of when you first bought the barn. What was going well then and what have you changed as opposed to present day?

Jeff Slatten (03:12):
Nothing was going well when we first bought it. We had to buy almost all the cattle because there was not enough here for anybody to make a load. As we've gotten bigger, it's way easier to run the barn and get the right price for the cattle. The price needs to be right. We need to get what your cattle are worth.
 
Lynsey McAnally (03:28):
And the quality plays a lot into that too.

Jeff Slatten (03:31):
Yes, the guys that do the better job and take care of their cattle probably do not get rewarded enough and the people that don't castrate their cattle or take care of them like they should their dog? They don't get punished enough. There's kind of a happy medium there, but the people that do the best job I don't think get rewarded enough even here.

Lynsey McAnally (03:48):
Well, and that leads pretty well into my next question. You have an amazing relationship with your buyers and your sellers here at Beaver.

Jeff Slatten (03:56):
If something's wrong, we'll fix it. If they get something wrong, I will fix it. I'm not always right, usually I'm wrong. We've got a tremendous group of people helping us. They're all ranchers and cattlemen. Our staff is unbelievable.

Lynsey McAnally (04:10):
And it's very apparent watching the sale here that they know what they're doing and they're treating those cattle as they would treat their own.

Jeff Slatten (04:16):
Yeah, they should. We are working for the customer 100% and after the cattle are sold, I'm working for the buyer 100%. If something gets crippled in the yard after we're done, we'll take them off. I'll eat it. We are working for both ends. It is a very delicate situation.

Lynsey McAnally (04:31):
And I think you guys are riding that line very well. Clearly.

Jeff Slatten (04:36):
When we first bought it and I would bid on all the cattle, it made all the buyers furious, but they're used to it now and nobody gets mad. They understand that the better we take care of the people, the more cattle we're going to get, the more opportunities they have to make a living.

Lynsey McAnally (04:49):
Sure.

Jeff Slatten (04:49):
We've got the best buyers in the nation. Can I name them?

Lynsey McAnally (04:52):
Sure.

Jeff Slatten (04:53):
We've got Scott Vanderham, Scott Lang, Clint Howard, David Dodd - he's from Wichita Mountains over there. Mike Miller's been here the whole time we've owned this. He's helped me every step of the way as well as John Creason. Mike Cantrell just started coming here in the last 8 months. He's a tremendous addition. He will buy anything. He's extremely honest. He owns the sale barn at Holdenville and I'm sure that the salebarn Holdenville is an amazing institution. This guy is amazing.

Lynsey McAnally (05:19):
Anybody else?

Jeff Slatten (05:20):
There's probably some that I missed and I'm sorry, but it is what it is.

Lynsey McAnally (05:23):
Alright, awesome.

Jeff Slatten (05:25):
They treat us wonderful. They know that the cattle are what I think they are and not misrepresented and that usually makes a difference on what we can give for them.

Lynsey McAnally (05:33):
All of that to say, you're cultivating those relationships and they're friendships at this point.

Jeff Slatten (05:40):
They're our friends.

Lynsey McAnally (05:41):
There's a lot of gravity there when it comes to treating everyone fairly. Buyers and sellers.

Jeff Slatten (05:46):
When the cattle come to our barn, every pen has hay and water. We don't have any cement. The pens are real sandy and I think that makes them worth more money.

Lynsey McAnally (05:55):
I've been here a handful of times. I've been here when it's been wet and I've been here when it's been incredibly dry. I will say that cattle out in the lot, they are always comfortable regardless of if it's 102 outside or like it is today.

Jeff Slatten (06:10):
The boys that do all the feeding get no credit. It's unbelievably unfair and I love them. They're the best.

Lynsey McAnally (06:15):
Awesome. So I'll be honest, watching the sale here in Beaver, it's always an experience. You've cultivated something that's far above just a sale.

Jeff Slatten (06:24):
Why should you come here and be all nervous? I'm going to make sure your cattle bring what they should. Where else can you go get a check for a hundred thousand dollars for a load of cattle and have a free cheeseburger? I mean that should be a good time. Not a bad time. It's not like going to the dentist for root canal.

Lynsey McAnally (06:36):
Sure. I've always enjoyed it here. You do a wonderful job of putting on a show. That is one of the things that I love here and interacting with the crowd, which is a huge deal when it comes to hyping everybody up and getting them excited about bidding.

Jeff Slatten (06:49):
Your cattle are just as important to me as they are to you. If they're not, you shouldn't bring them here. If you don't feel that I feel that way, I don't want you to come here. Your cattle should bring what they should.

Lynsey McAnally (06:58):
People have options of where to take their cattle.

Jeff Slatten (07:01):
It's their decision, not mine. It's an honor to get to sell them and if I don't do a good job, I don't deserve your business. If I cannot make you money, do not bring your cattle here.

