1/16/2010

LIVESTOCK MARKETEERS CELEBRATE 45 YEARS

The Livestock Marketeers inducted two members of their informal fraternity — Bruce Brooks and Gary Kendall — into the Hall of Fame during the National Western Stock Show in Denver, CO. They’re shown with the friends who “roasted” them (left to right): Willard Wolf, Valleyford, WA; C.D. ‘Butch’ Booker, Colfax, WA; Gary Kendall, Potlatch, ID; Bruce Brooks, Marietta, OK; Don Cagwin, Virginia, IL; Ken Holloway, Chattanooga, OK; Doug Paul, Oklahoma City, OK; and Neil Orth, Kansas City, MO.

    The names of three livestock professionals were added to the Livestock Marketeers Hall of Fame wall at the National Western Stock Show Club on Jan. 16.

    The Livestock Marketeers — an informal fraternity of livestock fieldmen, auctioneers, sale managers and related livestock business leaders — met for their 45th Annual Banquet in conjunction with the National Western Stock Show in Denver, CO. The event is hosted by American Live Stock, Geneva, IL.

    Master of ceremonies J. Neil Orth, executive vice president of the American-International Charolais Association and a 1984 Hall of Fame inductee, introduced the 2010 honorees: Bruce Brooks of Marietta, OK, and Gary Kendall of Potlatch, ID. The late A.J. Smith of Lone Wolf, OK, was added to the special posthumous plaque provided by Crow Publications of Denver in 2009.

    The Livestock Marketeers group was started in 1965 by Harry Green, Ross Miller and Claud Willett. Their purpose was to form a fraternal organization of livestock professionals, and to make annual awards in order to stimulate younger members of the industry to succeed in their chosen profession.

    Nearly 100 Marketeers were in attendance for 2010, a new record for the group.

BRUCE BROOKS

    Auctioneer Bruce Brooks was Iowa-born and raised, but headed south to attend Oklahoma State University. He was a member of the OSU livestock judging teams of 1969 and 1970, as well as Block & Bridle and the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity. C.D. “Pete” Swaffar and Ted Aegerter of the American Shorthorn Association hired him after graduation, and Brooks travelled the southwestern states for ASA. He later worked the same territory for the Drovers Journal in 1972-1974, working for J. Neil Orth. In the fall of 1974, Brooks joined Ken Holloway at American Cattle Services, specializing in purebred Limousin marketing.

    In 1975, Brooks began auctioneering purebred cattle sales and has continued in that field ever since, working predominantly Limousin and Shorthorn events. In 2004, he started including real estate sales on his schedule when he joined Williams & Williams Auction Co., Tulsa, OK.

    Married to Kathy Jane O’Brien since 1977, Brooks has a son, Lance, and two daughters, Kristy and Amy. They also have four grandchildren. The family was actively involved in showing and selling steers and heifers, primarily Limousin, through the 1980’s and 1990’s. A Brooks family highlight includes winning Grand Champion Limousin Heifer honors twice at the National Western Stock Show’s junior contest: Amy in 1994 and Kristy in 1995. They currently specialize in running a stocker-feeder operation in southern Oklahoma.

    A member of both the North American Limousin Foundation and the American Shorthorn Association, Brooks is a past president and vice president of the Oklahoma Limousin Breeders Association. In 1998, Bruce and Kathy received the OLBA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, primarily in recognition of their work with junior programs. He’s a member of the Saddle & Sirloin Club in Oklahoma City to help promote 4-H and FFA, and also serves on the Love County Soil Conservation board.

    “I’ve always been a great believer in the auction business,” Brooks said after being roasted by Doug Paul of The Stock Exchange, Ken Holloway of American Cattle Services, and Don Cagwin of Cagwin Cattle Services.  “I learned from Don and Ken to take care of business . . . I appreciate very much the opportunity to sell for these folks and being part of your team.”

GARY KENDALL

    After graduating with a degree in ag economics from the University of Idaho in 1959, Gary Kendall returned to farm in Potlatch, ID, and established a registered Angus herd that bred and produced the 1981 National Western Grand Champion Female and the 1983 National Junior Angus Show Grand Champion Female.

    Kendall’s marketing career may have started at home, but in 1981 he accepted the position of manager of the Spokane National Stockshow in Spokane, WA. This developed into a sale management business when the Cowman’s Classic All Breed Bull Sale was started in 1985. He added another industry-leading event to his resume in 1987, when he began managing the Nugget Hereford Show and Sale in Reno, NV.

