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Today’s Roswell Livestock Auction Sales.
Culture
Denim and Diamonds
Roswell Livestock Auction Sales to be honored. Part II, continued from Vision Magazine, Feb. 16. By Christina Stock Vision Editor
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ne of the biggest challenges in today’s RLA cattle auctions is to be able to classify, measure and categorize the animals before the Monday auction. “The auction method of selling is the best method of price discovery,” Benny Wooton said. “You put people in one spot and put them in a competitive situation. Supply and demand takes effect. There is a big, complicated market system out there for what livestock is worth. We feel the auction method is the best price discovery there is. The auction method also allows the smaller rancher to reap the benefit of the market, because you put a
lot of numbers of livestock together in one spot. “There are so many different classes. A cow is not a cow, a calf is not a calf. There are hundreds of different categories, qualities — as a result there are different values. A 400 pound steer for example, there are a lot of values for a 400 pound steer. Is it a Holstein steer? Is it a Black Angus steer? Is it a good quality Black Angus steer? Is it a medium quality Black Angus steer? So there is a wide variety of prices and in the auction atmosphere we got price discovery there. Then you bring several people together in a central location, that is what the business is about,” Benny Wooton said. “There are niche mar-
kets out there, back in the early ‘50s, there were not as many categories of cattle. There sure enough were not as many breeds of cattle as there are today. We have a lot of crossbreeds which we sort in categories for the auction. Nobody buys just one or two. “That would be one of the challenges that are out there today,” Benny Wooton said. “All the little niche markets. You got the all natural, the grass-fed beef compared to the grain-fed. “If there is a trend to go to the older breeds, it depends to whom you talk to. If you are a Longhorn breeder, they’re the best. If you are a Hereford breeder they’re the best. If you raise Angus, they’re the best,” Benny Wooton
4 | V i s i o n M a g a z i n e | Thursday, March 16, 2017
said and laughed. In November/September calfs get weaned and the mooing can get pretty loud. The rest of the year the ranchers bring the already weaned calfs to the auction. Ranching is a risky business and the Wooton family feels with the ranchers who could not endure the long drought that started in 2010. The ranchers had to sell their cattle because they could not feed them without grass. The prices plummeted to $1.50 per pound. With less cattle the prices went up to $3 but the ranchers had only half of their stock. Today the price is back to $1.75 with more cattle raised on the grass that grew with the ending of the drought. “In 1956, the average bull cost $362 for a breedable bull,” Cindy Wooton said. “A champion bull cost more than $700. Several years ago when the price was so high, a breedable bull cost $7,000. Today, two years later, they are going to bring $3,000.” “Since 1984, we sold about 3 million cattle,” Benny Wooton said. “That is $1.4 billion worth of beef.” On an average week somewhere between 1,000 to 2,000 head of cattle is moved. RLA is open and manned 24/7 except for Christmas and the Fourth of July. “An average week would be a million dollars,” Benny Wooton said. “But every week is different and we all get a super small percentage of that. We just get commission. We collect it and pay them (the seller) and get a percentage. It’s not our money. “That is a service we
do provide,” Benny Wooton said. “We assume that risk of getting paid. That’s what makes our business successful. They (the ranchers) bring them (the cattle) to us and they have the confidence in us that they get paid. We give them (the ranchers) a check that day but the buyer has seven days to pay. So we’re out and have to be sure that we get paid. That is the service we provide is the confidence level to the seller that they get our check. Granted, there are a lot of different buyers but they (the seller) gets our check.” Asked what he would tell a young person who wants to get into the business, Benny Wooton said, “It is a long, complicated process. I have been in the business my whole life. My philosophy is, that in the livestock and cattle business you have to know a lot to know enough that you don’t know anything. “Every day is a new challenge. In the livestock business — in all agricultural business — we’re price takers. We are not price makers. “If I decide today that I am going to breed this cow to this bull, the product is going to be the calf,” Benny Wooton said.” If anything happens between its birth and until the rancher can sell it they have to start all over. It takes almost three years. The Wooton’s have their own ranches with cattle and calves. “The cows are not all gentle. If they were gentle they would not be able to survive out there,” Benny Wooton said. Asked if there are any problems with rustlers, Benny Wooton said, “No, the state of
New Mexico has the strictest brand-laws in the nation. It would be harder to steal an animal in New Mexico than any other state. If you own cattle in New Mexico you have to own a brand and that brand has to be on those animals, it has to be on it long enough — it can’t be fresh. I can’t steal them from you today, put my brand on it tomorrow and sell them. It has to be peeled. I have to sell them in the registered brand of that name. Lots of states don’t have that kind of law. They only have to brand them, if you have possession of them you own them, but not in the state of New Mexico.” In the Chisum and Billy the Kid days a rancher had to protect his ownership with his cowboys. Today, the law takes care of that. The Historical Foundation for Southeast New Mexico invites the public to honor the Roswell Livestock Auction on March 24 during its annual Denim and Diamond event at the Roswell Convention and Civic Center, 912 N. Main St., from 6 to 10:30 p.m. The award-winning Yarbrough Band will provide the musical entertainment. Catering is provided by Peppers Grill & Bar. Tickets are $75 per person. For more information and for reservations, call Bonnie Montgomery at 575-9101303.