Winter Livestock auction has always tried to be ahead of the curve.
“We’ve always been an early innovator,” Brian Winter said of the Dodge City, Kansas-based sale barn. “We had one of the first ring scales. We had the first air-conditioning in the 1950s.”
He believes his dad, Ray, and grandfather, Karl, would be pretty proud of the improvements they have worked toward since the auction started in 1936. Even though things have changed through the years, one thing has remained the same over the 80-plus years they’ve been in business—the relationship with the customer.
“The ultimate end goal is to provide better service for our customers,” Winter said.
Winter Livestock has been fortunate to have a long history with the people it works with. As an example, Brian was recently texted a photo of a sales sheet from 1949 from “one of our multi-generational customers.” Those same customers were selling their cattle in the Dec. 19 sale.
From the computers in the office that make settling up after the sale easier, to the ring scale that gives both buyers and sellers true and accurate weights, to the live internet bidding on www.cattleusa.com, there have been changes in the way they do business.
“In a lot of ways it’s stayed the same in that it’s more about the relationship and partnership with the customer and us as their service provider and purchaser provider to them,” Winter said. “We are allowed to provide more buying power to the sellers.”
In his years managing the auction with brother, Mark, Brian Winter has witnessed both positive and negative things in the beef industry. The shrinking agricultural community in rural America weighs heavy on his mind.
“What we’re trying to do is provide a competitive market so these guys can get the most revenue possible in their marketing plans,” he said. “We’re working for the sellers and that has not changed from when we were founded by Karl Winter and his partner Ted McKinley.”
Winter Livestock has third, fourth and fifth generation family members working at sale barns in four states. Currently, more than 200 people are employed at sale barns in Dodge City and Pratt, Kansas; La Junta, Colorado; and Riverton, Wyoming.
High Plains Journal has provided both Winter and its customers a place to find the information they need.
“The Journal from its founding has been a beacon of information disbursement,” Winter said. “That is the key function that it has provided for Winter Livestock and McKinley-Winter—has been to get the information out and make our customers aware of the value of their product.”
And Winter said, to a certain degree it has been used in the entire area and segment of the beef industry for evaluation purposes by banks, co-ops and feedyards.
“It’s been a great partner in our sustained growth and ability to be in business for 80 plus years,” Winter said. “In that regard, it’s been great.”
He hopes to continue pushing the envelope and trying to improve Winter Livestock and its employees for the benefit of their customers. Like he mentioned before, there is great importance in getting more young producers in animal agriculture.
“I think it’s not pushed nationally as much as other forms of agriculture and to us obviously that’s highly important to Winter Livestock,” Winter said. “That’s something we’ve been kind of think-tanking on, and working on is the youth and getting that active involvement back in our rural communities. It’s the biggest issue facing us.”
Kylene Scott can be reached at [email protected] or 620-227-1804.