    By 1991, Kendall was managing an impressive string of consignment and production sales throughout the western United States, including the Western National National Angus Futurity in Reno.

    The key to his success, according to C.D. “Butch” Booker, Colfax, WA, is that “Gary has always believed in taking your best to a sale.” Kendall’s appreciation of quality livestock and the good people who raise them have made him a favorite in the Pacific Northwest beef industry. He was also roasted by 2007 Hall of Fame inductee Willard Wolf, Valleyford, WA.

    The Western Livestock Reporter — now the Western Ag Reporter — offered their Northwestern field representative position to Kendall in 1993, a position he held until his retirement in 2010.

    “I appreciate all the people here tonight,” Kendall said during the Livestock Marketeers banquet in Denver. “And all of the people who brought me here.”

    He and his fiancee, Linda Hartford, continue to enjoy their involvement in the seedstock industry. Gary has two sons, Rod and Dale Kendall, and a daughter, Leanne Collier, as well as seven grandchildren.

A.J. SMITH

    For 24 years, A.J. Smith was editor of the Oklahoma Cowman, official magazine of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association. During his tenure, he developed the Cowman into a nationally recognized livestock publication. He wrote 294 editorials and countless feature stories, took thousands of pictures, planned numerous ranch tours, and traveled the state providing ring service at purebred and commercial cattle sales. In addition, he trained and mentored countless livestock marketeers over the years.

    Smith passed away moments after the OCA’s 57th Annual Convention and Trade Show in Midwest City on July 25, 2009, serving as the face of the Cowman to the end. He left behind his wife of 39 years, Debra; son Aaron and daughters Christel and Jessi; and seven grandchildren.

    He grew up on the family farm north of Lone Wolf, and was active in the Future Farmers of America. Smith graduated from Oklahoma State University in 1963. Following his tour in the Air National Guard, he returned to the farm and was married to Debra Pollard in 1970. In partnership with his father, Alva, he ran a herd of registered Polled Hereford cows, and in 1983 he accepted the position of Harmon County 4-H agent. Over the years, he also worked for Better Beef Business, Gulf Coast Cattleman, Weekly Livestock Reporter, and the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service before being named editor of Oklahoma Cowman in 1985.

    Smith was recognized with numerous honors and awards for his efforts and contributions to the nation’s cattle industry, including the OSU Animal Science Recognition Award, Beefmaster Appreciation Award, OSU Animal Science Graduate of Distinction Award, Oklahoma Hereford Association Heritage Award, Oklahoma Youth Expo Show Honoree Award and Honorary Cattlewoman of the Year Award. He was also inducted into the Oklahoma Angus Hall of Fame, and served as president of the Southwest American Livestock Foundation.

    “A.J. took a lot of pride in those of us he was mentoring,” said Matt Sims of MCS Auction, LLC, who presented the Livestock Marketeers’ tribute to Smith along with his father, Smith’s college roommate Eddie Sims of National Cattle Services, Inc.. “He was always optimistic. Bless his heart, I don’t think he thought anyone would ever stop bidding!”

    For more information on the Livestock Marketeers, visit www.livestockmarketeers.com.

5/13/2010

SIMS TO RECEIVE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN HONOR

    At a March meeting, the Kentucky State Fair Board — upon recommendation of the Saddle and Sirloin Committee — approved Col. Ray Sims of Raymore, MO, as the recipient of the Saddle and Sirloin Portrait Award. It is the highest honor bestowed upon influential leaders of the livestock industry as awarded by their peers.

    The Saddle and Sirloin Portrait Collection is rich in history and tradition. Founded in 1903, it is unequalled as a collection of oil paintings honoring outstanding leaders in the livestock world over the past three centuries. Today, many of the 340-plus portraits are displayed in the West Hall of the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center (KFEC).

    The auction method of marketing livestock has become the most popular approach for selling and buying livestock during the past 50 years. Col. Sims was at the forefront of this movement. His auction career spanned 46 years. He traveled throughout the United States, selling for both large- and small-scale livestock breeders as well as senators and three U.S. Presidents. He estimates that he worked more than 7,000 auctions.

    It is the gallery’s tradition to honor one recipient each year in November during the North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE). It has been almost 60 years since an auctioneer has received this honor.

    Col. Sims has received many honors throughout his career, including induction into the National Auctioneers Association Hall of Fame in 1990. In 1989, the American Angus Association inducted him into the Angus Heritage Foundation. He was named to the Livestock Marketeers Hall of Fame in 1980.