Lynsey McAnally (07:09):
No, I appreciate that. So do you want to talk a little bit more about your staff?

Jeff Slatten (07:13):
First thing I'd like to talk about is Josh. He's the one that works in the ring. He's got cancer and we've had a huge outflowing for him. He's going to get well. He's got two little kids and he's got another one on the way. He's an amazing person. He does everything for us. He's helped us for eight or nine years and he needs all the prayers he can get. Then, we've got three great auctioneers. Dane Drake's great. Quentin's great too. So is Lance Cochran. The ring men are good, from the guys that unload here to everybody.

Well, I have an amazing staff. My wife's really good in the office, my daughter, my son, Carmen in the cafe. She's amazing. We've got people that want to work and represent this community very well. The hardest part here is selling the cattle when people want their cattle sold. That is amazingly hard. I've almost lost some friends over it, but it don't matter when you sell here, they're going to bring what they should. The market usually gets stronger as the day goes on.

Lynsey McAnally (08:03):
Do you want to talk a little bit about that? I know you've had some pretty late nights here recently.

Jeff Slatten (08:08):
When the cattle come in the ring, I look at them and think what they should bring and I make sure they bring that. If you've got a set of five weight steers and they've been bringing $2.90 to $3.20 all day, I hold them right in that range. They're not all worth exactly the same because of condition and age, but I do my very best and all the buyers help me. The buyers actually help me. They'll probably be mad at me for saying this, but there's not one of them that will not tell me, Jeff, I think them are too cheap. Let's bid them up. Every one of them is good to me. Without the good buyers, we can't have a good salebarn. If the cattle weren't feeding better out of here and less death loss, they wouldn't be bringing what they are. There's something to it.

Lynsey McAnally (08:42):
And that ties in really well I think to the cattle welfare side of things. We talked a little bit before we started recording about cattle welfare and how important that is overall in the industry. What kind of importance are you placing on welfare for those cattle?

Jeff Slatten (08:55):
If you're going to sell your cattle from the middle of September until the 1st of January and you want the really stick out price, they need to be weaned at least 45 days. Seventy would be better. You get into October and you get home and all them cattle are sick. That's the worst feeling in the world. You got a $2,000 calf that dies? That's like losing a family member. If you really like your cattle, you'll castrate them and do all the stuff at home. That is way easier for you guys to do it than it is for us.

Lynsey McAnally (09:21):
We've talked a little bit in the past about issues that you've had arise with people who maybe weren't as truthful about sets of cattle that were brought in.

Jeff Slatten (09:28):
If you bring them cattle in here and I don't think they're right, I'm putting them back on a truck. I don't care who you are, I've put four or five loads back on the truck this winter. I don't want my neighbors to buy a set of calves and half of them die and they're mad at me. They're not mad at the guy that brought them. They don't have a clue. If it's not right, I don't want the cattle.

Lynsey McAnally (09:44):
It's your reputation on the line.

Jeff Slatten (09:47):
And I don't like to see these animals suffer. At the last big sale, we had a guy unload some. I don't know where they came from and I made him load them back up. The week before that I put a full semi-load back on the truck. I am not interested. There are too many good cattle here to try to trick somebody. We're not into tricking anybody. You're going to give a lot of money for stuff in here, but hopefully they're worth it.

Lynsey McAnally (10:07):
Obviously the vaccination part of things is fairly easy for people to grasp the importance of vaccinating. But when it comes to weaning and castrating, can you talk a little bit more about why that is a necessity?

Jeff Slatten (10:19):
You want to send your kid to Walmart without any shots when Covid is going on? There's no difference. If you like your cattle, you're going to take care of them. They need two rounds of a live virus. They need blackleg, they need castrated and they need a little bit of age on them. If you just give them two rounds and blackleg, we can get along really good selling them. But especially on the smaller groups, when you commingle them calves that haven't had any shots ...

Lynsey McAnally (10:43):
It's like kindergarten.

Jeff Slatten (10:44):
Yes. It's really, really hard for the buyers. We're running an experiment right now. We've got the number fives that I buy. We put 270 of them on one wheat field. We lost 17. No, we've put 670, I'm sorry. We doctored 127 of them, 17 of them died. So we sorted the ones off that we've doctored. We're feeding them in a different pen and we're feeding the ones that we never doctored in another pen. We're going to see what the difference is and I'm going to have this printed out where I can show these producers that if they want to make the extra money they need to do the extra work. Nothing in life is easy. You don't just show up there and say "Hey, I'm rich and this is great!" You better do the time.

Lynsey McAnally (11:22):
And I think that we have a lot of producers out there who are doing things the right way, but there's a lot of improvement that could be made as well.

Jeff Slatten (11:28):
I feed quite a few cattle and the Gardiners have a tremendous influence out here, but I'm just using this as an example. The better genetics are worth more money and I don't think they get paid enough for them, but that's the hardest thing to sell out here. It's very hard to sell a bull. Everybody wants to raise a bull and thinks that I can sell it. You can't just sell a bull, you've got to have a story.

