A Silver Celebration 25 years of WVM success by CCA Director of Communications Stevie Ipsen
It’s officially been 25 years since well-known California cattle marketeers, Col. John Rodgers and Ellington Peek came together with a common vision – a vision that they both foresaw as evolving the way cattle were sold for California beef producers and others throughout the West. That’s not to say the idea to start a video sale company was a spur-of-the-moment decision. In fact, both Rodgers and Peek had held video sales before, both on their own and together, and the idea of a company dedicated to satellite marketing seemed far-fetched – both to some cattle producers and to Rodgers and Peek. The formation of the video sale company was a long time in the making. In 1989, the pair, with some persuasion from family and friends decided to take the plunge into the satellite marketing business.
Starting Up
“I had thought a lot about starting a video marketing company, but I knew I was going to need a much bigger volume of cattle than I could gather on my own,” Rodgers said. “Ellington was (and still is) one of the most well respected men in the livestock industry as a whole. He had a giant trade area and was the best at getting cattle consigned to the video.” Rodgers said he would be remiss if he didn’t mention that Ellington’s late son, Andy Peek, was actually more on board with the idea of a video marketing company initially. Peek agreed with Rodgers saying that Andy was young, ambitious, had a lot of good ideas and was on board with the video marketing idea from the onset. “Ellington soon came along and has been far and away Western Video Market’s biggest asset. There wouldn’t be a Western Video Market without Ellington Peek. I’ve never met anyone in the marketing business
18 California Cattleman June 2014
who is more dedicated to making sure our customers’ cattle sell to their best advantage,” Rodgers said. “I’ve learned a great deal about selling cattle, the livestock business in general, and life from Ellington. I think the fact that Ellington truly likes his fellow man is his greatest asset.” As for Ellington Peek, who is known for being a man of his word, he said his main reason for choosing to start a company with Rodgers was that he knew him to also be a man who could solidify a deal with a handshake and stand by his word. “Of course, it didn’t hurt that John knew a lot of producers in the southern part of the state, while I had connections with northern producers,” Peek said. The idea of starting a company together came full circle as Rodgers and Peek held their first video satellite sale in Visalia in April 1990. Three months later 25,000 head were sold at the first ever Reno Western Video Market at John Ascuaga’s Nugget. The pair decided that since the Reno sale had been well received, they would try another stab at it in December. The following summer, the video sale expanded to a two-day sale where between 80,000 and 90,000 head of cattle were traded; and history was made. From that point forward, WVM held multiple sales throughout the year, topping numbers upwards of 200,000 cattle per sale. According to Peek’s memoir, “When to Buy…When to Sell,” in the 20 years of WVM, from 1990 to 2010, the video auction company has marketed 9,000,000 head. An indisputable fact is that the company changed how beef producers and buyers in the West do business. According to Mike Byrne, of Robert A. Byrne Co., Tulelake, who has been consigning cattle to the video since the company started, prior to the formation of Western Video Market, buyers would visit larger ranches and offer a price for the calves. That was how Byrne’s relationship with Peek began. “Every year, Ellington would come to the ranch, look through our calves and make an offer on them. If we thought it was a fair price – and it usually was – we’d take it, “Byrne said. “That’s how we marketed our cattle.” When the idea of selling on a broader stage was presented, it was somewhat daunting at first, Byrne explained. A lot of trust had to be put into a system that they’d never tried before. “We had a lot of questions on the system and how it might work for us. We had to trust we’d still get a good price, we had to trust that someone would show up to pick up our calves when they said they would,” Byrne said. “But our logic was that Ellington had always taken care of us so we put our faith in