    This year’s portrait presentation will be Sunday, November 14, at the Kentucky State Fair and Exposition Center in Louisville, KY. Anyone wanting more information about this award presentation can contact John Barton at 816/942-0418 or Darrel Overholt at 405/372-5497.

1/15/2011

MARKETEERS HONOR COTTON, LEFTY AND SPADER

The Livestock Marketeers inducted three members of their informal fraternity — Terry Cotton, Bill Lefty and Dick Spader (posthumously) — into the Hall of Fame during the 2011 National Western Stock Show in Denver, CO. They’re shown with the friends who “roasted” them (left to right): Jim Bessler, Sycamore, IL; Steve Dorran, Timnath, CO; Terry Cotton, St. Joseph, MO; Bill Lefty, Lincoln, CA; Brett Spader, Carbondale, KS; Skinner Hardy, Glendale, OR; Jerry York, Nampa, ID; and Neil Orth, Kansas City, MO.

    The names of three livestock professionals were added to the Livestock Marketeers Hall of Fame wall at the National Western Stock Show Club on Jan. 15.

  The Livestock Marketeers — an informal fraternity of livestock fieldmen, auctioneers, sale managers and related livestock business leaders — met for their 46th Annual Banquet in conjunction with the National Western Stock Show in Denver, CO. The event is hosted by American Live Stock; awards were sponsored by DV Auction, Inc., and The Stock Exchange.

  Master of ceremonies J. Neil Orth, executive vice president of the American International Charolais Association and a 1984 Hall of Fame inductee, introduced the 2011 honorees: Terry Cotton, St. Joseph, MO, and Wm. F. (Bill) Lefty, Lincoln, CA. Richard “Dick” Spader, Rosendale, MO, was added to the special posthumous plaque provided by Crow Publications.

  The Livestock Marketeers group was started in 1965 by Harry Green, Ross Miller and Claud Willett. Their purpose was to form a fraternal organization of livestock professionals, and to make annual awards in order to encourage younger members of the industry to succeed in their chosen profession.

    More than 80 Marketeers were in attendance for 2011.

TERRY COTTON

    General manager Terry Cotton has been with Angus Productions Inc. (API) for 30 years.

    He attended Kansas State University and earned a degree in animal science. Before joining the Angus staff, he worked for Glenkirk Farms, Maysville, MO, in its bull and heifer development program.

  When he started at the American Angus Association in 1979, he was an Angus Journal representative in the Western United States and Canada. He then moved to the Dakotas, Minnesota and Nebraska, serving as a regional manager and Angus Journal representative.

    Terry assumed the role of general manager in September in 1986. Since that time, API has become one of the largest publishers in U.S. agriculture. In addition to growing the Journal substantially, Cotton introduced Angus Beef Bulletin, a 70,000-circulation publication, which mails five times per year. He also launched Special Services, which produces nearly 400 sale catalogs per year.

    As the growth and acceptance of the Angus breed has increased, so have the information needs of our readership,” said Cotton. “We’ve worked hard at meeting those needs, and staying on the cutting edge of advertising, marketing and editorial.”

    He was introduced at the Livestock Marketeers banquet by auctioneer Steve Dorran, who noted Terry’s “rules of the road.”

   “He’s passionate about everything he does,” said longtime friend Jim Bessler. “In the past 25 years, API has become one of the greatest in the livestock business.”

    Terry expressed his appreciation for mentor Dale Runnion, former general manager of API, and other industry leaders.

    “We are a family,” he told the Marketeers. “We tend to spend a lot more time with each other than we spend at home, and the people we stand beside at the ring are important. It’s fun to do this. These unlimited miles up and down the road, the mountains of paper, the gallons of ink.”

  “The one thing that has endured is the auction,” he emphasized. “The auction system has endured, and continues to flourish into the future.”

    Terry lives in St. Joseph, MO, with his wife, Sarah. They have two sons, Drew and Adam.

WM. F. (BILL) LEFTY

   “I am privileged to be somewhere . . . in Cow Country, North America” is part of the opening statement on Bill Lefty’s telephone answering machine, and appropriate for his approach to the livestock marketing industry.

  An independent, full-time professional auctioneer and sale manager with a career spanning almost 45 years, he has worked with hundreds of clients in 41 states, Mexico and six Canadian provinces.

  Bill was an animal science major with a minor in agri-business graduate of The University of Arizona and The University of California at Fresno. He was a charter member of the Alpha Sigma Chapter of Alpha Gamma Rho, president of the Block & Bridle Club, and a member of FSC’s Cow Palace-winning livestock judging team, as well as co-High Individual of carload judging at the National Western Stock Show. His college education was preceded by active duty in the United States Army.