Lynsey McAnally (11:47):
Do you mind expanding on that? Jeff Slatten (11:49):

Okay. Say Gerald Radcliffe's got some steers in here. They're Gardiner-based. They've had three rounds of shots, they've been out on grass for 144 days. You can look at them and picture it, but you've got a story and it really helps. Hey, these cattle are right. Let's go boys! Let's make them bring something.

Lynsey McAnally (12:04):
So since July Colby's been working here with you doing videos. What was the original plan for that?

Jeff Slatten (12:10):
I wanted people to see how we conduct business, how we treat people live during a sale. And Colby's a young man, he's got his own film business. He's filming people that are in the NFL promoting their business. If you want to promote your business, you've got to have some kind of social media. You don't just happen.

Lynsey McAnally (12:27):
Exactly.

Jeff Slatten (12:28):
And another thing, I've never went to anybody's ranch and asked them for their cattle, but the way we've got all of our businesses by word of mouth and that's the very best.

Lynsey McAnally (12:36):
And I think you've built the reputation for people to come here. And so that goes back around to having that relationship with your sellers to be able to even learn that information.

Jeff Slatten (12:46):
And that's the reason when somebody sends their cattle in here, I want a list of what they've had. I want them to tell me. I'd like to have every calf in here, all the loads on Saturday so we can get them lined up where they need to sell. We can sell them in the right hole. When we're selling heifers, we need to sell heifers. That way we can get all the heifers sold when we've got the buyers and everybody's paying attention. Everything needs to be lined up and ran smoothly, which is extremely difficult.

Lynsey McAnally (13:09):
And when you talk about having on an average sale week, how many cattle are you going to sell on a Tuesday?

Jeff Slatten (13:15):
Four thousand. Last year, we never sold under 2,000 in a week.

Lynsey McAnally (13:18):
And you're doing two-day sales during the fall?

Jeff Slatten (13:21):
We're going to do two-day sales from now on, I think.

Lynsey McAnally (13:23):
Okay.

Jeff Slatten (13:24):
We'll probably have at least 1,000, maybe 1,500 cows. And when you sell them cows, it's a lot of one at a time and they handle very bad because most of these cows are a little bit poor than what they need to be and it makes them a little cranky.

Lynsey McAnally (13:37):
That goes pretty well into my next question, which is do you have recommendations for producers on the best time of the year to evaluate those females to decide what you're going to sell and when to actually market them?

Jeff Slatten (13:47):
It's just like selling your calves. Everybody wants to sell on the same day. "Hey, it's the 20th of October, let's sell them!' Then everybody's here. You don't get the best price. Then I think we get out there to June and July. I think a killer bull will bring $2.00. No problem. Everything in life's about timing. You get timed up right, you're good. You get out of time, you're going to be broke one year. Your cattle could have $400 or $500 a head difference in what they're worth. At least $300. They're worth more right now. Right now the calves are going to bring $300 more than they did in October. But if you don't have to dock them, they're probably worth $500 a head more.

Lynsey McAnally (14:21):
Typically around here, when are our calving dates and when would people typically be making decisions on marketing open females.

Jeff Slatten (14:29):
There's a year round calver. There's fall calvers and spring calvers. My favorite time to calve is in the fall because you've got a product in the summer, you can wean them calves and you can run them in the fall and you've got something good to sell that fall. But everybody wants to calve in the spring because it's easier and that's what dad did. But easier is not always better.

Lynsey McAnally (14:46):
But if you are calving in the fall and weaning in the summertime, what would be the opportune time to probably evaluate those females at that point. And then market them?

Jeff Slatten (14:55):
4th of July is always a great time to sell a cow or bull. There's not very many cows moving at that time. It's always a great time to sell a cow.

Lynsey McAnally (15:02):
So when it comes to those females, I know in the past you've had some issues with people waiting a little bit too long.

Jeff Slatten (15:08):
If your cows are not fat enough to get on your trailer, they're not fat enough to sell here. You can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit. You may not can put that on. I have more trouble with producers that don't take care of their cattle. They don't think they're getting the right price. They're getting the price that they deserve, the effort. Everything in life's about effort. You usually get what you pay for in life.

Lynsey McAnally (15:28):
No, that makes sense. I can recall a Facebook post from a while back that was geared toward that same kind of idea. I can't remember exactly how it was phrased, but you were basically telling folks that they need to keep that in mind and that if their cattle were poor, that they probably needed to find another barn to take those cattle to. Can you talk a little bit about that? Why that's your opiniona?

Jeff Slatten (15:51):
If somebody's going to be mad, you can already tell when they come here they need to go somewhere else and they can be mad at them. We're going to do our very best every time. Our effort is unmatched. If we can't please you, don't come here. It's no problem.

Lynsey McAnally (16:03):
And you guys have really cultivated selling a quality product regardless of whether it's a feeder-calf, a cull cow, a bull, breeding stock, whatever that may be.

Jeff Slatten (16:13):
Yes, we're going to have three herd dispersals on cows on Wednesday and there's not many young people that can afford to do this who can give $2,000 for a calf and wait two and a half years for return when you're paying 10% interest. I don't know what the answer is and I don't know where we're headed, but I don't know how much higher it can get because of the economy. Money's a real problem. It is a real problem. A million dollars will buy you five loads of cattle. That is terrible. When I first started, a million dollars would buy 20 loads of cattle. Somebody trying to get started in this ... If you don't have any help, it's impossible.

Lynsey McAnally (16:45):
I think when we talk about the U.S. cattle herd as a whole, that's a concerning topic.

Jeff Slatten (16:50):
If the corporate guys could figure out how to manage the health on these calves, they would be just like the pigs. That is the only good thing about it being such a problem to straighten all these calves out. That's the only reason that corporates don't own all this. And I'm glad the corporates are here. They do a lot of business here. I'm not running them down. I'm just telling you that's why they don't own the whole thing like they do the pigs.

What a better place to raise your kids. We're raising kids, not cattle. This is great.

There's not a better place to raise your kids or your friends' kids or your employees. It's amazing.
 
Lynsey McAnally (17:19):
Okay, so what are you doing besides the theatrics that is the sale itself and how entertaining that we've made this place and the quality that you've cultivated here, what are you doing to build those relationships with your buyers and bring in potentially new buyers to Beaver?

Jeff Slatten (17:36):
It's hard to get new buyers in here because the guys that are here are real territorial. They take care of their stuff. They're going to take care of this barn. They babysit me like no others. They're worth their weight in gold.

Lynsey McAnally (17:47):
My next question has a little bit to do with the community here in Beaver. We've talked about how wonderful your employees are, but can you talk a little bit about the effect that this barn has on Beaver as a whole?

Jeff Slatten (18:00):
Well, if somebody needs something or they've had a crisis, we always try to help. When Josh got sick, we raised over $200,000 for him. People from Iowa were sending money. The quality of people in this business are amazing and our community's amazing. There's not any oil and gas left here to promote the community. So on Tuesday and Wednesdays, well every day of the week now, it's busy. We start receiving cattle on Thursday and Friday. We're still shipping out cows on Thursday and Friday. There's people working here every day.

Lynsey McAnally (18:36):
And how big is your staff here at the barn?

Jeff Slatten (18:39):
I couldn't tell you. I think on sale days there's 40 or 50 people.

Lynsey McAnally (18:42):
Wow.

Jeff Slatten (18:43):
There's 20 people that work for me. We have three welders that work here. I've got a carpenter crew that's worked here for two and a half years and we're just continually fixing the place. I'm not satisfied at all.

Lynsey McAnally (18:55):
So I actually looked up the population of Beaver and it looked like as of 2023 we were sitting at almost 1,300 people. So to employ 40 or 50 here in this community, that's saying something.

Jeff Slatten (19:09):
On a given week, if say we have 5,000 head, they've got 50 head to a load. You've got a hundred loads in and a hundred semi loads out. They eat here. When they come here they have to fill up a diesel. We need to put a truck wash in here or something to really get this place going. There's some opportunities here if some people want to work.

Lynsey McAnally (19:29):
For a community the size of Beaver to have a barn that's doing the volume of cattle that you all are doing and bringing in as many buyers and sellers as you are ... I think that's a testament to what you guys have built here. And I know you're a pretty humble guy.

Jeff Slatten (19:44):
We've got a great location right in the center of all these feed yards. Our location, it stinks because we don't have a Walmart or anything for your wife to do when she comes here, but if you want top money for your cattle, come on out.

Lynsey McAnally (19:56):
Hey, I think it's pretty entertaining. There's a lot of good people that come out here and I can just sit and watch all day long. We talked a little bit about your hopes in the future for the barn a little while ago, but can you talk to me about what you are hoping to see happen over maybe the next 10 years?

Jeff Slatten (20:15):
I want to sell all the fancy cattle and good cattle here. I want everything to be right. I want them to be comfortable when they come here and I want to sell all the quality cattle around here through this barn or on our video.

Lynsey McAnally (20:25):
And speaking of video, I know that's something that you guys have put in recently. Can you talk a little bit about what that currently looks like and where you're hoping that goes?

Jeff Slatten (20:34):
Well, I would like to get where we're selling 50-100,000 head a year on it in the next two years. It saves a lot of stress on the cattle. We're going to be set up different than any other video deal. We're going to have guys that know what they're doing, come out and help. It's going to be really good. We're going to represent your cattle right. If something's wrong, we're not going to sell your cattle. We're not going to make up anything. It's going to be correct.