   First introduced to the excitement of an auction by Col. Harry T. Hardy (father of Skinner Hardy), Bill got additional exposure to purebred marketing through classmate and auctioneer Phil Tews, who gave him a chance behind the microphone. While on a special project for Henry King at The Quarter Horse Journal, he attended an Angus sale in Oakley, KS, conducted by Hall of Famer (1980) Ray Sims. That was the turning point in his life.

    A 1965 graduate of 1972 Hall of Fame honoree Walter Britten’s National Auction Institute in Bryan, TX, Bill established a full-service sales management company. In addition to advertising, catalogs and sale preparation teams, necessity forced him to purchase portable cattle handling equipment, trucks, trailers, bleachers, sound systems, computers and more to hold on-the-ranch sales. Many of these evens marketed over 500 head; a few surpassed 1,000.

  He helped organize Jack Linkletter and The Howard Hughes Corporation’s International Cattleman’s Expo Performance Bull Show & Sales of Las Vegas, NV. Bill founded the National Reined Cow Horse Association’s 1971 Snaffle Bit Futurity Sale, the World’s Champion All-Around Stock Horse (morphed to World’s Greatest Horseman), The Magnificent Seven, and conducted the first central performance tested bull sale west of Stanford, MT. He conducted the first sales for the Western Brangus Breeders, Beefmaster Breeders, California Charolais Association, and the Northwest and California Simmental Associations. In the summer, between equipment sales, ranch visits, field days and fundraisers, he sold on the National Ram Sale in Salt Lake City and several junior livestock auctions.

    Bill has been privileged to work with high profile horse and cattle producers, including the King Ranch in Texas, Bar 5 Ranch in Manitoba, Haythorn Land & Cattle in Nebraska, Walt Disney, and Parker Ranch in Hawaii.

    He has been invited to officiate as an auctioneer at every major livestock show in North America, including the Canadian Western Agribition, Calgary Stampede, Toronto Royal, National Western Stock Show, Cow Palace, NAILE and the Houston Livestock Show. A highlight was the selling of three national breed sales in one year at Denver’s National Western Stock Show. In 2001, he conducted the highest grossing Brahman dispersion of the decade. Perhaps his highest profile sale was the stallion Nu Bar, a son of the immortal Doc Bar, sold at public auction in California for $1,100,000.

    Along with his purebred sale activities, Bill was interim partner-operator of a livestock auction market, syndicate member of a high profile Quarter Horse stallion, guiding partner in the purchase of The Livestock Market Digest, and in the year 2000 was an active partner in the single largest livestock acquisition in the Western United States; in the fall, that herd produced the highest selling dollars per pound calves in the nation.

    “Lefty is an auction junkie, and the No. 1 viewer on Liveauction.tv and DVAuction.com,” joked fellow Hall of Famer (2002) Jerry York. “He’s a fine person and a really good man. I’m proud to be associated with you and call you my friend.”

    Skinner Hardy (Hall of Fame 1991) became acquainted with Bill in 1965, and said they’ve travelled a lot of miles and worked a lot of great events.

    “I couldn’t have a better friend than Bill,” he said. “He will get you into a lot of situations, but he will get you out of them!”

    Bill credits Livestock Marketeers Hall of Fame members Don Doris, H. ‘Skinner’ Hardy, Walter Britten, Roy Richerson, Curt Rodgers, Gary McDonald, Ike Hamilton, E.C. Larkin, Ken Holloway, J. Neil Orth, Canadians Rodney James, John Owens, Bob Wilson, auctioneer Phil Tews, promotion virtuoso Jay Nixon, breed association staffs, secretaries, bookkeepers, sale managers, publications, bid-spotters, graphic designers, hundreds of commercial and registered livestock breeders, ranch managers, herdsmen, cattle fitters, Quarter Horse breeders Bill Verdugo, Jim Fox, Bobby Ingersoll, Ron Brown, Sid Huntley, Jeff Oswood, friends Gerry Nelson (deceased), Dave Cobb, Gary Timmerman, Dave Thompson, Cotton Rosser, the Louie Guazzini Family, Bill’s daughter Bobbi Lynn, son Bert, and their mother, along with his aunts, uncles, and late brother, Harold, for their support, encouragement, inspiration, mentoring and providing the opportunities to gain industry knowledge and valuable marketing experience.