Lynsey McAnally (20:56):
And currently people can just log on and watch the sale. Correct? I'll get that linked over there for people to take a look.

Jeff Slatten (21:03):
You can only be good at one thing in life. You can be really good at one or two things. You can't be good at everything. So everybody here has a purpose. Lane's in charge of the social media. My kid's in charge of the penback. My wife's in charge of the office. Elliott and Rob are in charge of the unloading. Sean Campbell's in charge of the outside during the sale. Dan Conway's in charge of the cattle when they come in. The auctioneers are in charge of the ring. You can't have everybody in charge of too much stuff. Then you have nobody in charge of nothing.

Lynsey McAnally (21:32):
Everybody has a specialty.

Jeff Slatten (21:34):
Yes. And you figure out what your specialty is and let's make this work.

Lynsey McAnally (21:38):
And you guys do that really well. It's surprising to me how something that could be a three-ring circus. You guys do such a good job of organizing that and making it as painless as possible on folks to get cattle unloaded. And I'm assuming loading goes the same way, but probably on a larger scale.

Jeff Slatten (21:53):
Loading is very hard. The guys that load out at night are incredible. Grady Franz does that a lot. It is extremely tedious.

Lynsey McAnally (22:01):
And I looked on the website. I know that you guys have done a lot of work outside as far as pens and load outs. Can you talk a little bit about that? Maybe what the barn looked like previously and why you felt like that was something you needed to do?

Jeff Slatten (22:14):
The barn would hold about 800 head of cattle when we bought it. Now, we'll hold 10,000 pretty easy, but it's almost impossible to sell 10,000 because you have 200 different producers. There'll be 1,000 head in the jackpot with 10 or less head on it. So it eats up all your pin space. It don't matter if you've got three head or 300, it takes a pen.

Lynsey McAnally (22:36):
Sure.

Jeff Slatten (22:36):
So we're going to get this organized where we talk the guys with fewer cattle to bring them later in the afternoon on Tuesdays. They'll bring the same amount of money. It's way easier on the cattle. They won't be mad at me for standing in the pens.

Lynsey McAnally (22:47):
Can you talk about what a typical day looks like on a Tuesday and then maybe what that's kind of turned into here recently with some of the later nights you guys have had?

Jeff Slatten (22:55):
Well, the boys start at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning feeding. Everything has pellets and hay before the sale. Everything that can eat them. Then we start the auction at 7:00. You have to have cattle sorted up and ready to go. And sometimes we've been selling it until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. It stinks.

Lynsey McAnally (23:12):
Yeah.

Jeff Slatten (23:12):
But there's not very much price difference in them. The highest cattle we've ever sold here, were at 10:30 at night. That's the highest cattle we've ever sold at this barn. So everybody that wants to sell early, I'm good with it. But you might not get the highest price. They're going to bring what they're worth. The price is right.

Lynsey McAnally (23:29):
We talked about where you're hoping the barn goes in the future. We've talked about the infrastructure that you've put in place. Where do you see the market going in the near future?

Jeff Slatten (23:38):
Well, it can't stay at an all time high forever, can it? Anybody that thinks that it's going to stay here forever is crazy. I think we could have a little bit more up in it this fall. I think it'll be higher than it is now. Then all bets are off.

Lynsey McAnally (23:49):
Yeah. We've been talking about record high prices it feels like for over a year at this point. I think I looked back and it had been two years that we had been talking about pretty high prices and it just seems like it keeps going up and up. I'm curious when we will reach a point where it doesn't?

Jeff Slatten (24:08):
Everybody's talking about the price of the beef being too high. Everything else is high too. If you look at it, nobody cares what something costs. Can I get the money to get it? A new car in the eighties cost what? $5,000 or $6,000? You could buy something. And now they're $50,000. Cattle haven't went up 10 times, so I still don't feel like they're too high for what you're getting. It's still the cheapest place in the world to eat.

Lynsey McAnally (24:31):
I'm down to a couple more questions, Jeff. I promise.

Jeff Slatten (24:34):
It's good.

Lynsey McAnally (24:35):
But what is one opportunity you see for sellers in the coming year, whether that's here at Beaver or elsewhere?

Jeff Slatten (24:41):
Well, we're at an all time high. I don't know. Get your cattle ready to sell where somebody will remember when your cattle gave no problems. I'm keeping a sheet where you're tagging all of our cattle. I know the cattle that did not perform well. If your cattle perform well for me this year and for my neighbors, well, I'm going to try to make sure they bring what they should do. Do the extra work. If you're going to do the time you need to do the crime. Fix it where it's right.

Lynsey McAnally (25:08):
Build that reputation and have cattle that live up to the reputation.

Jeff Slatten (25:13):
Health is the main thing. Healthy, healthy, healthy. I don't care if they're Herefords, blacks or Charolais. Get them healthy. You never had a dead one make any money. I closed out a pen of cattle last week. Eight of them died and cattle lost $274 a piece. The other pen that I closed out made $200 because we didn't have any health problems with it. And believe me, I looked up whose cattle they were.

Lynsey McAnally (25:39):
Alright, obviously you have a great relationship with your buyers. What's one opportunity for your buyers in the coming year?

Jeff Slatten (25:45):
They just know that the cattle here are going to be right.

Lynsey McAnally (25:47):
And your goal is to keep it that way.

Jeff Slatten (25:49):
It's going to stay that way. Or else I'm not going to own the barn. If you feel like I haven't told you the truth, please don't come back.

Lynsey McAnally (25:54):
Bold statements, but something that you live by. Which I think when you say something, people know that you mean it.

Jeff Slatten (26:00):
I do mean it. It is what it is. If I can't make you money, I don't want you to come here either. If you're not sure that I'm going to do my best and I'm going to try to not try to make you money, I don't want you to come here. If you don't feel like that we're outworking our competition, I don't want your business. If you want the hot best price for your cattle, do the work.

Lynsey McAnally (26:16):
Awesome. Alright, so we typically close out the podcast with something good that's going on in your life that can be personal, that can be professional. What's something good that's going on in Jeff's Slatten's life?

Jeff Slatten (26:30):
I've got all these kids here that work for me. They're amazing. One of them lives with me. I love them. They're great. They do everything for me. So the best part about having the business is having the relationship with these young people that work for me and there's a whole bunch of them. You come here, every one of these kids are amazing. There's 30 or 40 of them. Anybody would be glad to call them their friend.

Lynsey McAnally (26:49):
So I appreciate you sitting down with me today. Thank you for sharing a little bit about the barn and where you hope it's going to go over the next few years.

Jeff Slatten (26:59):
If it don't get any bigger, I'm good with it. If it gets bigger, I'm good with it. I just want to make sure we conduct business the right way.

Lynsey McAnally (27:05):
I can't think of a better way to end it than right there. Thank you.

Adding value to their customer's experience is something Beaver County truly invests in. Through market updates available on multiple social media channels, Beaver County has developed an entertaining and informative market update viewed at home and abroad. We visited with Lane Conkle, voice of the Beaver County market report, to learn more.

So here's our continuation of the conversation here at Beaver County Stockyards. I'm here with Lane Conkle. Welcome, Lane.

Lane Conkle (27:40):
How are you today?

Lynsey McAnally (27:41):
Doing great. Doing great. So real quick, do you mind telling us a little bit about what you do here at Beaver?

Lane Conkle (27:49):

My role here, it has definitely evolved over time. I actually owned this deal a long time ago and then kind of went out on my own when we sold it. And then when Jeff and Jerry bought it, I was helping sort out here. Every time they've needed something done, I've kind of been the person that stepped in and helped fill a void. So in today's world, I deal with just about all of the sellers. I deal with a lot of the buyers on a day-to-day basis. Most of my time is on the phone just dealing with the buyers and the sellers. It's getting big enough now that's two full-time jobs.

Lynsey McAnally (28:24):
It's something that we talked a lot with Jeff about was just how amazing the relationship is between this barn and everyone that has something to do with it, whether they be buyers or sellers. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Lane Conkle (28:37):
This barn has always been a cow -calf barn at its root core. And so for years it is had a very close relationship with the cow-calf producer. And as Jeff has worked to build the yearling side of it, we're seeing that same level of comfort develop with the yearling guys. This place has more of a down home feel than a lot of places. Jeff does a really good job of keeping things upbeat. We've all sat in those sales when it's just doom and gloom and you can hear a pin drop other than the auctioneer. And there's a little more excitement level here. We try to keep it, I mean we're all in it to make money, but we've all been here before and we'll probably be here next week and the week after that. So we just as well have a little bit of fun in the meantime.

Lynsey McAnally (29:36):
It's a very entertaining place to be.

Lane Conkle (29:39):
If you can't dodge popsicles and ice cream sandwiches, this probably isn't the sale barn for you because Jeff will make a trip around there once in a while and just go to firing them in the crowd. And another thing that we do, a really good job of here is kids absolutely love to come with their parents to the sale here. And I even remember as a kid loving to go to the sale, but back then you went and sat by dad and you didn't move or make a peep. I mean, if you went outside, you probably ended up getting a whipping before the day was over. But we take really good care of the kids. We try to just make this a total family experience. And I walk through our lobby half the dime. When you come through there, you got to dodge four or five different toys in the lobby and that's again, something you don't see everywhere. And that's just part of the scenery here. So that relationship with our customers, I mean obviously not every single one is going to be perfect, but the vast majority of our customers we have a very close relationship with and there's a lot of trust there.