    Bill accepted his award by recognizing the Livestock Marketeers in attendance and asked them to remember their predecessors in the field.

    “To the world’s best — and those who want to be the best — auctioneers and bid spotters, a toast to you,” he said. “And raise your glass to all of the empty saddles, and all of the Marketeers that have gone before. Remember, if this was easy, everyone would be doing it.”

    Bill resides in Lincoln, CA, and remains active in the industry. He considers his greatest achievements to be his daughter, Bobbi Lynn, and his son, Bert, along with Bert’s wife, Deirdre, and their two daughters, Della and Dotty. All are successfully immersed in an independent, diversified California farming and ranching operation.

RICHARD “DICK” SPADER

    Dick Spader, former American Angus Association (AAA) executive vice president, led AAA in his 32-year career to be the largest and most influential breed registry in the world.

    “He was a man’s man and a cowboy’s cowboy,” said regional manager Chuck Grove, who introduced Spader’s posthumous induction into the Livestock Marketeers Hall of Fame.

   Dick graduated from South Dakota State University in 1969 with a degree in agricultural journalism and a minor in animal science, after having completed service in Vietnam with the United States Marine Corps from 1962-65. He was also a bull rider and member of the SDSU rodeo team.

    He began his AAA career in 1969 as assistant director of public relations, and became director of the performance programs department in 1976. Under his direction, AAA issued its first “Field Data Sire Evaluation Report” and “Pathfinder Report.”

    In 1981, Dick was named executive vice president, and served in that capacity until his death in October 2001. Several programs were established during his tenure, including the Commercial Relations Department and the Angus Information Management Software (AIMS) program. From 1986 to 2001, Angus cattle registrations increased from 133,000 to more than 271,000, and the performance records database increased from 179,000 to 693,000 weights processed annually.

   “As good as Dick was with his family, he was equally good with his extended family in the livestock industry,” recalled Scott Johnson, director of AIMS.

    Dick Spader died in 2001 after suffering a heart attack while in the pasture tending to his Angus herd. He left behind his wife, Sheri, sons Jared and Brett, and daughter Alyssa.

    “It’s your family and friends that keep your memory alive. How fortunate we are to have those!” said Brett Spader. “I want to thank everyone in this room, and those that came before.”

     For more information on the Livestock Marketeers, visit www.livestockmarketeers.com.

3/25/2011

MARKETEERS TO MEET JANUARY 14, 2012

    The next Livestock Marketeers Banquet is scheduled for Saturday evening, January 14, 2012, in the National Western Club in Denver, CO.

    For more information, contact Kim Wolfe at livestockmarketeers@me.com or 303/237-4532.

4/25/2011

GOGGINS TO RECEIVE 2011 SADDLE AND SIRLOIN HONOR

    Lifelong livestock marketer and Angus breeder Patrick K. Goggins has been named recipient of the 2011 Saddle and Sirloin Portrait Award. The award is among the livestock industry’s highest honors.

    Since its inception in 1903, the Saddle and Sirloin Portrait Gallery is unequaled as a collection of oil paintings honoring outstanding leaders in the livestock world during the past three centuries.

    Goggins, who resides in Billings, MT, has played a critical role each year, not only as an innovative rancher and livestock marketer, but also as a strong and steady voice in advancing and protecting the interests of rural Americans.

    “During the last 50 years, Goggins built his livestock auction business into one of the largest and most successful in the country,” says Terry Cotton, general manager of Angus Productions Inc. and chairman of the nominating committee. “Pat also created the industry’s first-ever video feeder cattle sale and pioneered the use of video sales in the marketing and promotion of seedstock — a venue through which millions of cattle are now bought and sold each year. Thousands of ranchers benefit each day from these improved transaction efficiencies.”

    Goggins’ Vermilion Ranch produces and sells more than 1,000 purebred bulls per year, while the Diamond Ring Ranch sells in excess of 50,000 feeder cattle.

    Goggins’ publication — Western Ag Reporter — is one of the most widely read newspapers in agriculture, and his columns not only influence the management of individual producers, but also the decisions of policymakers.

    “Goggins is also a committed stockman, having built his registered Angus herd into one of the nation’s largest and most successful,” Cotton says. “His ranch is a model of stewardship. And, the genetics he’s developed can be found in herds across America.”

      He was named to the Livestock Marketeers Hall of Fame in 1977.

    This year’s portrait presentation will be on Sunday, November 13, at the Kentucky State Fair and Exposition Center in Louisville, KY. To contribute to the Goggins portrait, contact Terry Cotton at 816/383-5200.

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