Lynsey McAnally (30:52):
It's certainly a destination. And every time I've stepped foot on the property, I told Jeff this, I've always felt welcome. Someone stopped me and said hello, asked who I was and why I was here. And that's not something that you find everywhere, but this place is pretty special.

Lane Conkle (31:07):
Yes, in that regard, we do take our customer service very seriously.

Lynsey McAnally (31:12):
Well, you do a lot of videos here primarily on the markets. Is that right? Can you tell us a little bit about how that got started and where it's at right now?

Lane Conkle (31:21):
So started out simple enough, I've done the radio side of things here forever. And the guy that, the fellow that does our IT, he approached me and I can't even really put a time on this three to five years ago, I don't know, he was pushing YouTube. I don't even know all of the social platforms, but he was pushing the social media side of things and asked if I would be willing to do this as a video rather than just a radio ad. And so yes, we started off him holding the camera, filming me in the ring. We've evolved past that. I honestly today don't even know how many platforms we go out on, but I think if it's social media, I think we're on it. And I used to say I have a face for radio and I think that's probably still true, but the poor people that actually have to look at me, they're just stuck with it.

Lynsey McAnally (32:25):
Do you have any idea what the reach is?

Lane Conkle (32:27):
I don't know hard numbers, but I do know that there's platforms out there where we get 20-40,000 views a week, which I don't know, that seems like a lot to me. We had some people here from, there was a tour group from, they were Welsh from over in England here. And when I walked into the lobby, I saw some of them kind of pointing, well, they all watch our deal over there.

Lynsey McAnally (32:53):
Wow.

Lane Conkle (32:53):
So there's an international, I actually talked to our IT guy and he said we actually have our big following in Brazil of all places.

Lynsey McAnally (33:02):
So can you tell us a little bit about what you include in those videos? And also I will be including in the notes for anybody listening the link to the YouTube channel as well. But just tell us a little bit about what those videos look like.

Lane Conkle (33:13):
So we do two a week. We do the consignment video, which obviously I do it Monday about noon by then. We usually have a pretty good feel for where the sale's going. So I go through, I don't list individual consignments, but I give a rough overview of what we have for calves, what we have for yearlings, what we have for cows. If there's any featured consignments in there, I'll touch on them. There's always something that we're trying to put out to our customers right now. We're going to be putting out a lot about the video sales, the video sale option. So there will be a little part in there where I will talk about that. And then I always wrap that deal up talking about we have such a tremendous crew, the people in the office, the whole ...

Lynsey McAnally (34:01):
Organization.

Lane Conkle (34:02):
The whole organization, yes. And so I always try and make sure that that's a point of emphasis at the end. We have exceptional buyers, our cattle quality is really good. So I always try and end each one touching on at least three or four of those points.

Lynsey McAnally (34:19):
Awesome. So with all of that said, where do you see the market right now?

Lane Conkle (34:25):
We're in the best market we've ever seen. Now that doesn't always equate into dollars in your pocket because we just came out of one of the highest inflationary economies we've seen in years. So really a lot of this tremendous market has been for a lot has been just about survival. It's great when they're selling, if you're having to come back and restock behind that, the fun goes out of it quickly. That's kind of a double-edged sword. All that being said, there are protective measures out there and there's not a one size fits all for anybody. But going forward, I think we are in for some tremendous good markets. But with that comes the possibility of some tremendous market falls. And so we are stressing pretty hard for our customers to at least take precautionary measures. They're not going to go lock in a $200/head profit in today's world, but sometimes not losing $400/head and breaking even is a win.

Lynsey McAnally (35:37):
Risk management.

Lane Conkle (35:38):
The risk management is going to be very key going through the next several years. I say with 80% certainty that this next turn of cattle we're probably fairly safe, but there's no guarantee. I mean, we all know world politics plays such a big part of our own domestic markets that something that happens in Russia can have adverse effects on what happens here. So there's a lot of variables out of our control that we do need to kind of try and at least offset.

Lynsey McAnally (36:10):
Do you mind real quick, Lane, telling us a little bit about the USDA market reporter that you have here on site?

Lane Conkle (36:16):
So the USDA has market reporters in sale barns all over the country, but they're not in every single barn. And we started the process probably four or five years ago working to get a market reporter in here. Obviously, it took four to five years for this to come to fruition, but we grew the demand. And their need for cattle reporting in this part of the world changed. So we now have a USDA market reporter at our calf sale on Tuesday and our cow sale on Wednesday. She reports both. Savannah Fick, she's the market reporter and good lady. I don't know if I can say this or not, but she's actually my girlfriend.

Lynsey McAnally (37:08):
That's awesome.

Lane Conkle (37:10):
Savannah has stepped in and filled in admirably. She does not come from a cattle background at all, but she's been running around with me for a couple of years and come to find out she is a very good student.

Lynsey McAnally (37:26):
So the last thing that I have a question about, or rather I shouldn't say the last thing I have a question about, but the last question I have written down is can you tell us a little bit about the vet here on site and what that individual does for your buyers and your sellers?

Lane Conkle (37:42):
So the vet that we have here, his name is Jesse. He's from Buffalo, Okla., and is part of the Buffalo Vet Clinic. First thing you notice about Jesse is he's about 6' 5", 6' 6". So he just keeps going and going and going. But he oversees every health aspect of the market. Now, does that mean he stands there and studies every calf? No, it does not. He keeps all the paperwork up on all of the eID tags. He keeps us informed on what has to be tagged, what doesn't. Because with the dairy cattle and the Longhorn cattle, that kind of changes with time.

Obviously he preg checks any cows that need to be preg checked. He keeps all the health in line there. He writes all the health papers for anything leaving here that's going to another state. Jesse, he's a very real world vet. There's a lot of I-dotting and T-crossing in the rules and Jesse knows how to make those fit what's actually happening. Boots on the ground. And one of his biggest contributions to the whole process is his ability to, at the drop of a hat, we got a load of cows going to Iowa. He can make that happen. And you can't move cattle on any kinds of numbers without you're going to have interstate travel. That's just the way it is. And every state is different.

Lynsey McAnally (39:20):
Especially with new eID rules.

Lane Conkle (39:22):
Oh yes. And I mean we've got guys calling regularly right now. The USDA in what it's put out there has a lot of these ranchers believing they have to have this new eID tag in the ear of the cow before she can even come to town, which they do not. The new eID tag is just replacing the old metal ID tag. But the way all of that came out, it made a lot of them believe they had to have it done beforehand, which they don't. But Jesse guides us through that maze and keeping me and Jeff on the straight and narrow would not be the easiest thing ever. So Jesse's got an uphill battle there to say the least.

Lynsey McAnally (40:01):
He is an absolute gem.

Lane Conkle (40:04):
He is a one. He is sure enough a one.

Lynsey McAnally (40:06):
Awesome. Okay, well, we always end the podcast ... I did this with Jeff too. I'm going to give you the opportunity as well to end with something good that's going on in your life. Either personally or in the business. So what is something good going on in Lane's life?

Lane Conkle (40:23):
It's kind of interesting question and it's kind of a two-part with me right now. Obviously, professionally I'm probably doing as well as I've ever done. But I suppose the biggest growth phase? I had four kids and I've got them all graduated.

Lynsey McAnally (40:41):
That's a huge accomplishment.

Lane Conkle (40:42):
That's a huge accomplishment. None of them are in prison. So there's that! Watching them progress in their adult lives. And then my girlfriend has four kids of her own.

Lynsey McAnally (40:53):
You guys are a real Brady bunch.

Lane Conkle (40:55):
Yes, it kind of is, but in a cool way. It's been refreshing. I guess for me, her youngest is six. So just seeing the difference in raising boys and girls has been a fun thing for me. To me, a family is the most important thing we have. So all of this? You do all of this to have that.

It all goes hand in hand. But yes, the kid side of things, just watching the adults kids become good adults and the high school kids be constructive citizens as teenagers. And then little Tootie, I don't have the word no with her ...

Lynsey McAnally (41:40):
Rightfully so!

Lane Conkle (41:52):
And she knows it. And as Jeff said earlier, this is a great place both in this community and in this industry, a great place to raise kids. It is a tremendous area to raise kids. And obviously lifestyle-wise, you can't say enough about teaching. You can teach a kid how to work and we all see the downside of so many kids that have had everything done for them and then all of a sudden, boom, here it is. And they're just supposed to know how to do all this? Well, things that they're having to learn at 18 and 20 these ranch kids started learning when they were three and four. So there's a huge, huge difference in what these kids can do when they actually are required to become an adult. And then, one other quick little note, I've been with this salebarn from when my dad and I moved down here in 2002 and I've been associated with this salebarn ever since then for all but about five years. And even then we bought cattle out of here. So to see the growth phase of this salebarn going from what it was when I came here in 2002 to going over 200,000 head this year and being the market that it is, I mean, that's what we created here is a regional market. That's very exciting.

Lynsey McAnally (43:08):
It has to be a very fulfilling feeling. Lane Conkle (43:11):

It is. Although I've told Jeff and Jerry more than once, we worked our butts off to get to this point, just to work them off some more, but that's life.

Lynsey McAnally (43:18):
Yeah. Well it's an incredible place to be. I always enjoy visiting and thank you for taking the time to sit down and talk with us.

Lane Conkle (43:23):
Yep, sounds good.
 
Lynsey McAnally (43:29):
Listeners, for more information on making Angus work for you, check out the Angus Beef Bulletin and the Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. You can subscribe to both publications in the show notes. If you have questions or comments, let us know at abbeditorial@angus.org. And we would appreciate it if you would leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode with any other profit-minded cattlemen. Thanks for listening. This has been Angus At Work!